General Assignments Discussion

Vincic has had three tricky or potentially tricky appointments at this tournament. How much weight is assigned to his performance at the 2025 Club World Cup? He had River Plate and Monterrey.

 

Final three matches of the World Cup since 1986.

Order is semi-final, semi-final, and Final.

1986: Italy, Mexico, Brazil
1990: France, Brazil, Mexico (born in Uruguay)
1994: France, Colombia, Hungary
1998: UAE, Spain, Morocco
2002: Denmark, Switzerland, Italy
2006: Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina
2010: Uzbekistan, Hungary, England
2014: Turkey, Mexico, Italy
2018: Turkey, Uruguay, Argentina
2022: Italy, Mexico, Poland
2026: El Salvador, USA, Slovenia

1986: UEFA, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL
1990: UEFA, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF (born in Uruguay)
1994: UEFA, CONMEBOL UEFA
1998: AFC, UEFA, CAF
2002: UEFA, UEFA, UEFA
2006: CONMEBOL, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL
2010: AFC, UEFA, UEFA
2014: UEFA, CONCACAF, UEFA
2018: UEFA, CONMEBOL, CONMEBOL
2022: UEFA, CONCACAF, UEFA
2026: CONCACAF, CONCACAF, UEFA

Distribution by country:

Mexico: 5
Italy: 4
Argentina: 2
Brazil: 2
France: 2
Hungary: 2
Turkey (Cakir did a lot of work): 2
Uruguay: 2
Colombia: 1
Denmark: 1
England: 1
El Salvador: 1
Morocco: 1
Poland: 1
Slovenia: 1
Spain: 1
Switzerland: 1
UAE: 1
USA: 1
Uzbekistan: 1

Distribution by confederation:

UEFA: 16
CONCACAF: 7
CONMEBOL: 7
AFC: 2
CAF: 1

The AFC and CAF numbers are just pitiful and I don't know how you correct this. One African referee doing a final three match in 40 years.

A Brazilian official hasn't done a late stage World Cup match since Bush senior was in the White House even though they have only made a World Cup semi-final once since they last won it.

 

Only about $75,000, which is a lot of money in Poland!

PH

 

As I keep trying to say for the past 20 years, you can never underestimate the influence of a very powerful fellow countryman in these decisions. Obviously they have to be reasonably good referees, but in the end their nationality gets them in over several others equally or even better deserving based on merit and performance.

PH

 

Now that the puzzle is complete some general thoughts on the overall assignments and the legacy of some of these officials.

Marciniak:

When you look back on his career now, it's kind of weird. Apart from seemingly getting handpicked to the Final in 2022 because Collina just liked him even though he really didn't have the track record of consistent performance to warrant the Final, his tournament career is pretty underwhelming.

Euro 2016: Got a round of 16 game in his first major tournament and a good start to his international tournament career.

World Cup 2018: Did only two group stage games and was probably rejected for his performance against Germany vs. Sweden

Euro 2020: Didn't go due to combination of injury and performance

World Cup 2022: Gets the Final

Euro 2024: Gets one group stage game and a round of 16 knockout match

World Cup 2026: Two group stage matches.

5 tournaments and only got an assignment past the round of 16 once (the most important game ever).

Compared to the other UEFA referees that got World Cup Finals this century, he just never kind of kicked on to another gear. He's been pretty good in the CL, but he just never went to another level for whatever reason internationally.

All the other UEFA referees actually got better as a result of their appointment.

Collina became essentially bulletproof/untouchable after 2002. He got the opening match of Euro 2004 and did a semi-final in that tournament.

Webb was probably too green for the 2010 Final, but he had excellent tournaments in Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014 and was unlucky to not go further due to combination of Spain advancing in Euro 2012 (was a candidate for the Final) and the stupid Falkland War issue for English referees (was probably gonna get a semi-final in 2014).

Rizzoli was excellent in Euro 2016 and got a semi-final appointment (I thought he should have gotten the Final over Clattenburg).

But with Marciniak it's a bunch of "meh". He nailed the most important match ever, but everything else is kind of underwhelming and left you wanting more.

Say what you want about Vincic, but he's going to have a better career than Marciniak unless he forgets who is sitting on a yellow on Sunday.

Elfath:

Arguably now the greatest US international referee ever? Two World Cups and a total of three knockout games that all went reasonably well. A fourth official on the Final and a semi-final appointment is nothing to sneeze at.

I still think Geiger was a better referee, but Elfath had a little bit more luck than Geiger. I thought Geiger officiated better in the group stages of his two World Cups than Elfath and had better assignments than Elfath did. If we are being honest, Elfath probably was a little bit lucky to get a knockout game in 2022. But once he got it, he took advantage and had good performances and had smoother knockout games than Geiger.

Anyone that ever saw Elfath's first MLS game (just a disaster) never would have thought that 15 years later he would be doing Argentina vs. England in the semi-finals of the World Cup. If it was going to be anyone from his generation or class it was going to be Villarreal.

Faghani:

Have to feel for him. If he couldn't get a World Cup Final or semi-final, what hope is there really for anyone from Asia to cross that threshold. He's grown on me. I thought he was terrible in that France vs. Argentina game in 2018. Just a terrible performance and almost cowardly at times with what he allowed Argentina to get away with.

He got maybe the second toughest assignment of the tournament in Mexico vs. England. I think he struggles on the big calls, but he was seemingly the only referee in this tournament that had any interest in standing up for himself and punishing dissent. All-in-all a pretty good career, but just didn't have that luck that you need at times.

