Thursday, 21 June - Warsaw - 2:45 EST Czech Republic v Portugal Referee: Howard WEBB (ENG) Assistant Referee 1: Michael Mullarkey (ENG) Assistant Referee 2: Sander van Roekel (NED) Additional Assistant Referee 1: Martin Atkinson (ENG) Additional Assistant Referee 2: Mark Clattenburg (ENG) Fourth Official: Jonas Eriksson (SWE) Reserve Assistant Referee: Stefan Wittberg (SWE) UEFA Delegate: Geir Thorsteinsson (ISL) UEFA Referee Observer: Marc Batta (FRA) This thread is for all pre-, play-by-play, and post-match discussion of the referee and other officials on the match. Only news and analysis or other facts/information related to the referees and the officiating should be posted here. This is not a team or rivalry thread and will be heavily moderated to ensure it remains that way. Please read the stickied thread at the top of this forum if you have further questions. Thank you.
I have the exact same question. And if they are willing to replace ARs for the knockout stages (assuming it wasn't injury related), why couldn't they replace Kassai's AR in order to permit the rest of his crew to continue working (assuming the reports are correct that he has been sent home)?
Kirkup was injured shortly before the end of the season and had a month or so out but came back for the last couple of games. Presumably he passed the fitness test but has possibly since got injured, and given the lack of experience, wanted to keep Webb on? Who knows, but unless Kirkup is injured, it's an extremely bizarre decision, even taking into account his several incorrect offside decisions in his last match.
Also, why not use Thomson's AR (and then I guess him as 4th too) to ensure there is absolutely no language problem between CR/AR
I would guess that the Dutch official probably is fluent in English anyway. (He may actually be easier to understand than a Scot) But why not bring over a replacement from England? PH
I agree that Thomson's AR would have been a more suitable replacement, but given this hasn't happened, I'd guess Thomson's team are still in UEFA's plans, and if so, they wouldn't want to break up that team to put it back together for a game. I guess out of the Hungarian, Dutch, Spanish and German teams, the Dutch ARs would be best suited to fitting in to an English team of officials. As for replacing Kirkup with an English official, Steve Child was the listed replacement AR but these were sent home after the fitness tests. It wouldn't be right to bring him in now. If Kirkup is injured again, I'd hope it's not related to the injury he had recently, or else it would have been much better for him to step aside at the start for Child in case the injury reoccured. Understandable why he wouldn't want to though.
"a little aggressive for Howard Webb" - fair caution for Nani - used his legs and arm to take down the Czech. And then another Portugal caution - looks good to me.
I notice that I am paying a lot more attention to the position of the AARs than I have earlier in the tournament.....I wonder why?
I seen Ronaldo getting a caution for simulation before the days end. You cannot continually dribble into a crowd at high speed, kick the ball past them, run into them and scream for a foul.