World Cup Referees

[Caesar]

http://www.fifa.com/en/media/index/0,1369,116346,00.html?articleid=116346


Referees whose squads have been selected:

ABD EL FATAH Essam Egypt
AMARILLA Carlos Paraguay
ARCHUNDIA Benito Mexico
BATRES* Carlos Guatemala
BUSACCA Massimo Switzerland
CODJIA Coffi Benin
DE BLEECKERE* Frank Belgium
DE SANTIS Massimo Italy
ELIZONDO Horacio Argentina
IVANOV Valentin Russia
KAMIKAWA Toru Japan
LARRIONDA Jorge Uruguay
MAIDIN Shamsul Singapore
MEJUTO GONZALEZ Manuel Spain
MERK Markus Germany
MICHEL Lubos Slovakia
POLL Graham England
POULAT Eric France
PRENDERGAST Peter Jamaica
RUIZ Oscar Colombia
SHIELD Mark Australia
SIMON Carlos Brazil
VASSARAS Kyros Greece

*Subject to fitness test.

Development Squad:

AL GHAMDI Khalil Saudi Arabia
CHANDIA Carlos Chile
DAMON Jerome South Africa
GUEZZAZ Mohamed Morocco
MEDINA CANTALEJO Luis Spain
RODRIGUEZ Marco Mexico
ROSETTI Roberto Italy

[MassachusettsRef]

Wow. I feel awful for Stott. This is not a good day for USSF referees.

[billf]

Brian Hall would have been on the list. Too bad.

[Claymore]

Prendergast over Stott? You've got to be kidding me.

[MassachusettsRef]

Some observations:

Confederational breakdown (of the 23):
UEFA - 10
CONMEBOL - 5
CONCACAF - 3
AFC - 3
CAF - 2

and of the Developmental squad:
UEFA - 2
CONMEBOL - 1
CONCACAF - 1
AFC - 1
CAF - 2

1) POULAT over SARS from France is, to me, very strange, since SARS seems to get all the bigger assignments in UEFA.

2) No HAUGE (NOR) might be the biggest shock of all. One can only hope that the Chelsea controversy from this Spring is not what kept him home.

3) Seeing both Mexican referees and PRENDERGAST ranked over STOTT is a bit infuriating. Even if you think they are better than STOTT on the merits, the selections tell me one of two things: A) FIFA did not take into account the performance of ARs ahead of time or B) USSF is lacking some serious political pull/capital in the referee world (because, let's face it, politics mattered here more than any of us can probably imagine).

4) Who is MAIDIN (SIN)? Never heard of him before in my life and have never seen him or noticed him getting big games at FIFA tournaments or friendlies. Is he really better than HAUGE, HAMER, LARSEN, BREEZE, STOTT, etc.?

5) After LARSEN got a WC playoff match, I assumed he was a lock. I guess not.

6) Why only 23? Isn't this going to become a big workload for the referees--and might, because of the qualified teams, the assignments become almost automatic in the later rounds?

7) Both Spaniards go to the tournament...truly shocking, I swear. I would have never imagined...

All in all, if anything, this seems like it was more political than in past years, and because the UEFA pool of selected referees is even smaller than most imagined, the overall quality and depth of the corps for WC06 seems to have dropped to me. I hope I'm wrong and I hope this was all very fair and transparent. Judging by who's been selected, though, I kind of doubt it.

[Dpetzz]

looking at concacaf....I think they went with experience at the moment...

Batres and the jamaican have both done the gold cup final in the past and have many years of world cup qualifying games plus a world cup of experience. As for the mexican, not only did he do the final of the club world championship this year as a replacement for the injuried batres but he also refereed the italy-argentina semi-final at the 2004 olympics...I guess big time appointments in the past are remembered by FIFA

[MassachusettsRef]

Um, it's pretty tough to get assigned the Gold Cup final when the country you're from is almost always playing in it.

Regardless, assignments from the past aren't supposed to be the indicator. There was a process in place. I hope all the referees were selected on the merits outlined in that process. Judging by the selections, I just have a really hard time buying that right now.

[Dpetzz]

I honestly am not too familar with Stott's performances and have seen hall more and thought it was orignally strange not to see him in the final 6 from concacaf.
As a canadian...I thought the mexican was terrible in the two world cup qualifiers he did for game that canada played in in the early rounds of qualifying. But i guess that is neither here or there.

Was also surprised to see that both italy and mexico received a second official on the developmental list in addition to the regular appointments. I could see that happening from a uefa country but was surprised that the second mexican beat out the american

[Englishref]

Absolutely shocked that Hauge isn't in it. A referee from Japorea and Euro 2004, not to mention getting some of the toughest games in the world to handle within UEFA competitions. I can only assume he must have failed one of the tests at the training camp.

My overall impression is they went for experience. No real surprise to see the likes of Prendergaast, Ruiz, Poll, Merk, Michel, Kamikawa, Shield, Simon, Batres, etc, with a few promising referees thrown in, like Busacca, Amarilla, Abd El Fatah, etc.

A bit of a surprise that Stott isn't included, just because he comes from the US. Wasn't too impressed with what I saw at the U17 WC, and obviously FIFA weren't as well. That, or he didn't impress at the training camps.

Otherwise, it's a pretty good squad. Not as strong IMO, as at previous WCs, but then I don't think there is a great depth in quality atm.

As for the development group, I'm glad to see Rosetti on it, as I really rate him as one for the future (even if he is 38). Also good experience for Rodrigues, Damon and Al Ghamdi. A good idea IMO.

