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Fifa pleased with World Cup refereeing

by Martin Rødvand on September 2, 2010

After every World Cup since the 1966 World Cup in England, Fifa has produced a technical report summarising the different parts of the tournament. Today Fifa published their report from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Since 1998 Fifa has included a section about the refereeing efforts made throughout the tournament. Head of refereeing for Fifa, José María Garcia-Aranda Encinar, has written this year’s summary.

The report shows that Fifa overall is pleased with the refereeing efforts. A number of aspects are presented in a positive tone. This includes the overall fitness of the refereeing teams, the disciplinary control, and high rate of accuracy in the decision making. The report also highlights Uzbek referee Ravshan Irmatov. The 33-year-old impressed the world with his officiating in the opening match of the tournament, and Fifa gave him a total of five appointments during the month.

However, Fifa is adamant that improvements are possible. The majority of decisions were correct, but Fifa points out that a number of incidents were wrongly interpreted. This includes three goals given incorrectly, two goals incorrectly disallowed for offside, one goal-line incident incorrectly judged, and five penalties not awarded.

While the number of cards shown during the tournament was lower than the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the final match of the tournament will be remembered for its high amount of cautions. The match, refereed by Englishman Howard Webb, broke the previous record of six yellow cards from the 1986 World Cup final. The match in Johannesburg ended on 14 yellow cards, including one second yellow.

145 goals allowed, 142 correctly given
13 goals correctly disallowed for offside
2 goals incorrectly disallowed for offside
663 shots on goal, 5 goal-line incidents
4 goal-line incidents judged correctly
15 correctly given penalties
5 penalties incorrectly not given
3.82 yellow cards per match
0.27 red cards per match

Source: 2010 FIFA World Cup Technical Report (pdf)

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Massimo Busacca to ref Inter – Atletico

by Martin Rødvand on August 25, 2010

The Swiss match official has been selected by Uefa’s referees committee to take charge of Friday’s Uefa Super Cup final between Internazionale and Atletico Madrid in Monaco.

The 41-year-old is accustomed to big games having taken charge of the 2007 Uefa Cup final in Glasgow and the 2009 Uefa Champions League final in Rome. Also selected for the 2010 World Cup, Busacca was one of the favourites to get the final game of the tournament. It came as a surprise to many when Busacca and his assistants were among the first referees to be sent home from the tournament, having refereed only one game in the group stage.

The match at Stade Louis II will be the first Super Cup final involved in the additional assistant referees experiment.

27/08/10
Internazionale – Atlético Madrid
Referee: Massimo Busacca, Switzerland
Assistant referees: Matthias Arnet, Manuel Navarro
Additional assistant referees: Stephan Studer, Cyril Zimmermann
Fourth official: Sascha Kever
Uefa delegate: Odd Flattum, Norway
Uefa referee observer: Kyros Vassaras, Greece

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Champions League appointments, Wednesday, Play-offs, Leg 2

August 23, 2010

25/08/10 Tottenham – Young Boys Referee: Laurent Duhamel, France Assistant referees: Stéphane Duhamel, Christophe Capelli Additional assistant referees: Fredy Fautrel, Antony Gautier Fourth official: Hervé Piccirillo Uefa delegate: Christian Kofoed, Denmark Uefa referee observer: Amit Klein, Israel Zilina – Sparta Praha Referee: Olegário Benquerença, Portugal Assistant referees: Bertino Miranda, João Santos Additional assistant referees: Artur [...]

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Champions League appointments, Tuesday, Play-offs, Leg 2

August 22, 2010

24/08/10 Sheriff – Basel Referee: Martin Hansson, Sweden Assistant referees: Stefan Wittberg, Magnus Sjöblom Additional assistant referees: Martin Ingvarsson, Tobias Mattsson Fourth official: Michael Lerjeus Uefa delegate: Danilo Filacchione, Italy Uefa referee observer: Dušan Krchnak, Slovakia Anderlecht – Partizan Referee: Craig Thomson, Scotland Assistant referees: Tom Murphy, William Conquer Additional assistant referees: Calum Murray, Alan [...]

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Champions League appointments, Wednesday, Play-offs, Leg 1

August 16, 2010

Salzburg v H. Tel Aviv Referee: Pedro Proença, Portugal Assistant referees: Tiago Trigo, Ricardo Jorge Ferreira Santos Additional assistant referees: Duarto Gomes, Joao Carlos Santos Capela Fourth official: Hugo Miguel Basel v Sheriff Referee: Terje Hauge, Norway Assistant referees: Kim Thomas Haglund, Frank Andås Additional assistant referees: Espen Berntsen, Ken Henry Johnsen Fourth official: Kjetil [...]

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Terje Hauge blows final whistle

August 15, 2010

Norwegian top referee Terje Hauge has announced his retirement from top football at the end of this year. The soon to be 45-year-old referee is forced off the international list due to age-restrictions set by Fifa and will end his domestic career simultaneously. Fellow Norwegian referee Tom Henning Øvrebø announced his retirement from international football earlier [...]

