Not as high profile as the WYC, but still worth keeping an eye on. It looks like CONCACAF got squeezed here a little bit because they got to send a ton of officials to Canada for the U20s. Also, this is the absolute final list so if anyone knows of officials that went and failed their fitness tests, feel freed to chime in: COULIBALY (MLI) MAILLET (SEY) BREEZE (AUS) IRMATOV (UZB) KWON (KOR) LEE (KOR) NISHIMURA (JPN) BENQUERENCA (POR) BEBEK (CRO) GILEWSKI (POL) LAYEC (FRA) THOMSON (SCO) AGUILAR (SLV) VARMAN (FIJ) BUITRAGO (COL) FAGUNDES FILHO (BRA) So Irmatov, Aguilar and Buitrago look like the only repeats from the WYC. Breeze--I think--is the only person to have been on the candidates' list for WC06. He's under Mark Shields' considerable shadow in Australia, and I admit to having never seen him myself; but he's gotten some marquee assignments internationally. Going into this tournament, he's probably the most high-profile referee. The European contingent is interesting. Thomson, Layec and Benquerenca are all UCL officials. I've never heard of Bebek but Gilewski, if I recall correctly, was highly-rated from one of the recent youth tournaments. I might be mistaken, though.
Costa Rica : Togo - FAGUNDES FILHO (BRA) Korea Republic : Peru - BEBEK (CRO) DPR Korea : England - MAILLET (SEY)* Brazil : New Zealand - GILEWSKI (POL) Honduras : Spain - BREEZE (AUS) *Opening Match
Craig Thomson and Gregorsz Gilewski are both excellent young officials, only really held back IMO, by their nationality. Really not a fan of Layec or Benquerenca, though Layec is the most highly thought of of the UEFA contingent by UEFA. No idea who Bebek is. Only seen Matthew Breeze twice, including the Confed Cup 3rd/4th playoff, and wasn't very impressed either time. Rightly in the shadow of Mark Shield IMO. However, I expect Breeze and Layec to go far in this competition. Koulibaly and Maillet are both well used by the CAF confederation as well. They both did 3 games at the ACN 2006. And Kwon from South Korea was also on the WC candidate list, and did the U20WC during the lead up to Germany, provided it's the same guy.
From someone else... "After fitness test, Brizan, Al Hilali, Pineda, Pozo, Silvera and Torres (with their linesmen) are out. 5 new referees are been called: Lee Min Ho and Kwon Jon Chul from South Korea, Irmatov from Uzbekistan, Aguilar from El Salvador and Buitrago from Colombia."
Makes perfect sense. The three from the U20 WYC are called in, as are two from the host country (who both just did the AFC, by the way). Of the six sent home, I've only heard of Brizan and Pineda. A bit embarrassing to CONCACAF (and to Jack Warner in the case of Brizan) that they got sent home (is Torres also CONCACAF?). I'm surprised about Pineda, actually. I wonder if there were any US ARs attached to any of the CONCACAF crews (it seems unlikely that we sent an entire contingent without any Mexican, American or Canadian officials...).
This was the original list: Referees Abdullah Al Hilali (OMN) Ivan Bebek (CRO) Olegario Benquerenca (POR) Neal Brizan (TRI) Matthew Breeze (AUS) Koman Coulibaly (MLI) Salvio Fagundes Filho (BRA) Grzegorz Gilewski (POL) Bertrand Layec (FRA) Eddy Maillet (SEY) Yuichi Nishimura (JPN) Jose Pineda (HON) Pablo Pozo (CHL) Roberto Silvera (URU) Craig Thomson (SCO) Carlos Torres (PAR) Rakesh Varman (FIJ) Assistant Referees Andrew Achari (FIJ) Redouane Achik (MAR) Simon Baptiste (TRI) Patricio Basualto (CHL) Roberto Braatz (BRA) Stephen Brown (JAM) Inacio Manuel Candido (ANG) Jose Cardinal (POR) Matthew Cream (AUS) Martin Cryans (SCO) Eric Dansault (FRA) Stephane Duhamel (FRA) Sameer Ebrahim (BHR) Ahmad El Kawas (LEB) Bechir Hassani (TUN) Altemir Hausmann (BRA) Hae Sang Jeong (KOR) Evarist Menkouande (CMR) Bertino Miranda (POR) Tom Murphy (SCO) Miguel Nievas (URU) Jim Ouliaris (AUS) Carlos Pastrana (HON) Tomislav Petrovic (CRO) Manuel Rodriguez (CHL) Rafal Rostkowski (POL) Mauricio Rodriguez Espinosa (URU) Emigdio Ruiz (PAR) Toru Sagara (JPN) Tomislav Setka (CRO) Matthew Taro (SOL) William Torres Mejia (SLV) Oscar Domingo Viera Alegre (PAR) Maciej Wierzbowski (POL)
Argentina : Syria - LAYEC (FRA) Nigeria : France - THOMSON (SCO) Japan : Haiti - VARMAN (FIJ) Belgium : Tunisia - NISHIMURA (JPN) Tajikistan : USA - COULIBALY (MLI) Colombia : Germany - BENQUERENCA (POR) Trinidad & Tobago : Ghana - FAGUNDES FILHO (BRA) Togo : Peru - AGUILAR (SLV) Costa Rica : Korea Republic - GILEWSKI (POL) New Zealand : England - LAYEC (FRA) Brazil - DPR Korea - IRMATOV (UZB)