Carlos Velasco Carballo has been appointed to referee the Europa League final in Dublin on Wednesday. The Spanish referee has had a great international season and tops it by taking charge of the all-portuguese final in Ireland.
Velasco Carballo was promoted to the Elite list in December and refereed five games in the Champions League, including the semi-final between Schalke and Manchester United.
18/5/2011
Porto – Braga
Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo, Spain
Assistant referees: Roberto Alonso Fernández, Jesús Calvo Guadamuro
Additional assistant referees: Carlos Clos Gómez, Antonio Rubinos Pérez
Fourth official: David Fernández Borbolán
Reserve assistant referee: Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez
Uefa delegate: Peter Rees, Wales
Uefa referee observer: Pierluigi Collina, Italy
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
I am not glad with this appointment. Sorry but other referees would deserve it more. Velasco has only one great season and is directly put into EL final..
Vitor Melo Pereira should have taken himself back into Geography lessons during his school time. His teacher must have been bad. Spain is set in the North of Europe. Interesting. To my mind, UEFA focuses too much on Spain and Portugal this year.
I am a bit surprised. I don’t think he is the correct choice, but he is reliable enough. Let’s wait for a good match for all the teams in Dublin next 18. About Vitor Pereira…for my understanding he just gave an opinion. And everything pointed in the direction he talked about. Like Rizzoli last year, this nomination has (obviously) some political/patriot prestige motifs behind. however we can see similar careers: both in first year in Elite, both with many european games, both with a fast way to the Elite, both with ages near 40. hum…Can be just coincidence but for me is more than that. Just hope a good job, he is capable and he will dignify the football and the fun. (just to finish…If we go with my line of toughts next year final can be awarded to Schorgenhofer for example).
I don’t understand why the Slovenian didn’t get it
also don´t like this appointment. I’m FC Porto. In recent days, the Spanish newspapers have spoken bad of my club, regarding a case of alleged corruption, not proved in court.
He might be subject.
No, I do not think that.
You must imagine that Velasco is just at the point of overtaking Undiano Mallenco. He is in a FINAL. You must be objective there! He has no other chance and I am convinced of his forced and neutrality, he is very professional.
As I said before, it is a bit too much of the Iberian region at the moment. Everything is Portuguese or Spanish ;)
And Daniel, please be honest and do not keep your eyes closed. Mr Paixao has today confirmed that he was influenced by FC Porto including this odd psychopath who calls himself being the special one…
I am convinced as well that Velasco will do well. Of course, this duel may be a bit harder than the calm evenings he had in Manchester and Gelsenkirchen. However, I think he is the right personality for this match, but, other referees who show very good perfomances for more than one season would deserve it more. I think of Brych, of Stark, of Skomina and of de Bleeckere.
everything spanish or portuguese…lol…ok but we need to agree that the portuguese teams were superb this year…the spanish as usual very good. And in the referee department both countries with very good referees both experienced and young talents. This season we had the european confirmation of Pedro Proença and Carballo. Benquerença is more reasonable and wise with very good performances this year. Both countries have good values for the future like Soares Dias and Mateu Lahoz. In both countries great assistant referees. And both countries, from one way or another have some influence in the uefa referee board. Probably to much for just to countries in one season but the bet is justifiable.
*two
I believe it will be neutral.
Jacinto Paixão has no credibility.
This has already been dismissed by the courts.
Mourinho has been dismissed as well :D
no, just a joke.
We all do not know the truth in this case.
I think it is the same like legend. It is not the whole truth but a small core in the middle is true.
Absolutely, Proenca, Benquerenca and Velasco had great seasons.
A nice interview with Carlos published on uefa.com
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“Carlos Velasco Carballo reaches a career pinnacle tonight when he referees his first European final – the UEFA Europa League showpiece between FC Porto and SC Braga. In an exclusive interview with UEFA.com, the 40-year-old match official from Madrid speaks about the Dublin Arena assignment and what it means to him.
UEFA.com: Is this the biggest game of your career?
Carlos Velasco Carballo: Without doubt it is the biggest game I’ll have refereed, the most high-profile, and it is a dream to be here, to have been selected. I was proud to be chosen to referee the play-off for the Egyptian league championship a couple of years ago – a very different experience from European football. I’ve also done the Spanish Super Cup and semi-finals in the Champions League and the Copa del Rey. I’ve been fortunate to referee a lot of big games. No World Cups or European Championships so far, but that is what I work for, to reach that level.
UEFA.com: When were you told you were refereeing the final and how did you feel?
Velasco Carballo: They told me on Monday in a phone call. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Unforgettable.
UEFA.com: How will you prepare for the match, both individually and as part of a six-man refereeing team?
