The Europa League final referee has now been announced.
The Champions League final referee has now been announced.
I have done this a couple of times before, so have a look at my previous predictions: 2006, 2008, 2009.
I guessed both referees correctly last year (Busacca and Cantalejo), and they both had excellent games. Who will Uefa choose for their biggest matches this season?
Previous years
To get an idea of how Uefa is thinking when selecting the referee for the final, let us have a look at the selections previous years.
2009: Massimo Busacca: Quarter-final 2nd leg between Porto and Manchester United.
2008: Lubos Michel: Because he was injured a major part of the season his last match before the final was UEFA Cup semi-final 2nd leg.
2007: Herbert Fandel: Quarter-final 1st leg between AS Roma and Manchester United.
2006: Terje Hauge: Quarter-final 2nd leg between Milan and Lyon.
2005: Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez: Quarter-final 2nd leg between Bayern and Chelsea.
This data would suggest that the final referee has done a quarter-final in the Champions League.
This year
From this reasoning we have eight referees to choose from.
Felix Brych
Alberto Mallenco
Frank De Bleeckere
Nicola Rizzoli
Howard Webb
Stephane Lannoy
Massimo Busacca
Wolfgang Stark
Instantly we can remove Massimo Busacca from this list, as he did last year’s final. We can also remove the referees who has done semi-finals in either tournament (Benquerença, De Bleeckere, Busacca and Rosetti.) We are then left with Brych, Undiano Mallenco, Rizzoli, Webb, Lannoy and Stark.
While Brych, Rizzoli and Lannoy have done well in this season’s tournament, they are all quite inexperienced on this level. They were all promoted before the start of this Champions League season, therefore I find it highly unlikely that Uefa would appoint a newly-promoted referee to their biggest match of the season, no matter how well they have performed.
After removing Brych, Rizzoli and Lannoy we are left with Webb, Undiano Mallenco and Stark. With Bayern München and Inter in the final, we have removed Stark as a potential referee.
Then we are left with two referees, Alberto Undiano Mallenco from Spain and Howard Webb from England. Combined they have done less than 30 games in Champions League.
The last five Champions League finals have been populated by at least one English team, and therefore making it impossible for Uefa to give the final to an English referee. No matter how we look at the appointments, there will always be some political aspect in this appointment. I still have my doubts, but I feel Alberto Mallenco would be to inexperienced. Howard Webb was selected to go to Euro 2008, while the upcoming World Cup will be Undiano Mallenco first major senior tournament.
The verdict
Having seen at the previous appointments, and reduced the list to only eligible referees, I see only two clear-cut candidates; Howard Webb and Alberto Undiano Mallenco. From these two referees, Howard Webb is the most experienced one, and this season he has been solid in the Champions League. He is also a couple of years older than Mallenco, which appointment will come.
Prediction for the 2010 Champions League final: Howard Webb, England.
As I have now predicted the Champions League final, I will take a stab at the Europa League final. This is a difficult one. Uefa has surprised the most of us with their appointments in the final stages of the tournament (I am mostly thinking about the Cüneyt Cakir semi-final appointment.) Usually the final referee is coming from a quarter-final in the Champions League. As we have a German team in the Champions League final, Stark was not eligible to referee that, but I can see Wolfgang Stark getting the Europa League final. The one thing I can see going against that, is that Uefa wants someone who has dealt with the referee experiment before, and Stark has not refereed any Europa League games this season.
Prediction for the 2010 Europa League final: Wolfgang Stark, Germany.
Last year I felt very confident with my predictions, and it turned out to be well-founded confidence. This year however I am more uncertain. The predictions fit the previous years appointments, but the refereeing committee is almost impossible to predict. And, the way I see it, Howard Webb is not the best referee in Europe at the moment.
As always, feel free to join in with your comments below. Who do you think will referee the two finals?
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
My prediction
CL Final: Alberto Mallenco
EL Final: Nikola Rizzoli
Alberto Mallenco was great this year. IMO he should get the final.
Nikola Rizzoli is a great referee. He is being pushed by everyone and espesially Collina.
I agree, Rizzoli was very good in the Manchester Utd – Bayern game, and he has been excellent this whole season.
Still, I think being newly promoted to the list would do him a disfavour.
Alberto Mallenco is a good guess.
A solid prediction. I agree that this year it is a bit more up in the air. You didn’t consider Larsen at all in your prediction though? Would I be surprised if UEFA is not considering him like they always seem to do, not at all. UEFA will probably jump at the chance to put an English referee in the final since it has been quite some time (7years?) since and English team has not been in the final. Howard Webb is definitely becoming a better ref I just hope UEFA knows what there doing. Webb is either very good or seems to crash and burn.
As for the Europa Final, I really have no idea. The Cakir appointment which turned out fine was definitely quite interesting. Stark or Rizzoli both would be good choices.