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Champions League appointments, Tuesday, Play-offs, Leg 1

August 15, 2010

The first appointments for the Champions League play-offs are ready. The change from last season is that Uefa’s applying the additional assistants experiment from the play-off round. 17/08/10 Zenit – Auxerre Referee: Björn Kuipers, Netherlands Assistant referees: Sander van Roekel, J.F. Hans Olde Olthof Additional assistant referees: Pol van Boekel, Ed Janssen Fourth official: Richard [...]

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Belgian referees with orange sponsorship deal

August 11, 2010

The Royal Belgian Football Association has entered a sponsorship deal with ING Belgium. While it is normal that companies are sponsoring referees in the national top division, ING and the RBFA has entered a rather special deal. As part of their deal, the RBFA has manufactured an orange referee shirt to be used during the [...]

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Stephan Studer to ref U-19 final

July 28, 2010

Swiss referee Stephan Studer has been selected for the U19 final between France and Spain on Friday. Studer has previously refereed two matches in the group stage of the tournament. The 34-year-old was promoted to the international list in 2009, and he was promoted to category 3 on Uefa’s referee categories previously this year. On [...]

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Ifab approves AAR experiment for Champions League

July 21, 2010

At a meeting of the International Football Association Board on Wednesday, approval was given for a number of competitions to use additional assistant referees. In May, Ifab approved a two-year trial where federations could trial the experiment in competitions of their choice given they followed the guidelines provided by Ifab. Uefa announced soon after that [...]

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Uefa referee categories for first half of 2010-2011 season

July 9, 2010

Ahead of each new season Uefa releases a list containing different referee categories and referees. This list will be the list from which Uefa chooses referees for Champions League, Europa League and various youth competitions. The referees on the Elite category will mainly be in charge of Champions League games, the Premier/Premier Development/Cat 2 will [...]

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Roberto Rosetti retires from refereeing

July 8, 2010

Forty-two-year-old Roberto Rosetti has decided to end his career as a referee after eight years on the international list. The accomplished Italian refereed the final between Spain and Germany in Euro 2008, and has participated in the last two World Cups. Having refereed numerous matches in Champions League, and handled 13 seasons of Serie A [...]

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Howard Webb to referee the World Cup final

July 8, 2010

Howard Webb will referee the World Cup final on Sunday between Netherlands and Spain in Soccer City. Webb will be assisted by his fellow countrymen Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey. This will be Webb’s fourth match in the tournament. He has previously refereed Spain – Switzerland, Slovakia – Italy, and Brazil – Chile. Fourth official [...]

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10 refereeing teams retained for final days

July 6, 2010

Fifa has cut nine refereeing teams from the 19 remaining teams after the quarter-finals. With the semi-finals announced yesterday, the number of games left to referee has shrunk to two, the final and third-place playoff. The announcement of these two games are expected after the semi-finals. The retained referees are: Benito Archundia, Mexico Jerome Damon, [...]

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Irmatov and Kassai with deciding games

July 5, 2010

Uzbek referee Ravshan irmatov has been appointed to his fifth match of the World Cup. The 32-year-old will take charge of the semi-final between Netherlands and Uruguay on Tuesday in Cape Town. Irmatov will equal the top number of games refereed in one tournament. Horacio Elizondo and Benito Archundia both took charge of five games [...]

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Asian dominance in quarter-finals

July 1, 2010

Yuichi Nishimura from Japan has been appointed to the quarter-final between Netherlands and Brazil on Friday. This will be Nishimura’s fourth appearance in this World Cup, having previously refereed Uruguay – France, Spain – Honduras and Paraguay – New Zealand. The second Asian official in action in the quarter-finals is Uzbek referee Ravshan Irmatov. Having [...]

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Busacca, Rosetti and Larrionda cut from World Cup

June 30, 2010

Fifa has announced that ten of the twenty-nine officiating teams will be sent home from the tournament, including Roberto Rosetti, Jorge Larrionda and Massimo Busacca. Roberto Rosetti and Jorge Larrionda were expected to be sent home after Sunday’s refereeing mistakes. Mistakes Fifa president Sepp Blatter apologised for on Tuesday. In addition to the five refereeing [...]

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Blatter with apology for refereeing errors

June 29, 2010

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has issued an apology to Mexico and England after Sunday’s refereeing mistakes. In a round table discussion he also talked about re-opening the question about using technology to assist referees. The Ifab, with Fifa spearheading it, said a definite no to technology earlier this year. Neither the Uruguayan nor the Italian [...]

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Howard Webb with South American clash

June 26, 2010

Enlgish referee Howard Webb has been appointed to the CONMEBOL clash between Brazil and Chile on Monday. Hector Baldassi from Argentina will be in charge of the clash between Spain and Portugal on Tuesday. This set of appointments concludes the first 56 matches. After these final round of 16 appointments, Fifa is set to announce a [...]

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Referees ready for first round of 16 matches

June 24, 2010

Fifa has announced that Wolfgang Stark will be in charge of the first match in the round of 16 on Saturday. He will handle the match between Uruguay and South Korea, only three days after taking charge of Slovenia – England. Jorge Larrionda will be in charge of his fourth match in this World Cup [...]

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