I think it's harsh that if any of the ARs fail at the training camp, the whole trio fails, especially as there are three ARs.

[bluedevils]

Prendergast over Stott? You've got to be kidding me.

I don't follow international referees and match assignments all that much, so I could never offer an opinion or analysis like massref does on these types of things.

But having seen a few matches officiated by Prendergast and Stott in the past few years, I was thinking exactly the same thing as Claymore.

[macheath]

I don't follow international referees and match assignments all that much, so I could never offer an opinion or analysis like massref does on these types of things.

But having seen a few matches officiated by Prendergast and Stott in the past few years, I was thinking exactly the same thing as Claymore.

Another vote for this position. Prendergast is...well, we're not supposed to speak ill of other refs. So I can't say anything, except "phantom handling." Just pray that he doesn't ref a US match--do they keep refs from your own association out of your team's matches?

And why no USSF refs, even on the developmental list?

[Dpetzz]

i think two of the three ARs need to pass...i think they mean if at least two of the three doesn't pass then the trio referee included goes home

[Alberto]

I don't follow international referees and match assignments all that much, so I could never offer an opinion or analysis like massref does on these types of things.

But having seen a few matches officiated by Prendergast and Stott in the past few years, I was thinking exactly the same thing as Claymore.

Remember that Prendergast is supported by Jack Warner, FIFA VP and a individual of questionable character. The spoils system at work.

[Alberto]

Wow. I feel awful for Stott. This is not a good day for USSF referees.


I agree and right now I am very angry with the USSF for putting all it's eggs with Stott and not Brian Hall. After Kevin's average performance at the world youth championships, the powers that be at the USSF should have re-examined their selection and made a determination to contact FIFA and request the addition of Hall to the list or if that was not possible, changed the nominee. Hall had performed very well in Japan-Korea and was fully recovered from injury. This also points out the problem with nominating referees years before the world cup. There are bound to be injuries to referees, and many may also not progress or fall off in their performances.

[colins1993]

Remember that Prendergast is supported by Jack Warner, FIFA VP and a individual of questionable character. The spoils system at work.

All this reinforces the validity in the following statement which I made a few weeks back on another thread:

"Maybe it's just me but one thing is a given - as a player politics were never involved when the coach decided the starting eleven".

Period end paragraph.

[Alberto]

One other thought. Should the hand writing be on the wall with respect to the MLS rule, in other words referees please don't do your job and save our stars. If FIFA is monitoring the MLS, then to hell with Joe Machnik and end the practice of selective enforcement of the laws of the game.

[MassachusettsRef]

One other thought. Should the hand writing be on the wall with respect to the MLS rule, in other words referees please don't do your job and save our stars. If FIFA is monitoring the MLS, then to hell with Joe Machnik and end the practice of selective enforcement of the laws of the game.I think you're leaping to an illogical conclusion. FIFA has said they were monitoring all nominated referees' performances in their respective domestic leagues. That means they watched all of Stott's MLS matches from last season. There is nothing to indicate, though, that FIFA cares about or has viewed any other MLS matches, at least insofar as examining referees.

[Alberto]

I think you're leaping to an illogical conclusion. FIFA has said they were monitoring all nominated referees' performances in their respective domestic leagues. That means they watched all of Stott's MLS matches from last season. There is nothing to indicate, though, that FIFA cares about or has viewed any other MLS matches, at least insofar as examining referees.


No, you are missing my point. If you are a nominated referee you will have to work under the constraints imposed by the league. Deviate and try to call it like FIFA wants and you could lose MLS appointments. The USSF needs to read the MLS the riot act with respect to their interference on how referees manage matches.

[billf]

I don't think the way MLS is called hurt Stott. Poll is there and the FA, PGMOA, and EPL all have a somewhat different idea as to how to call a match. You can have a different approach to calling a game from league to league and still be on board with the Fifa way come international time. I think the way Stott performed hurt him. He was not as sharp last year and his MLS Cup performance was a little uneven. The writing seemed to be on the wall, however, when he stuck around for the late round games at the U-17s and was assigned as a fourth official in the third place game behind a referee who also centered a semi final.

[MassachusettsRef]

No, you are missing my point. If you are a nominated referee you will have to work under the constraints imposed by the league. Deviate and try to call it like FIFA wants and you could lose MLS appointments. The USSF needs to read the MLS the riot act with respect to their interference on how referees manage matches.But I just really don't feel this is an issue. Whether or not you subscribe to the belief that MLS has an undue influence on referees (which is really a discussion for another thread), it seems that Stott would be hands-off in that regard.

USSF's goal is to get a referee at the World Cup. Stott was the annointed referee. MLS knew he would be getting the assignments from USSF last year, because he had to--end of story. And they knew he was going to call games the way he and USSF wanted them called, in order to put his best foot forward. If MLS had tried to influence or blackball Stott, there would have been a huge blow-up.

Do you really believe that MLS played a role in this? From what I recall, if you look back to last year, the biggest controversy/gaffe by Stott was not sending Agoos off. And that decision, if it was influenced by anyone, was a product of the public memo that Kleinaitis sent out, which chastized Vaughn for being too quick with the red card and it put forth a very narrow interpretation of the 4 D's. The only other major incident I remember is Stott not sending Adu off in the playoffs, which I think was a product of him already having tossed Gomez and there not being much time left (not an excuse, just an explanation).

Honestly, other than those situations, I can't think of any situations last year (or, really, ever) where Stott has shied away from sending off or disciplining a star. Your beef with MLS may have merits, but I don't think it has anything to do with Stott being left off the World Cup list.