With the World Cup in South Africa coming up we are eagerly anticipating the announcement from FIFA with the referees chosen for the tournament. The referees in the race was announced in October 2008, and they’ve been through tests, tournaments and rigorous assessments from FIFA.
The list included 38 referees from all the six zones. The final list is expected to be smaller, but how small is anyone’s guess. Last World Cup, in Germany, had 21 referee teams with 5 teams on standby in case of injuries.
As I have a limited knowledge of the referees outside of Europe I will only be guessing on the European referees, but please chime in with your predictions in the comments.
Let’s have a look at the list of European referees on the list of preselected referees from FIFA.
Ivan BEBEK Croatia
Olegario BENQUERENCA Portugal
Massimo BUSACCA Switzerland
Frank DE BLEECKERE Belgium
Thomas EINWALLER Austria
Grzegorz GILEWSKI Poland
Martin HANSSON Sweden
Viktor KASSAI Hungary
Stephane LANNOY France
Tom OVREBO Norway
Roberto ROSETTI Italy
Wolfgang STARK Germany
Alberto UNDIANO Spain
Howard WEBB England
This list includes 14 referees from all around Europe. If we make an assumption that the number of European referees will be either 8 or 10, we will make a ranked list of 10 referees.
The first casualty on the above list is Gregorz Gilewski from Poland. In 2008 he was involved in a match-fixing scandal, and he has not refereed in any of the FIFA tournaments this season.
With 13 referees left on the European list, there is a number of referees that I consider too good to be left home. Roberto Rosetti, Massimo Busacca and Frank De Bleeckere all participated in the last World Cup and with Rosetti refereeing the last EURO final, Busacca refereeing last season’s Champions League final, and Frank De Bleeckere being one of best referees in Europe, these three referees should be a sure bet for the World Cup.
Currently my list looks like this:
Roberto ROSETTI Italy
Massimo BUSACCA Switzerland
Frank DE BLEECKERE Belgium
And with three referees ready, from the list of thirteen eligible referees, I have ten referees from where I must choose seven.
Now, this is somewhat tricky. UEFA operates with a classification of the different referees, ranging from Category 4 till the Elite category. The Elite category is the best referees according to UEFA, with the Premier development category being the promising talents, and the future top referees. From the seven remaining referees, Ivan Bebek and Thomas Einwaller is both in the Premier Development category. Both referees have refereed games in the Champions League, but not on a regular basis. Having not refereed on the top European level on a regular basis is my argument for removing them from the final list of referees. FIFA may have chosen them for future appointments, and maybe we will see one of them as a standby team.
List is now down to eight referees.
Ivan BEBEK Croatia
Olegario BENQUERENCA Portugal
Massimo BUSACCA Switzerland
Frank DE BLEECKERE Belgium
Thomas EINWALLER Austria
Grzegorz GILEWSKI Poland
Martin HANSSON Sweden
Viktor KASSAI Hungary
Stephane LANNOY France
Tom OVREBO Norway
Roberto ROSETTI Italy
Wolfgang STARK Germany
Alberto UNDIANO Spain
Howard WEBB England
All the remaining referees are in the Elite category. Below is a short summary of the different referees, and following these summaries my personal ranking.
Martin Hansson was appointed to the final in the Confederations Cup, a final where his assistant missed a ball-over-the-line situation. Still, Hansson was appointed to the final play-off game between France and Ireland, a game where his team missed Thierry Henry’s infamous handball. It is a difficult situation for FIFA. It is clear they have faith in Hansson, and trusts him with big games. On the other side, they will receive a lot of complaints, and Hansson will be watched closely in each game he is appointed to in the World Cup.
Tom Henning Øvrebø was selected by UEFA to referee the Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona last season’s Champions League, where his performance in this match was heavily criticized by media. However, with FIFA it is unknown how much these performances are influencing their choice for the World Cup. Øvrebø did referee two games in the U-17 World Cup, and was selected for multiple World Cup qualifiers. His experience in the Champions League is undoubtedly an advantage.
Wolfgang Stark has been frequently chosen for FIFA tournaments and is ‘the golden boy’ of someone inside UEFA. Last season he refereed more Champions League games than any other European referee, including a semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea. He has been operating in the shadows of Markus Merk and Herbert Fandel the last decade, but now he is clearly the number one German referee.
Viktor Kassai is a future top referee. He is currently on the Elite category and he has refereed a decent amount of matches in the Champions League, all in the group stage. In EURO 2008 he was selected to be a fourth official, together with other young and promising referees.
Stephane Lannoy was last season promoted from the Premier development category to the Elite category, and he has refereed consistently in the Champions League this season. Like Kassai, he was selected to be fourth official in EURO 2008.
