A few to come... 14/11/09 Costa Rica vs. Uruguay - Alberto Undiano Mallenco, Fermín Martínez, Juan Carlos Yuste, Carlos Clos Gomez (ESP) Greece vs. Ukraine New Zealand vs. Bahrain - Jorge Larrionda, Pablo Fandiño, Mauricio Espinosa, Roberto Silvera (URU) Portugal vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina - Martin Atkinson, Peter Kirkup, Phil Sharp, Andre Marriner (ENG) Rep. of Ireland vs. France - Felix Brych, Thorsten Schiffner, Mark Borsch, Michael Weiner (GER) Russia vs. Slovenia - Terje Hauge (NOR) 18/11/09 Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Portugal France vs. Rep. of Ireland Slovenia vs. Russia - Laurent Duhamel (FRA) Ukraine vs. Greece Uruguay vs. Costa Rica - Massimo Busacca, Matthias Arnet, Manuel Navarro, Carlo Bertolini (SUI) From a personal point of view, it's amazing, but fantastic, to see Martin Atkinson get one of these, given he only became an Elite group referee in July! Both CONCACAF vs CONMEBOL matches should be in safe, and importantly, sensible hands.
Well Larrionda is on the return leg of the NZL-Bahrain tie. And it was always going to be 8 UEFA referees for the 8 UEFA matches. The interesting thing here is that they are all non-candidates (which is a complete reversal from 2005). So that just leaves the two Costa Rica-Uruguay games. It's not going to be a referee from the Western Hemisphere, so I suppose the only complaint is that a candidate from AFC or CAF didn't get appointed (the New Zealand referees are out, since they are at the U17s). Maybe Breeze could have got one? Or Codjia? Short of that, I don't think you can really complain about giving those two appointments to UEFA refs.
Doh. I was surprised no one from South America got a match. I guess I looked over the matches too quick.
Whos going to get the tiebreaker playoff between Egypt and Algeria on Wednesday? Will they go with an African referee or will they go outside of Africa for what will be a very high pressure game in Sudan?
Whomever it is, you got to believe the assignment was already provisionally made, since there's such a short turnaround. I'd guess they stay within Africa--Codjia or Maillet would be my two best guesses.
Matt Breeze would have turned it down if he'd been offered - he's taking his Bar Exam at the moment, which is why he didn't go to Nigeria for the U-17 WC.
I agree. I'd be surprised if it's appointed to someone outside of CAF. All the playoffs within a confederation have been refereed by someone from that confederation (see UEFA and AFC), it's usually only the cross-confederation games that get appointed outside. Damon had the game yesterday, so he's out. Coulibaly is still at the U17 WC. Benouza is Algerian. That really only leaves Maillet or Codjia if they go for a WC candidate, though UEFA haven't really done that. The only one I can think of outside of the WC candidates who might get it is Divine Evehe from the Cameroon, but I'm going to plump for Codjia.
Should have actually looked before posting, as the appointment has been made: Algeria vs Egypt - Eddy Maillet (SEY)
The rest of the second leg... 18/11/09 Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Portugal: * Referee: Roberto ROSETTI (ITA) * Assistant Referee 1: Paolo CALCAGNO (ITA) * Assistant Referee 2: Stefano AYROLDI (ITA) * Fourth official: Nicola RIZZOLI (ITA) France vs. Rep. of Ireland: * Referee: Martin HANSSON (SWE) * Assistant Referee 1: Stefan WITTBERG (SWE) * Assistant Referee 2: Fredrik NILSSON (SWE) * Fourth official: Martin INGVARSSON (SWE) Ukraine vs. Greece: * Referee: Olegario BENQUERENCA (POR) * Assistant Referee 1: Bertino MIRANDA (POR) * Assistant Referee 2: Jose CARDINAL (POR) * Fourth official: Duarte GOMES (POR) Slovenia vs Russia: * Referee: Terje HAUGE (NOR) * Assistant Referee 1: Kim HAGLUND (NOR) * Assistant Referee 2: Frank ANDAS (NOR) * Fourth official: Tommy SKJERVEN (NOR) [the crew in the first leg in Moscow was: * Referee: Claus Bo LARSEN (DEN) * Assistant Referee 1: Henrik SONDERBY (DEN) * Assistant Referee 2: Anders NORRESTRAND (DEN) * Fourth official: Lars CHRISTOFFERSEN (DEN)] Englishref got the rest (before I even knew to look - thx)