Oliver/Turpin:

Probably the two best officials at this World Cup and the window is closing for them to get the international final their career and consistent performance deserves. Euro 2028 will be fascinating.

 

Worked out ok for them last time.

 

Yes, this is a remarkable record.
In this context, I would like to point out that native-born David Socha went to two World Cups 1982 and 86, and got a semi-final appointment (as Assistant Referee/ linesman) in the era before the "trio" system. He also did the middle in a semi-final in the 1984 Olympics.

It is more remarkable because all this was when the USA had ZERO political influence in FIFA and CONCACAF, and was not on the horizon as a WC host nation and in 1986 did not have a Div 1 professional league. In fact most people in the USA were not interested in the World Cup as the USA did not qualify, and only a few games were televised nationally by the major networks. More were available in some areas that had a Spanish network station.

PH

 

I vaguely recall the odd showing at a movie theater near me back in 1986.

 

Yes, this is correct.
But I would point out that semi-finals and 3rd place games are not the same as the Final which is where the politics takes over. The Final referee is "enshrined", practically nobody (other than the nerds) remembers the others. They are not even listed in many records.

PH

 

Vincic

Brazil v Morrocco = As good as most any tournament games
Jordan v Algeria = Was this for third place and impactful? I didn't look back
Mexico v Ecuador = Round of 32

Almost have to have four games instead of three when getting the final now. We love to talk about how refs get hidden sometimes. Well, I don't think this third game was Collina hiding his man at all. That is a tough match. With that slate, we can see why he might get picked.

Personally, i was hoping it was another confederation just to spite those two British FOX announcers, but no big deal. The semi's to Barton and Elfath were enough. And we also got the Concaef ladies, Garcia and Penso, some games. Great tournament gang.

 

Match Date 2. Both came in with zero points. After, Jordan to face Argentina in the third game, Algeria to face Austria.

 

Interesting stuff.

The referees who immigrated are interesting to consider. It is probably very case-by-case how much support they have from their home federation if any. Elfath I do not believe ever refereed in Morocco whereas Faghani was already well-known

 

Elfath came to the US as a teenager. He didn't start refereeing until he was much older in the Austin area as a Texas State SA-South referee and developed from there. Like many of our USA FIFA referees who were originally immigrants, they were players before taking up the whistle later.
There were a few FIFA referees from other countries who emigrated to the USA, but they usually did not become members of the USA FIFA referees list, not being citizens among other reasons.

Faghani was already on the Iran FIFA list when he moved to Australia so the two are in no way comparable.

PH

 

Was Valenzuela really over Sampaio? Both did a round of 32 match. Is Ivory Coast versus Norway a better assignment than Morocco vs. Netherlands?

There will always be debate on what getting the third place match means. Sure, you get a medal as a referee for officiating the match, but it's a glorified friendly with teams that don't want to be there.

Would you rather have the opening match or the third place match?

 

I read this week that he admitted he was a bit of a hot-head in his playing days and was actually red carded in one match. Supposedly, he was fed-up with what he perceived to be poor officiating and became one himself. I didn't share the story here since it wasn't one of the usual sources I've seen in the past.

 

I think others and, maybe even corey here with Jair 2018, mentioned that they do classroom sessions and field work. Could it be possible that Barton impressed Collina and Co. in the classroom sessions and field sessions over Valenzuela? That's what could've pushed Barton over the edge vs. Valenzuela. Speculating here of course.

 

I mean, once you go down that rabbit hole...

 

This has been the reason why many referees started, including myself, as both a player and a coach.
The late Dr. Robert Evans, ex-FIFA referee, FIFA Instructor and National Director of Instruction, recounts a similar story in his book!

PH

 

I'll admit this is extremely tinfoil-hat-ey, but we're still a full 24 hours away from the final and there's no game on today.

Is it possible Infantino directly influenced the Vincic assignment for political gain? I think it's pretty well known Infantino and Ceferin do not get along. In tournaments past, it has looked like Vincic gets different assignments at FIFA events when compared to UEFA events. It's strange.

Yet this World Cup, there appears to be even more reporting of corruption and corruption-adjacent situations going on within FIFA. Specifically following the Balogun situation, there has been reporting about how UEFA is considering backing a candidate to run against Infantino at the next election.

Well, what do you know, the referee assigned to the FIFA World Cup Final is all of a sudden from the same country as the head of UEFA. And that country's small little Slovenia. FIFA broke the general rule of confederation neutrality to make the assignment. There's been reporting in years past that Vincic and Ceferin are friendly and/or are "close friends." That's not nefarious, per se, but it's out there. To some minds, the assignment could make it look like UEFA and Ceferin called in a favor with FIFA. This assignment is also scrutinized more seriously than any other referee assignment in the world, and the world's journalists had 2 full days to investigate and report on this connection once announced before the game. Some reporting I'm already seeing is identifying some skeletons in Vincic's closet.

Is it possible Infantino put his thumb on the scale to hopefully create a narrative that makes it look like UEFA/Ceferin is also participating in the corruption game? I'm thinking the assignment could be like a "crabs in the bucket" mentality assignment (i.e. look at us, world, we're all doing the same thing; including UEFA). The assignment for the final is plausible enough on merit alone, but the assignment could really stand to benefit Infantino's interests in re-election in the press.

If the game goes well, great for everyone. If the game goes poorly, some questions may be asked in the press that Infantino wouldn't mind either. Feels like a win-win for the FIFA boss who wants to be re-elected.


But let's be clear I'm entirely speculating. I can't wait for the games to kick back off this weekend!

 

Not to mention it’ll be hot and smoky Sunday. A lot of possible factors…….