General Assignments Discussion

Could we also point out the FLOTUS is also from Slovenia?
Far-fetched? Maybe!

PH

 

I need to see the video of Elfath getting a red

 

Marciniak's story is very similar - he said that he didn't like the referee's call one time when playing in the lower levels and the referee told him "if you think you can do better then become a referee" and he said ok then. And the rest is history.

 

Someone find that referee and give him a medal!

 

Good memory and I have been telling others this as well: The training field and the classroom performances tipped a few referee trios both ways in 2018. I assume that could have happened this World Cup as well, but I have zero knowledge of this and haven't asked my friends there if this is the case.

 

I'd downvote the hell outta this if there was any possibility that Vincic got even a toenails boost for being from Slovenia because of Trump (Melania or Donald). I'm all for conspiracies but please oh please don't let there be any credence to this.

If there is, I'll put some money into the corruption pot for whichever candidate can oust Infantino myself. I have nothing against Melania, but any connection to pick a World Cup Final referee in this way should never even be a thing.

 

No doubt it is just merely a coincidence. Probably more likely to be the Ceferin factor that tipped the balance.

PH

 

In any other World Cup, Vincic would have been impossible for CONMEBOL or Argentina to accept. He's a UEFA ref and, strangely, the ref at the Saudi vs Argentina shocker from 2022. However, the narrative has been so negative about favoritism to Argentina that they probably felt they could not say anything.

 

Question for the stats nerds:
Which games had no YC or RC issued so far?

PH

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there have been two: France vs Sweden and France vs England.

 

I think this world cup was very well officiated. Exceptionally well. THere were some howlers of course, but more great called games than I was expecting. VAR was used well, and honestly there is a lot for the referee team to be proud of. Collina and Co. hid the weaker referees, assigned based on merrit, and were largely vindicated in their controversial decisions (the Uzbekestan and Portugesse assigments the obvious exceptions). Penso and Ramos both made crticial mistakes that actually cost them, as did some of the European names. Even how he rotated the reserves in, that was well done and imporoved the tournament. Honestly, this was a very well assigned and refereed tournament.

One more thing, I'll say bigger picture--there have been some incredibly difficult games this tourament, with very difficult decisions to make that the referees navigated genearlly very very well. Then I come on this thread or even the game reviews by Arbitro Internacional and see peopel chalking it up to luck (as in he's lucky X team scored, that kept the game under control). None of this is luck. To dismiss a referee's performance at this level as "luck" is crazy. These guys had stratagies, stratagies based upon their style and stregths, and based upon the teams procliviities and potential line ups. Stratagies that they crafted probably with other people's help. Stratagies like "a low bar for fouls, to give me a higher bar for cards" as opposed to "early card to set the tone, so I can let them play" or "whole crew enter field to be preventative" vs. "back away from conflict to let them sort things out and then respond..." etc. Then, after a game like that, to come away and say "the referee got out of this game by luck" is officially bonkers and remarkably unfair.

I do think some of the feedback here is the result of training that shows particular plays and asks for decisions in a vaccuum. But the world cup isn't really like that. Also the whole "I don't knwo what the standard is for a caution becasue in X game this kind of foul was one and in Y game it wasn't" .... well, that's just not how soccer works.

Overall this was very positive tournament from the referee's perspective, and very well assigneed.

 

It is striking that the majority of the most controversial calls were VAR interventions. Of course, that may be because VAR corrected calls missed on the field that would have been controversial if they hadn’t been fixed. But it seems like the VAR system is still really struggling to fix clear errors without overreaching into messy situations that aren’t so clear.

In the group stage, there was an extraordinarily high bar for VAR interventions (the Penso non-foul and England non-penalty come to mind). Then, it seemed like a switch flipped in the knockouts and VAR was looking for reasons to make major calls that weren’t really needed (e.g. the Balogun red card, taking away the Egypt goal). That created a feeling of incoherence that undermines the credibility of VAR.

VAR was supposed to decrease the number of controversial match-impacting calls. If VAR is actually creating those calls, there should be hard questions being asked about whether it’s being used correctly

 

All the major VAR interventions we're basically to take goals away that no one pre-VAR really wanted taken away and certainly not what anyone had in mind when the concept of VAR was brought in.

Then VAR backed door it's way into a farcical 2CT that was only possible because of a really liberal interpretation of the concept of mistaken identity. I say "liberal" when it's really just FIFA/Collina inventing a new definition for mistaken identity judging by the fact that UEFA said mistaken identity is giving a yellow card (even if incorrect in the first place) to the wrong player.

I guess it because it happened to Switzerland and because the simulation was pretty shameless to begin with so no one has that much sympathy, but I can't stress enough as to how ridiculous that 2CT was and what a set of circumstances you had to get to arrive to that red card.

Basically, the referee followed all principles of defensive/"safe" refereeing and it backfired on him.

If Paredes was on a yellow, we all know Pinheiro isn't producing a yellow card there so the window closes for a 2CT there via VAR. He gives the foul and some people get upset at the dive, but the game moves on and no one cares because it was a dive 35 yards away from goal in front of his bench.

Pinheiro did what every referee who has ever refereed any serious level of soccer has done and threw out a yellow card (especially in the second half) to gain or regain control of the match and get one team on his side. Cards and especially first yellow cards are a management tool. We have all been there. One team feels like nothing is going there way and the other team is playing to the limit or beyond and you say to yourself "next borderline hard or late foul by guy who isn't sitting on a card by team X, I'm giving." It's classic survival refereeing. And if the card happens to be incorrect or soft, then so be it you just work a little harder to make sure the guy you did give the yellow card doesn't get a second one. And even if he does commit the most obvious second caution foul ever that leaves your hands completely tied, the blame goes on him and not you "you can't do that while on a yellow."