Velasco Carballo: One of my main qualities is how I prepare for a game – I watch as many matches as possible of the two teams. I’ve watched four of each, keeping an eye on tactics, set pieces, how they set up defensively and in attack. Then there’s the physical preparation and for a final there’s even more to think of. We had a pre-match training session today [Tuesday] and tonight we’ll have a meeting where we’ll watch some videos. Tomorrow [Wednesday] we have some admin to take care of and then we have a second meeting where we’ll focus more on our work as six referees.
UEFA.com: How familiar are you with the ongoing experiment using two additional assistant referees?
Velasco Carballo: I was lucky enough to be involved in the first trials using the system during an Under-19 tournament in Hungary. It’s not going to be a problem for me because I’ve a lot of experience of it. You have to work out a communication system before the match – it has to be short, clear and concise. One or two words only – penalty, nothing, foul. Otherwise, with the crowd noise and six people trying to talk, you get lost. You need quick decisions. You make your decision and you can talk about it later between yourselves.
UEFA.com: How long has it taken you to reach this moment and which milestones have you passed along the way?
Velasco Carballo: I started refereeing at 16 and I’ve done 24 seasons. Apart from being my parents’ son, it is the longest I’ve done anything for – longer than being a father, husband or engineer. I’ve done a number of UEFA courses and I’d have to mention the talents and mentors programme I had the privilege of being on 18 months ago. You have two mentors looking after you, working with you, giving you advice. It’s a great scheme. I’ve also been an international referee for three years. After 21 seasons and five years as a Spanish top-flight referee I was delighted to make the list.
UEFA.com: Are you a full-time referee now?
Velasco Carballo: Yes, a year and a half ago I left my job in engineering with a multinational company to dedicate myself full time to refereeing. Top-class football takes up a lot of time, with travelling, preparation, studying teams, training – it’s not compatible with a full-time profession. So I’ve dedicated body and soul to my passion, refereeing.
UEFA.com: What are your hopes for the final and will your family be here to see you?
Velasco Carballo: I’m expecting a lively game, a lot of passion from both teams and their supporters, and two sides striving to win the trophy after doing so well already by getting here. I hope everyone enjoys it, win or lose. My wife is coming to watch the game, but the rest of my family will be at home in Madrid, gathered around the television, supporting me – including my sons, Álvaro and Javier.
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he says that he is a professional referee. That might be one reason for this unbelievable career path. Blatter wants to have professional referees at the next WC. That means Velasco is at Brazil for sure!
I think Carballo did excellent tonight. I’m not sure, but I think he had a tear in his eye at the end when he shake hands with people from UEFA.
Excellent is something I can’t say about the work he did today. I would say reasonable. But he has quality and a long way to get even better.
Do not misunderstand me, please. But are you sure you watched the right match yesterday?
He did nothing else than badly. His assistant Alonso Fernández was great but the rest was a catastrophe. Phantom fouls, inconsistent card policy (i will loose some words on that later), incapable to keep the complaints under control and I mentioned above that I thought he must be neutral. That was my mistake. He was pro Porto, no doubt about that. I do not think that it was his intention. But he watched many matches as he said. He must have recognized that Braga often provocates free-kicks because they are only able to score by those situations. But this fact does not mean that Braga players may not be fouled.
The card policy…you cannot compare a foul from behind (which should have been straight red) with a complaint of playing on time. He gave 4 (!!!!) yellows because of complaints and playing on time, that is a joke if you see the foul of Silvio.
No no no. Give him a more intensive match, he certainly struggles. That counts for Busacca and for Velasco as well (for Mallenco of course, too).
And one word on Porto and Braga:
a blame that these teams got into final. a blame that teams like Dortmund or Villarreal did not manage that. A blame for Portuguese football. That was no good evening for this country’s prestige in the world of football.
Porto is better than Villarreal.
He showed us the two games.
Objective data:
Club coefficients 2010/11
1 Manchester United FC ENG 151.157
2 FC Barcelona ESP 139.408
3 Chelsea FC ENG 129.157
4 FC Bayern München GER 118.887
5 Liverpool FC ENG 115.157
6 Arsenal FC ENG 108.157
7 Real Madrid CF ESP 103.408
8 FC Internazionale Milano ITA 100.110
9 FC Porto POR 98.239
10 AC Milan ITA 94.110
(…)
19 Villarreal CF ESP 75.408
(…)
(…)
(…)
86 Borussia Dortmund GER 22.887
- – -
Cup´s
FC Porto:
UEFA Champions League – 2
World Cup – 2
UEFA Super Cup – 1
UEFA Europa League – 2
Dortmund:
UEFA Champions League – 1
World Cup – 1
UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup – 1
Villarreal:
2 intertoto
Was a great day for the portuguese football. The quality was not the better, agree. But this ugly way of playing certain games we can see in all leagues, in all world cups, in all finals. It’s a sin of the football in general.
