FIFA WCQ CONMEBOL and CONCACAF Referee Appointments

[Englishref]

CONMEBOL

4 June

Colombia vs Peru
R : Carlos Torres(PAR)

Ecuador vs Argentina
R : Ruben Selman(CHI)

Venezuela vs Uruguay
R : Gabriel Brazenas(ARG)

Chile vs Bolivia
R : Marcio Rezende(BRA)

5 June

Brazil vs Paraguay
R : Martin Vazquez(URU)

7 June

Peru vs Uruguay
R : Hector Baldassi(ARG)

8 June

Colombia vs Ecuador
R : Carlos Simon(BRA)

Chile vs Venezuela
R : Carlos Torres(PAR)

Paraguay vs Bolivia
R : Gustavo Brand(VEN)

Argentina vs Brazil
R : Gustavo Mendez(URU)

CONCACAF

4 June

USA vs Costa Rica
R : Carlos Batres(GUA)

Trinidad and Tobago vs Panama
R : Peter Prendergast(JAM)

Guatemala vs Mexico
R : Brian Hall(USA)

8 June

Mexico vs Trinidad and Tobago
R : Kevin Stott(USA)

Costa Rica vs Guatemala
R : Benito Archundia(MEX)

Panama vs USA
R : Mauricio Navarro(CAN)

[MassachusettsRef]

CONMEBOL
CONCACAF

4 June

USA vs Costa Rica
R : Carlos Batres(GUA)

Trinidad and Tobago vs Panama
R : Peter Prendergast(JAM)

Guatemala vs Mexico
R : Brian Hall(USA)

8 June

Mexico vs Trinidad and Tobago
R : Kevin Stott(USA)

Costa Rica vs Guatemala
R : Benito Archundia(MEX)

Panama vs USA
R : Mauricio Navarro(CAN)Now this just baffles me. If Hall is in the mix for the top CONCACAF WCQs, then why isn't he on the "list of 46"? Not to say that he should be there instead of Stott, but if Hall did so well in 2002 and he's still on FIFA/CONCACAF's radar for big matches, then why isn't here there with Stott? Mexico has two referees on the list, neither of which has WC experience. Why wouldn't an American with WC experience trump one of them? Especially when Prendergast and Batres--two WC veterans who didn't fare as well as Hall--are back on the list.

Maybe there's a good explanation. Maybe it had to do with Hall's injury or maybe he voluntarily stepped aside. But if it was USSF's or CONCACAF's or FIFA's decision, I'd like to understand the justification. Leaving him off the list is fine--hundreds of other referees aren't on the list. But leaving him off and then simultaneously assigning him to some of the top qualifiers is baffling. If he has no future in the international game, why not give the match to a different American that does?

Insofar as CONMEBOL goes, it looks Mendez has a make or break match in Buenos Aires. If he performs well in that situation, there's really no way he can be left off the final list.

[ref47]

hall turns 45 next year. stott is 6 years younger.

[MassachusettsRef]

hall turns 45 next year. stott is 6 years younger.Which is relevant, why? He turns 45 next year, so he gives up his FIFA badge on December 31st, 2006. There are 44 year olds on the list of 46 candidates.

[Englishref]

I don't confess to know the importance of the individual game Hall has, however, there are more non-WC candidate refs in action than there are WC candidates. The only candidates involved are Simon, Batres, Prendergaast, Stott and Archundia. So I don't think you can read too much into the fact that he is getting WCQ appointments. That would probably just be because of his experience on the Int'l stage.

As to why he isn't on the candidate list, I can only assume it is because of his injury, and he hasn't had enough games in recent months/years to 'prove himself' worthy of a place, whilst Stott has.

And as for why the US don't have 2 places, I can't answer that, as I know very little about CONCACAF referees and their abilities, but I can say join the club! Steve Bennett or Mike Riley should be ahead of three or four of the UEFA candidates, yet haven't got places. :rolleyes:

[MidwestRef]

One major thing I can consider is that a good number of the US FIFA officials do not have significant World Cup qualifying experience, so Hall is one of the two best options for these second-round qualifying matches.

I haven't seen Valenzuela referee a WCQ before. I'm not sure if Kennedy ever has. Vaughn is only in his second year as a FIFA and has had one or two WCQs. Salazar is a new FIFA IIRC. Prus hasn't done a WCQ to the best of my knowledge. When I look at this pool, it seems very logical that Hall and Stott are easily the two top US officials from a WCQ standpoint.

[MassachusettsRef]

Mendez isn't on the list of 46 and he got the Argentina/Brazil game? That seems very peculiar to me. With the possible exception of some potential playoff matches in November, it's undoubtedly the most contentious WCQ match in the world. You would think that FIFA would want potential WC candidates tested on the most difficult matches. Then again, I imagine three of CONMEBOL's candidates are precluded from assignments for this round since they are headed off to the WYC later that week, so maybe it's a matter of necessity. Still though, wouldn't this Argentina/Brazil match be the perfect game to bring in a CONCACAF or UEFA referee? I thought that was going to be one of the hallmarks of this process.

As for Hall, it's not that the particular match he is assigned is any important than the others, really. With potentially 4 teams qualifying out of 6, they are all important. It's just that you would think that, if Hall is still considered good enough by FIFA and CONCACAF to be one of the 8-10 referees working qualifying matches, then he would be on the list of 46. After all, he progressed much further at WC02 than Prendergast or Batres, and both of them have the potential to progress.

And Englishref, I understand what you're saying about Bennett and Riley (more so Riley, as he attended EURO 2004); they certainly are of the skill level to be in the pool, but at least their inclusion/exclusion is debatable (probably vis-a-vis someone like Poulat). The Hall thing rises to a different level of strangeness in my eyes, though. In the aftermath of WC02, Hall was, by almost all accounts, the top referee in CONCACAF--now he's not even a candidate for the World Cup. The best comparison I can make to UEFA right now (since Collina and Frisk are retiring) is to someone like Marcus Merk, as he's probably considered Europe's best referee now (I know this is debatable, but he's got more experience than Michel and Gonzalez, who are probably the other possibilities). Having Stott but not Hall would be like having Fandel but not Merk from Germany. Sure, Stott, like Fandel, probably deserves to be in the mix. But, they are both younger and less experienced than their countrymates. If Merk were left of the UEFA list, people would be dumbfounded. The only reason similar confusion isn't reigning over Hall's exclusion is because CONCACAF officiating isn't as widely scrutinized as that of UEFA's.

And as an aside, if an American other than Stott was going to get assigned Hex matches, I would have expected it to be Valenzuela. He has worked prelim qualifiers before and would seem like the logical choice to me. Kennedy has much less experience and Prus, Vaughn and Salazar have even less, as they are almost brand new.