Uzbek referee Ravshan Irmatov has been assigned the opening match between South Africa and Mexico June 11th. He will be followed by Yuichi Nishimura from Japan who has been assigned the second match of the opening day, Uruguay v France.
In the 2006 World Cup, Argentine Horacio Elizondo refereed the opening match between hosts Germany and Costa Rica. He eventually went on to referee five matches in the tournament, including the final between Italy and France.
The complete list, with fourth officials and complete trios, for the first sixteen matches can be found here (pdf).
While we can safely assume that these sixteen referees will not be reserves, Fifa has not yet announced who will act as the reserve trios.
Update: Pablo Pozo has suffered an injury and is replaced by Carlos Batres for the Algeria – Slovenia match on Sunday. The severity of the injury is not yet known. Pdf is also updated.
11/06/10
South Africa – Mexico
Referee: Ravshan Irmatov, UzbekistanUruguay – France
Referee: Yuichi Nishimura, Japan12/06/10
Argentina – Nigeria
Referee: Wolfgang Stark, GermanyKorea Republic – Greece
Referee: Michael Hester, New ZealandEngland – USA
Referee: Carlos Simon, Brazil13/06/10
Algeria – Slovenia
Referee: Pablo Pozo, Chile
Referee: Carlos Batres, GuatamalaGermany – Australia
Referee: Marco Rodriguez, MexicoSerbia – Ghana
Referee: Hector Baldassi, Argentina14/06/10
Netherlands – Denmark
Referee: Stephane Lannoy, FranceJapan – Cameroon
Referee: Olegario Benquerenca, PortugalItaly – Paraguay
Referee: Benito Archundia, Mexico15/06/10
New Zealand – Slovakia
Referee: Jerome Damon, South AfricaIvory Coast – Portugal
Referee: Jorge Larrionda, UruguayBrazil – Korea DPR
Referee: Viktor Kassai, Hungary16/06/10
Honduras – Chile
Referee: Eddy Maillet, SeychellesSpain – Switzerland
Referee: Howard Webb, England
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you think that Irmatov is the right choice for this opening game?
I must admit that I have not seen Irmatov referee, so I am not really suited to comment on the appointment. However, he is described as a very capable referee, and obviously Fifa thinks highly of him.
Let’s hope he hass a great game on Friday.
I honestly believe that Irmatov is a very good choice. Although he came from Uzbekistan, a country with less competitive football, Irmatov climbed the international hierarchy very fast, confirming his skills and qualities on various FIFA tournaments. I wish him good luck!
Im still hoping for a World Cup debut from Martin Hansson. If FIFA would concider his mistake with Henrys hand ball goal against Ireland they shouldnt have let him go to South Africa at all.
The referee from Brazil is getting a lot of bad press in England though.
Exactly, I don’t see why Fifa would include him if they aren’t going to use him. I bet he’ll get a low-key match in the second set of appointments.
He might be the reserve from Europe, if there is going to be reserves at all. On the other hand, let’s not forget that his mistake had huge implications!
I agree with you on that, my thought process is just that he was going to make headlines just by going to South Africa so If FIFA thought it was too controversial to let him ref, they should have left him in Sweden. Even if he is a reserve it doesnt take more than an injury on any of the refs in a team to get him out on the field.
Yes, but there were not too many choises on the UEFA pre-selected referees’ list. If he would have not been selected, the other choice would have been Ovrebo. Both of them did some significant mistakes, but, at least, Hansson, who has good referee skills, is younger and, being reserve in 2010, he can learn and improve for the World Cup 2014.
Irmatov is 110% capable for this game. He had in the past to big finals, world cup clubs 2008 and u2o wc some years ago.
from the first appointments i believe that the reserve refs are:
Vasquez, Moh salleh, Aguilar and Hansson.
But probably, at least 2 of this group will get a game in the final round of group stage….probably Moh salleh and…Hansson??
As I previously said, Irmatov is a very good referee, I trust his abilities, but he did not do two FIFA finals – he only did the FIFA Club World Cup Final. In 2007, he was the fourth official for Undiano Mallenco at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada.
Regarding the reserves, it looks like, if there will be any reserves, they are likely to be Vasquez, Hansson, Aguilar and Mohd Salleh.
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