The deadline to nominate international referees for the upcoming year was 1 October 2018. Requirements: 1. The proposed referees shall be at least 25 years old (23 years old in the case of assistant referees) on 1 January of the year for which they have been nominated. Referees must be born no later than 31.12.1993 and assistant referees must be born no later than 31.12.1995 in order to ensure a minimum level of experience. FIFA reserves the right to require referees over the age of 45 (born in 1974 or before) to undergo additional technical assessments as well as specific medical examinations and fitness testing on a case-by-case basis. 2. Each candidate must be ranked based on the marks obtained for officiating games at the national level during the 12 months prior to being nominated to the list of international referees. Please do not put the nominees in alphabetical order. 3. At a minimum, all nominated referees must pass a FIFA-approved fitness test and a medical examination on or after 2 June 2018.
I'm guessing we're still in a "those who know won't say and those who say don't know" situation until we get closer to January.
"usaref" posted this info on another blog (http://law5-theref.blogspot.com/2018/10/referee-appointments-for-international.html#comment-form): 12-October Peru : Chile Villarreal / Wienckowski / Atkins / Unkel (all USA) 16-October Costa Rica : Colombia Elfath / Morgante / Wienckowski / Unkel (all USA) In past years, the US federation has put older ARs on these matches if their retirement was imminent from the FIFA list. You can probably read these assignments (and some similar ones in September) as an indication that Wienckowski and Morgante are leaving the FIFA list.
Saghafi appointed by Concacaf in CNL: https://www.concacafnationsleague.c...ng/game-detail/440471#tab_match=match-details
0:04 of this clip has the crew. I believe that's Cameron Blanchard and Kyle Atkins with him. I've always thought Saghafi was a lock this year and the USOC Final was the final signal. The CONCACAF assignments just seem like confirmation. Blanchard has been with him both times, so that seems like he's moving onto the list, too.
This information is now public: Italy: https://www.aia-figc.it/dettaglio.asp?ID=15777 Spain: http://www.rfef.es/noticias/arbitros-espanoles-reciben-41-escarapelas-internacionales-fifa
2019 USA FIFA List Women Referees: ABT Karen KOROLEVA Ekaterina UNKEL Christina Assistant Referees: MARISCAL Felisha GARNER Jennifer MAYO Brooke MESSER Alicia NESBITT Kathryn QUAN Deleana Men Referees: ELFATH Ismail GEIGER Mark MARRUFO Jair UNKEL Ted VILLARREAL Armando Assistant Referees: ANDERSON Ian ANDERSON Frank ATKINS Kyle BLANCHARD Cameron MARISCAL Apolinar MARISCAL Eduardo PARKER Corey ROCKWELL Corey WIENCKOWSKI Adam Men's Futsal VANHAITSMA Lance WILKENS Josh
Note that FIFA has eliminated gender differences in both futsal and beach soccer as of September 2018... But the real question I have is... Is Josh new to the list then?
So why is the US only at 5 referees? 15 years ago there was pressure on older guys to "step away and make room for younger guys." It just seems like five is waaaay too few for a country with MLS and international friendlies. I know we just assign any PRO ref to those international friendlies, or bring in Canadians, but here is my honest question: *is it incompetence at the top that is keeping us from developing more FIFA referees? Or are there legitimate reasons we are at five? Are Chapman/Grajeda/Sibiga too old? Then I suppose Nima is too young? JC Rivero I assume because of his arrest? The fact that Stoica isn't on it leads me to believe it is old performances that hurt him. He played his way off the list 4 seasons or so ago, but the last two years he has been very solid. I can only imagine that the same lack of leadership that leads us to a year w/o a national team coach puts us in a situation where a referee committee that can't make decisions. Its sad. //rant:end//
What if I told you it wasn't at 5 referees? Watch this space. We've had this discussion several times before. I'd also note you're missing the most obvious name missing from the list--Penso. It's incompetence combined with a touch of CONCACAF influence, sprinkled in with some unfortunate timing. The USSF Referee Committee is not good at selecting the FIFA list, period. There are members on the committee who have openly admitted to officials, when asked, that they don't watch a lot of MLS. It's farcical. On top of not being able to judge well the skill set of our top referees, they also have made silly administrative mistakes (like the year they submitted 5 FIFA female ARs when we only had 4 female AR slots) and have clearly executed political vendettas at times (see Penso and Manikowski). To that last point, Brian Hall has influence on this process. He has relations with the USSF Referee Committee, obviously, and if he says "you can nominate X, but we're not going to use him/her," that apparently matters. And then there is timing. We haven't had a ton of potentially FIFA caliber referees reach that threshold at the right age. Whether that's dumb luck or dumb planning (probably a combination) is up for debate. The US should have 8-10 referees on the list. I've long said that even if someone isn't ready to do a top CONCACAF match, getting them ON the list between the ages of 28-33 sets them up for success later. And with the advent of VAR and our officials' ability to specialize in it, we really should be maximizing our list. So referees should be pushed. It looked like that was happening with Saghafi, but he had some off-field troubles apparently and he's in the doghouse for one year (I can't imagine he doesn't get on the list next year, but let's wait and see). Penso should go back on--whatever certain members of the RefCom think of him. The problem is the well runs a bit dry there, due to age issues and other considerations. Chapman, Stoica and Sibiga are all too old. I don't know about Rivero and Bazakos, but I'm also not sure it makes sense for either to go on the list now. The next generation might actually be Dickerson and those that come in with his class. That's sad, but if it's reality it's all the more reason to get the new guys in the double digits of middles next year. Of course, if a work stoppage or new CBA leads to more foreign referees, this problem might get even worse before it gets better. A domestic league promoting foreign referees combined with an incompetent national association is a recipe for disaster and attrition. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
Geiger has retired. http://proreferees.com/2019/01/09/mark-geiger-named-director-of-senior-match-officials/
I'm thinking it's worth closing this thread now since there are two others that I need to consolidate. I'll make one "Geiger retires" thread out of it all. If there are more macro discussions about the USA FIFA list, I'm sure those can be side discussions there.