UEFA Champions League Final Appointment

[Englishref]

Milan vs Liverpool

Ref: Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez
ARs: Óscar David Martínez Samaniego and Clemente Ayete Plou.
FO: Arturo Daudén Ibáñez

Of course, these are all from Spain, and throughly deserved appointments. MMG has been far and away the best referee at UEFA for the past season.

These will be confirmed by UEFA on Monday btw.

[Alberto]

Yes, it confirmed by UEFA. A solid choice for the match. This represents a moving out of the old guard. No consideration to Collina.

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/FixturesResults/Round=1972/Match=1086988/Report=MS.html

Here's some background info on the referee Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez.

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/news/Kind=1/newsId=303875.html

[MassachusettsRef]

No consideration to Collina.Had Milan not qualified, it would have been interesting to see if Collina was in the mix.

As it stands now, I guess the next watch is to see what his final international match will be. I think the best assumption is that he gets one of the second legs of the playoffs in UEFA WCQ, which would be in November. I'm guessing that there's a smaller chance that he'd get to referee the Club World Championship in December as his send off, but since that's now being used to look at WC candidates, that seems less likely.

[Englishref]

Had Milan not qualified, it would have been interesting to see if Collina was in the mix.

As it stands now, I guess the next watch is to see what his final international match will be. I think the best assumption is that he gets one of the second legs of the playoffs in UEFA WCQ, which would be in November. I'm guessing that there's a smaller chance that he'd get to referee the Club World Championship in December as his send off, but since that's now being used to look at WC candidates, that seems less likely.

Collina has a UEFA WCQ in June. That is highly likely to be his final game for FIFA, as he will be retiring from Italian football now, and it's unlikely IMO, that he'll get a FIFA/UEFA appointment when he's not even refereeing domestically. He'd never have got the UCL final anyway, as he's done it before, and UEFA would have had to have broken protocol and history to have given him it. And given what a fantastic season MMG has had, and the fact he's probably more highly thought of in Europe now than even Merk and Poll, it was the logical choice.

[MassachusettsRef]

Collina has a UEFA WCQ in June. That is highly likely to be his final game for FIFA, as he will be retiring from Italian football now, and it's unlikely IMO, that he'll get a FIFA/UEFA appointment when he's not even refereeing domestically.Maybe, but I just have a hunch that there will be more of a marquee send off for him. I can see him not getting UCL matches in the Fall (since he can't get them in the Spring), but I don't think he'd be precluded from refereeing straight through to the end of WC qualifying. Hasn't there, in recent years, also been a FIFA All-Star match on the day of the WC Finals draw in December? If that practice is repeated, it could serve as a nice swan song.

UEFA would have had to have broken protocol and history to have given him it.I know, which was my point. With Milan in the final, we know that it was never even considered. We'll never know if they would have considered breaking with tradition if the option was available.

[Englishref]

Well having bigged him up, he had one hell of a mare! Got so many big decisions wrong, and seemed very reluctant to punish mandatory offences with cards. And to cap it all, he let Dudek come 5 yards off his line to save 3 penalties, which is extremely annoying, as we seem to be the only country that tries to stop this! :mad:

It's the first time I've seen him this bad, so hopefully it's a one off.

[blech]

Well having bigged him up, he had one hell of a mare! Got so many big decisions wrong, and seemed very reluctant to punish mandatory offences with cards. And to cap it all, he let Dudek come 5 yards off his line to save 3 penalties, which is extremely annoying, as we seem to be the only country that tries to stop this! :mad:

It's the first time I've seen him this bad, so hopefully it's a one off.

there's no [r] in the title, so we probably shouldn't discuss the result. being mindful of that, i will say only that i thought he called a pretty good game. i am curious to hear why you so upset about this. perhaps start a new thread with an [r] in the title to discuss the refereeing in the CL final?

[blech]

there is now another thread with an [r] in the title for discussion of more specifics of the officiating of today's CL final.