In the spirit of the Opening Match poll, I thought we might have a poll for the Final. Here's recent history: 14 Germany : Argentina - RIZZOLI (ITA) 10 Netherlands : Spain - WEBB (ENG) 06 Italy : France - ELIZONDO (ARG) 02 Germany : Brazil - COLLINA (ITA) 98 Brazil : France - BELQOLA (MAR) 94 Brazil : Italy - PUHL (HUN)
Although many posters thought Irmatov might have a shot, I think we can safely say he is out of contention after today’s performance.
I'd love it to be Geiger, but I am thinking they are holding the VAR spot for him on that game for some reason. Weird mechanics besides, I think Rocchi could stand a chance. He conducted a really entertaining match to start the tournament out in grand fashion with that Portugal - Spain tie. Italy is out. It's conceivable.
He would be the second consecutive Italian referee and third in five WCs, so I think his chances are lower because of this. But I agree it's still conceivable, which is why I put him on the poll.
As someone who loves these sort of predictive games, I’ll say this is way too early. No serious final contender had even had his second match and we don’t know which teams will be where yet. The last three tournaments have shown that knockout performances matter. They will again. For me, nothing has changed. Pitana, Kuipers and Geiger top the list. But Brych and Rocchi are both viable, as is Ricci. If anything has changed, Sikazwe is ahead of Gassama if an African is called and Faghani is ahead of Irmatov if it’s Asia. But I don’t think either situation is likely based on the current performances. I think you have 6 referees seriously competing at this very moment. But that number could expand or contract over the next 11 days.
MassRef is right about being a little early. The one I remember in particular is Collina from Italy in 2002. He had a great round of 16 match that eliminated one of the hosts (Japan) and therefore got picked for the final. That is also where I learned that referees could get dropped for bad matches. In the game 3 matchday Nieto from Spain couldn’t handle a contentious game between Germany and Cameroon. I thought fights were going to break out. He gave over 10 cards that day. They gave more cards back then too.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the entire crew of the Costa Rica-Brazil game could be the crew for the final.
Way to early. Not much is out of the realm of possibility at this point. Yes, they did well, but it’s one game. And I’m guessing that the VAR will be a ref who was in the running for the Final whistle, who gets VAR as a consolation prize.
My gut tells me that the ENG - COL match only helped Geiger, and that match is why he, along with Diedhiou, Rocchi, and Conger, are being held in reserve for the final. I predict that Collina will follow the "no team twice" convention. That's why he left out Pitana after a sterling performance: Pitana refereed both France and Croatia, and therefore was unlikely to be able to meet this criterium. This is Geiger's second World Cup, the only one of the final four to bear that distinction. He's also done a World Cup final before, and no one, not Collina, Blatter, or anyone, has forgotten that sterling performance between Portugal and Brazil. Predictions, based on matchups: ENG - BEL: Rocchi CRO - BEL: Geiger CRO - FRA: Geiger ENG - FRA: Diedhiou
Yes- Geiger will not be center on the final as Anderson was sent home. He could be 4O with Fletcher as reserve AR or on the VAR team (and I think he will be) but he won’t be in the middle.
If it is an France/England final, I think Kuipers gets the whistle. I had the feeling he would not get it if Belgium were there. This will be a big match and I don't know that Faghani is up to it (if they go in that direction).
I'm not real up to speed on the referee selection process, but that would be a whole lot of Western Europe on the field. I gather assignments for this WC have been a bit out of the ordinary, but surely there are other non-UEFA referees still in Russia who could do the job just fine, right?