As I said before I was against the nomination. UEFA is not protecting their refs. Why a men with the status of dBleckr was not called? We never know…next monday probably a new surprise for wembley…i am curious and worried at same time…lol.
The finals are never good match. See the end of the World Cup final 2010, Champions League Final 2010 …
At the end of the match Villas-Boas lamented that the game has not been better.
“a blame that teams like Dortmund or Villarreal did not manage that. ”
It’s bad luck.
After reading all your comments on here, Worldreferee, etc. Mr Niclas E, I can say the only one who is not neutral is you. I’m spanish and, certainly, Velasco was inconsistent in his foul-detection, missed a red card…I agree with you in that, their performance was disappointing. But if you want to write about referees and refereeing performances you must be fair, and I take the examples of what I read from your reports in CL Semifinal with Stark (who missed at least 2 red cards and you said “stellar performance”), or U17 Group Stage match with Soares Dias (were you only a little bit pro-GER? “Bad, worse, ridicolous that this referee is one of the most promising…”)
Before talking about Velasco’s neutrality, do yourself a favour and be critical and, first of all, self-critical.
Please, do not take it as an offense, because is not my intention, take it like a critic. Is the small price to pay when writing here. I wrote in a blog for three years, so I know what I’m talking about. We cannot have favourite referees, we can only have favourite performances.
The question you must ask yourself is: Why should I, Mr Niclas E, not be neutral? I have no reason for this.
I must say that I am at least disappointed of Velasco.
But of course, I want to react on your critic after having accepted and respected that.
Therefore I may loose some words on all these perfomances you mentioned.
Let us start with Wolfgang Stark. I actually dislike his style, so I am no fan of him. But you have to consider el clásico in its whole plethora: Santiago Bernabeu and its environment, the atmosphere and special audience. As referee you have 22 players in front of you (ok, Casillas and Xavi not) who only want to make dives, provocate the opponent and Real wanted to destroy football. You cannot say in this case that Stark did not stellarly. It was perhaps no stellar perfomance, to my mind it was one because Stark was not influenced by all these aspects mentioned above. He made 98% of his decisions (or something like that) correctly. He missed at least one red, I totally agree with you. Taking all these parameters into consideration, it was one of the best perfomances shown in this CL season. (therefore I argue the case for a new parameter at worldreferee.com which says “match difficulty”).
Then Soares Dias.
You must compare the el clásico with an U17 (!!) EURO match. An audience of perhaps 5.000, players whose only aim is to score goals and not to make the most brilliant dive-ins like Sergio Busquets or Dani Alves. So you have a match without any problems. What did Soares? He made the easiest mistakes you can make. Wrong throw-ins, some of them even 3 metres away from Cabanero Martinez. Then a ridiculous dive-call for nothing. And finally a brutal decision for Germany and of course, as German I am angry, but I would have it mentioned as well if the mistake would have gone against NED. A clear penalty situation which even the Dutch recognized, but Soares Dias not…
And finally yesterday. I am still disappointed and think that is was too early for him, and I said that before as well if you read it. You cannot justify referees who are strongly and obviously against one specific player (Hugo Viana) and whose only aim is not to give red cards. I would be interested in Velasco’s attitude to his calls. But what I must emphasize are the assistant referees. Roberto Alonso Fernández was just amazing. 10 difficult offside decisions and every single one was correct.
The IFAB should think about the following:
How can the rule book compare complaints (which were sometimes reasonable yesterday) with a brutal foul from behind (Silvio). That is impossible and of course, I am really sour of that.
If you criticize me for not being objective, you should do the same with those Portuguese who rated Velasco with an 8,5. This is the other dimension…
BTW: You talk about favourite referees and that you may not have them. Of course I have some favourites, Velasco belonged to them. Stark has never belonged to them, perhaps this indicates that I was simply impressed of Stark who did well in the most difficult match you can get and that I was disappointed of Velasco who was in a final, which was of course boring and not the most difficult one. It was not easy. It was just on average.
But thanks that we can share different opinions, a discussion lives on that.
Ah I have forgotten one sentence:
of course it is bad luck that Dortmund did not get in the K.O. stage. But honestly speaking: does Braga belong in that final? Naturally, it is their tactic and style to pay 100 % attention on the defensive, which was good at all. But perhaps you are right, finals are like that. Hopefully, in 9 days we may see a better one.
Both teams belong in this final. Say that Porto don’t belong is nonsense. The worst game for Porto (in quality) was yesterday final. Porto literally killed some teams with 10 goals per eliminatory. Braga was a smart and warrior team. Is an inspiration to all european teams that the finals are not just for the big 5 leagues all teams can be there. And football is made of hope, believe in your group (in uefa competitions we don’t see that all days, we see a group of millions running there).
Thanks for your understanding, Niclas.
No problem ;)
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