Sadly the men's appointments are 100% political and 0% based on merit/performance. All that these Olympics have confirmed for me is that the governing body of soccer is as political and corrupt as ever. What a shame.
Political, sure. But corrupt? Honestly, part of refereeing at that level has to be an element of politics, and the referees who excel are those that are good at that part of the game. That's not a bad thing. You need the big picture, and the big picture is that referees are not the end for which soccer is played. The organizers, sponsors, players, coaches are all involved, and have way more at stake than the referees. So it makes sense that referees who are excel at that level do so in part because of their political connections. Corrupt is in Africa where bags of money are exchanged for game assignments. But political is the norm, at every level. Clatts, for example, had a fine game but missed an obvious red card. But big picture, it is probably better for the Olympics that he does the final, and the missed rec card doesn't negate that. He even sold the yellow to the players--you can see them smiling at/with him, instead of freaking out. He is obviously good at that element of refereeing. Irmatov is a bit more tricky to explain though...
Was just reminded that Clattenburg had this exact same tie at the U20 level in his semifinal last year: http://www.fifa.com/tournaments/arc...tches/round=255635/match=300145901/index.html Looks to be about 10 or 11 of the same players in the rosters, though not all starters, so the familiarity factor won't be extraordinarily high. Still, it's rare for a referee to see the exact same international teams in such a short window--even rarer when they are outside your confederation. Perhaps a strong performance in Colombia on this match played a role in tomorrow's assignment in addition to the political considerations that PH has referenced.
Fair point, but on the women's side there is a much smaller corps of referees going to these tournaments and many of the same national sides are qualifying and advancing. With the confederational rules, it's bound to happen. Happened for Seitz & co., too. Not so on the men's side. I should have clarified that that is what I meant.
I think it would be fair to say that the FIFA Referee Committee doesn't much care how often you've seen the teams before. And, realistically, it's not as though you're doing them every week or something.
Me thinks that at least a portion of this was that by the assignment "rules", and Englishman was eligible to officiate the Olympic Final while the Olympics were being held in England. Not that Clatts isn't good enough to get the game on the merits, but there always seems to be a little bit of home advantage at the Olympic games.