Alberto Undiano is not the most prominent Spanish referee, but he has been an Elite referee since 2007. He was chosen to referee the final of the 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada, and he did the semi-final in the 2009 U-20 World Cup.
Olegario Benquerenca has been refereeing in the Champions League since 2005. While he has refereed many matches in the group stage, his appearance in the first knockout round last season is currently his biggest accomplishment. As Kassai and Lannoy, Benquerenca was also present at the EURO 2008 as a fourth official.
Howard Webb, the most prominent referee in England, was selected for EURO 2008, and is a frequent face in the Champions League. He has been England’s representative in the FIFA tournaments the last couple of seasons.
With all the remaining referees summarised I can get to ranking them.
The list below is my personal guess for the European referees in the upcoming World Cup.
Massimo BUSACCA Switzerland
Roberto ROSETTI Italy
Frank DE BLEECKERE Belgium
Howard WEBB England
Wolfgang STARK Germany
Tom Henning ØVREBØ Norway
Olegario BENQUERENCA Portugal
Alberto UNDIANO SpainIf UEFA gets ten referees I would include these
Stephane LANNOY France
Martin HANSSON Sweden
Viktor Kassai is unexperienced, and will be a candidate for the next World Cup if he continues the progress. Hansson will be marked by the incident in the play-off, and I am not sure if FIFA would find it appropriate to send him to South Africa after the howler his team made in France.
A lengthy post indeed, and an almost impossible prediction. As always I am interested in comments. If you agree or disagree, or maybe would like to predict the selection from other confederations, please let it be known in the comment section.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Good article, i agree with your prediction. But I think Viktor Kassai could be chosen as a referee for the World Cup because he refereed in the first leg of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier between Bahrain and New Zealand. This shows that FIFA has quite trust in him. Furthermore there are no other referees from eastern-europe countries other than Kassai. This could be an argument too to select Kassai. As you said Hansson ist a very difficult decision. I’m not sure if I would select him. I think that Stéphane Lannoy has a great chance to be selected because there was no french referee at EURO 2008 and he got some interresting and important matches in this seasons Champions League as Viktor Kassai did as well. But it is FIFA that decides and not UEFA, this is a difference.
But generally it depends on how many referees FIFA will select. As a swiss I’m 100 percent sure that Massimo Busacca will travel to south africa next summer :-)
Do you know when FIFA will announce the appointments? I’m sure that FIFA will surprise us with the decision because this was the case in previous years when FIFA selected some very unknown referees (not from Europe)…
I agree with everything. It’s hard to differentiate between the referees nowadays.
Kassai may be a bit like Lubos Michel. Michel did go to the World Cup in 2002 without much Champions League experience.
According to a Norwegian newspaper interviewing Tom Henning Øvrebø, the referees will be chosen 21st of January, but I’m not sure if they’re announced right away. It seemed to suggest that the announcement would be made in the beginning of February.
Anyway, you’ll find it here the moment it pops up.
Your article is well written, I agree with you about Kassai. These eight referees all had excellent season except Ovrebo. Well, yes we all now how Hansson was in the middle of big contraversy, everyone who has refereed at least once in his life could confess that it was one of the worst unlucky moment that a referee encounter. So, I would name Hansson instead of Ovrebo. But if we consider that it’s his last WC chance (2 years to retirement) he could be honoured with this great organisation.
Still, the incident in the Champions League should be an UEFA concern, not FIFA. Of course, bad press/performances should have an impact no matter what competition you are refereeing, but I believe FIFA is more concerned with performances in FIFA tournaments.
And with that I believe the Hansson incident is more severe than the Øvrebø one. I am of course very biased, but the Hansson incident was brought to very high levels, and if chosen for the World Cup, he will be under intense scrutiny from the whole world. And I am expecting a huge uproar in Ireland.
I think Øvrebø got some sympathy when we saw how the players, especially Drogba, behaved.
Either way, they have both had a controversial year, and FIFA will be criticised no matter who they choose from the two.
My predictions:
1. Busacca
2. Rosetti
3. De Bleeckere
4. Stark
5. Webb
6. Undiano
7. Kassai
8. Ovrebo
9. Hansson
10. Benquerenca
Dan, why tenth place for Benquerenca?
It is my opinion.
This is all about opinions and guesses, but I thought you’ll have a reason (or a underlying thought) to put a referee on a particular position in your top ten. Such a ranking list implies that Hansson is better than Benquerenca and Stark better than Webb. My comment wasn’t made to prove your wrong (I didn’t even see Benquerenca officiate last year), but I’m just curious on what basis – why is a ref good or less good – people rank the refs.