The game was getting chippy and Paredes was being a dick like always. Watch the clip, he almost crunched someone a second before he tried to foul Embolo. Referee gives a yellow card to get control of the game and that's it. I think Paredes even had some respect for Embolo as saying "yeah you got me, I'll give you credit there I probably would have done the same thing."

But because Collina and FIFA don't seem to accept that there is still an art to referee and that it is not all an exact science they have decided that every thing has to have a "correct" answer. We can't have corner kicks wrongly awarded because the referee decides to award a corner kick instead of giving a foul or penalty to an attacker who just got crunched.

So you end up getting this farcical 2CT that I guarantee you there isn't any player on that pitch that really wanted that. The reactions by Argentina gives it away. They basically say "yeah that is absurd, but tough shit."

I'll say it again, VAR is not a value add to the game and it's certainly not a value add when you have such a gross imbalance in it's application that it's doing everything it can to take goals away, but not award them.

 

My only disagreement is what referee is producing a simulation card there live even with a clear view? Yes, it's a dive, but he's trying to win a free kick near his bench. He's not trying to win a penalty kick or dangerous free kick just outside the penalty area. I guess you can make the argument he is trying to get his opponent booked. But even then when have we ever seen one for that?

There are degrees of dives and areas of the pitch where the dive matters more and needs to punished. This didn't meet the area of the pitch. While the degree is pretty shameless, how many free kicks have we seen in the middle of pitch where the attacker completly flops to earn an innocuous free kick? I just say that it is part of the game.

All the time on this forum we have people asking "yes, pushed or shoved him in the chest, but he didn't get the opponent in the face and why is the opponent holding his hands in his face? Why isn't the opponent booked there for diving?" And our collective response is "we'll we just don't do that and it's not practical refereeing."

Even if Paredes was on a yellow and he was trying to get Paredes sent-off, I still think a caution there live would be harsh, but that's just me. I know some people think diving is an issue in the game. I really don't think it is as big of an issue as to what we see yesterday and the overall level of thuggery that we see at times this tournament.

 

If we're going to have a serious discussion about this, we should at least have a factual discussion. There absolutely were VAR interventions that gave penalties in this WC, and the way that offside is now officiated due to VAR/SAOT means that we surely had good goals on tight offside calls that could have been blown incorrectly in the past.

There were also major VAR interventions that had nothing to do with immediately taking goals away.

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cr59mg77ep2o

Who knows what Infantino really thinks. He doesn't seem as a man who has any real plans below the surface level besides just getting the people in real power to like him and the masses to like him.

However, I think we can put to bed the idea that he Vincic got the appointment as some sort of token gesture to get Cefrin on his side.

Well maybe he did think so, but it certainly didn't work.

It's pretty obvious why Vincic got the appointment. He was the most experienced referee eligible who has done the biggest games and I'm sure Infantino actually saw him referee.

So it was a safe choice of an experienced UEFA official. Basically, the grandest spectacle deserves an official who has officiated the second grandest spectacle in football (UEFA Champions League Final). It's probably that simple and with Infantino it just might be the way forward. He is all about star power and names.

 

These are the ones off the top of my head.

England vs. Norway:

VAR takes away a goal given on a corner kick and rescinds penalty given.

Argentina vs. Switzerland:

Rescinds yellow card to defender to give a 2CT red card to attacker for simulation.

Argentina vs. Egypt:

VAR takes away great Egypt goal for foul by Egyp 90 yards from goal.

Mexico vs. England:

VAR awards penalty kick to Mexico.

VAR orders OFR for SFP by English defender.

Paraguay vs. France:

VAR awards penalty to France.

Paraguay vs. Germany:

VAR disallows German goal for foul on goalkeeper.

Portugal vs. Croatia:

VAR awards penalty to Portugal for holding on corner kick.

Please feel free to add incidents I haven't added in the knockout stages.

Four goals disallowed and 3 goals/penalty kicks awarded.

 

This points to a nearly neutral impact on scoring which is hardly the same as asserting "All the major VAR interventions we're basically to take goals away."

 

"We need to give them opportunities. We need to take risks, and put them in the game, and let their performances speak for themselves." 🗣️ @ToriPenso, the first American woman to referee a men’s World Cup match, on how to get more females involved in officiating the game 🌎 pic.twitter.com/QXOOPBWuz7

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) July 20, 2026

I mean they did and look how it turned out...

 

Watching matches from the 1994 World Cup with my son and it’s astonishing how bad they were at judging offside

I know it got better but even as late as 2010 significant mistakes were just a given

now, I don’t know how you use VAR to eliminate these mistakes without relitigating every significant event but I would like to think there’s a middle ground that can be reached

 

VAR is mostly great for offside. It’s the other stuff that’s the problem

 

To be 100% fair, I do think Tori was talking more about female officiating in general. I won’t get into the debate about female officials at the men’s World Cup, but I do agree 100% that we need more females-particularly former players (and I’ll say the same thing about the guys)-in the officiating ranks.

 

Some scores I did for the referees across the tournament.
7 is the starting score; 6 and above is a pass, 5 and below is a fail (2 and below is a super fail).