Larsen would deserve to get appointed to one of the European finals in his last year of refereeing, but he did one of the UEL semi-finals and it is unlikely that UEFA will give to the same referee a semi-final and a final in the same year.
I did not consider Bo Larsen for the reason that he was appointed to a semi-final in Europa League. It has been very rare that any referee appointed to a semi-final get the final as well. I would love to see any of the final appointments go to Bo Larsen and his team, because they seem undervalued by Fifa and Uefa. How he has not gone to any major tournament is a mystery to me.
That is indeed a mistery to me, as well.
I would say Webb (ENG) for the UCL final and Rizzoli (ITA) for the UEL final. I believe that Stark has less chances for the UEL final because he did not referee with additional referees, the system used by UEL in 2009-2010.
Rizzoli for the Europa League final would fit perfect, I love his style of refereeing. However, Rizzoli has only done one game in Europa League this season, so his experience with extra officials is not massive. I do believe that Uefa has trained all officials who is set to referee in Europa League, and that they appoint the best referee to the job.
Stark must start getting finals, he is pushed by Uefa as a ‘safe pair of hands’ the last few seasons.
Rizzoli it is:)
I like Stark’s style, but he has to wait at least one more year.
I also think that Stark’s chances to get the Europa League final aren’t good, because he never took part in the referee experiment with 5 referees (and a 4th official). Rizzolli is a good alternative. As well as Felix Brych from Germany though. He got one match in EL and also a QF in the Champions League.
As a dutchman I still hope Björn Kuipers will get the final. He doing a good job in Europe and got a QF in Europa League. But UEFA maybe has ranked Vink higher, don’t know that. According to Dutch media Pieter should have officiated in the match Fulham – HSV, but he lost the appointment due to a suspension in the Dutch Eredivisie. This explanation makes sense if you look at the surprising appointment of Turkish referee Çakir for that match.
My verdict: Webb CL, Brych EL.
CL: Howard Webb
EL: Nicola Rizzoli
Champions League final: Howard Webb (one of the worst)
Europa League final: Roberto Rosetti (one of the best)
This year not, but for me the number one in Europe next years Alberto Undiano
Why do you suggest ‘one of the worst’ referees for the final? Who should get the final in your opinion?
I agree that Rosetti is one of the best referees in the world, but I don’t think UEFA will give him the EL final, because he already got a CL semi final. Hopefully, he’ll get a CL final soon!
Since it is so much confusion will be damned to see whether the referee is to end, and you think the options have no good name, would not be the case with UEFA to call a referee from outside Europe, South America for example , There was the final arbiter of the world cup.
CL: Howard Webb
EL: Nicola Rizzoli
Howard Webb to Referee Champions League Final?
Heaven forbid, how the hell is this guy even going to the World Cup.
He is going because he has performed well in the Fifa tournaments. I agree that he has not been good in this year’s Premier League, but in Europe he has been solid.
You did not see him the summer of 2008 in Montreal, he made a hell of a hash of the Under 18 world cup.
As to the league he is biased and bent.
What a disgusting and ignorant last comment by John Murray. You clearly do not know Howard Webb at all, I on the other hand have the absolute privilege to know him extremely well and he is the most genuine, honest, fair and straight man you could ever meet who is totally unspoilt by his hard earned success. By all means feel free to comment on his refereeing performances but do not have ever have the audacity to make slanderous comments about his integrity or anybody elses for that matter who you so clearly don’t know.
I stand by my opinion, he favours teams and I will never forget or forgive his abismally biased refereeing of the ManU Spurs game last season. Spurs 2-0 up and coasting to victory, from 45 yards behind play he biasly gave Rooney a penalty and his following decissions gave United the game.
He is bent, nothing more to be said and he should not be going to South Africa.
I know Howard Webb and, as Amy said, you may have a different opinion about his refereeing, but he definitely is genuine and fair.
You do not get to referee in the Premier League or Europe by being “bent and biased”. That statement is simply untrue and insulting to Howard Webb.
I am sorry we will have to agree to disagree, you may know I do not, I do not want to, I believe what I have seen of him he is bent. I will go to my grave believeing that.
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/newsid=1486668.html#rizzoli+referee+hamburg+showdown <— Rizzoli is appointed for EL final.
Next, Webb will be refereeing CL final,,,
Most probably, but let’s wait:)
I fully agree with you, it will be Webb. On my opinion, not the best solution at the moment, but I can`t remember who was the last English referee to referee the Uefa CL final.
I think the last English referee to take charge of a Champions League final was Philip Don in the 93-94 season. He wasn’t event the main choice, and had to replace Dutch John Blankenstein in Athens.
Graham Poll had the Uefa Cup final in the 04-05 season.
It`s official, Webb will referee the UCL final in Madrid. We were right, bith of us. I wish him all the luck.
Good luck, Howard!
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