My full predictions for the WC 2010:
AFC
1. Irmatov
2. Breeze
3. Nishimura
CAF
1. Damon
2. Codjia
3. Maillet
4. Coulibaly
CONCACAF
1. Archundia
2. Rodriguez/Aguilar
3. Batres
CONMEBOL
1. Larrionda
2. Amarilla
3. Simon
4. Baldassi
5. Ruiz
OFC
1. Hester
UEFA
1. Busacca
2. Rosetti
3. De Bleeckere
4. Stark
5. Webb
6. Undiano
7. Kassai
8. Ovrebo
9. Hansson
Total: 25
Last WC there were nine European match officials, according to a wiki refereeing section.
Would be a difficult decision by Fifa. I thinks Einwaller and Bebek are, as you concluded, not experienced enough for the big job (refereeing at a World Cup). Can’t choose between Kassai, Lannoy, Bequerenca and Undiano. Anyone knows why Medina Cantelejo or Mejuto González are not preselected and Undiano is?
Hansson is very experienced but Fifa wouldn’t take the chance of being criticised about referee appointments. If he’s selected he can’t do any good by the fans and media. Each call would at least be (a bit) suspicious and doubtfoul, which’ll put a huge pressure on a referee to officiate in a proper manner. Will be too hard too handle that. I would not choos him as a WC ref. But if Fifa does, I hope he’ll prove my wrong.
Øvrebø’s (how do you pronounce it actually?) mistakes were from april and got less media coverage, despite the fact he’s been smuggled out of the UK. Hansson’s errors are still fresh in our memory.
Don’t know much about referees from other continents.
Luis Medina Cantalejo is born in 1964 and would be ineligible to referee. He retired internationally after doing the UEFA Cup final last season.
I’m not sure why Mejuto Gonzalez wasn’t preselected, but if you’ve seen the documentary Les Arbitres it’s obvious that he knew the EURO was his last major championship.
I didn’t check Medina Cantelejo’s age. Mejuto González is born in ’65, so he is eligible.
Where have you seen Les Arbitres? Online? It’s not (yet) in cinema’s in the Netherlands. I saw a trailer, but that’s it. Would love to see it. Hopefully, I can write an article/review about it for the sports section of a Dutch national paper. They do it with sports books, why not with a movie like Les Arbitres? Last year I worked at that newspaper, so maybe they”ll give a chance to view the premiere/opening night (sometimes I’m not familiar with specific terms in English, hopefully you undertand everything) of Les Arbitres in The Netherlands. Now doing my master thesis in Journalism Studies.
Jan
First I saw the documentary online. It was removed a couple of days afterwards.
Then I saw that the French sports magazine L’Equipe would include the DVD in one of its issues. This DVD is only in French, and while it’s lot of Howard Webb in it I didn’t understand it all.
According to the Facebook page for Les Arbitres an English version of the documentary is in the works.
I asked in the ‘just fans’ section on Facebook about the release date for The Netherlands and they told me to ‘stay tuned’.
*While checking this message again I see you’re the second fan who asked a question.*
Actually, Mejuto Gonzalez was pre-selected on the initial list and then was suddenly replaced with Undiano Mallenco.
I’m from the US so my guess for the CONCACAF referees is Archundia (MEX), Rodriguez (MEX), and Batres (GUA). It would be an absolute shame if Aguilar made it, but he seems to have friends in CONCACAF. He has struggled so many games. I would not want to see him do a World Cup match.
Archundia is a guy to watch for the final. He did a semi in 2006 and is the best referee by far in the Americas.
What about the American candidate Jair Marrufo?
Very unlikely. He got into a bit of hot water last year where he was suspended by MLS for the 2nd half of the season. He apparently accepted the jersey of a Chicago player after the match where he sent off a Columbus player (very harsh red) when they were up 2-0. Chicago ended up drawing 2-2. Combined with some other poor performances, US Soccer relived him of his MLS duties. However, he has done fairly well for FIFA. He was good in the 2008 Olympics, still did some WC qualifiers after his MLS “suspension”, and was at the U-17 WC but didn’t get a knockout stage game.
Its too bad though since I think the US has some very very good assistants who deserve to be at the World Cup.
My predictions
Frank De Bleeckere (BEL)
Volfgang Stark (GER)
Alberto Undiano (ESP)
Howard Webb (ENG)
Olegario Benquerenca (POR)
Roberto Rosetti (ITA)
Victor Kassai (HUN)
Tom Henning Ovrembo (NOR)
Massimo Bussaca (SUI)
Reserve Referees
Stephane Lannoy (FRA)
Ivan Bebek (CRO)
I’m not supposed to say this, but since uefa doesn’t sell the dvd of les Arbitres, I think the only way to see it is to download a torrent from isohunt.com for instance.
I agree with your list by the way Martin, but maybe we can skip Codjia too?
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