Damir Skomina is our 2017 Referee of the Year

Slovenian UEFA Elite Damir Skomina has been elected as 2017 Referee of the Year by our blog's readers. 

Law 5 - The Referee - Referee of the Year 2017

The last major tournament  of 2017, FIFA Club World Cup, has ended. Time for voting the best referee of the year has come. This is the first time for Law 5 - The Referee, and of course everything it's up to you. 

Please find and download the file attached below. 

You are invited to write down a list of 15 referees from all confederations.
The referees will get points according to the following pattern:
1) 10 points
2) 8 points
3) 7 points
4) 6 points
5) 5 points
6) 4 points
7) 3 points
8) 2 points
from 9) to 15) 1 point.
Then, the resulting ranking will be published.
You can try to find a mix between good performances and appointments. Personally, I would preferer good / very good performances over good / very good appointments, but of course at high level it is impossible to consider both things as clearly separated. 

At least one referee from each confederation must be there (not mandatory for OFC).

You can't add more than ten referees from a single confederation (for example, no more than 10 referees from UEFA).

Once finished, you can send the document to our mail law5blog[at]gmail.com. 

Alternatively, if you can't manage to download or compile the file, you can send your list of 15 referees as normal text via mail. 

All the incorrectly filled lists wont be taken into account. 

Votes will end on 25/12/2017 00:00 CET. After that deadline, mails wont be accepted. Results will be published a few days later on the blog. 

Thanks in advance for your interest and participation. 

César Ramos in charge of 2017 FIFA Club World Cup final

Mexican César Ramos has been appointed by FIFA to handle the final of 2017 FIFA Club World Cup, involving Real Madrid and Grêmio. Malang Diedhiou from Senegal will be in charge of Third Place's Game. 

UEFA Referee Categories for the second half of the season 2017/18 (Updated: Men, Women, Futsal)

Thank to our reader RayHD, (h_demboveac on Twitter)  these are the new categories for UEFA referees, valid from 01/01/2018 until 30/06/2018.  

Both English Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver have been promoted to Elite, while Andreas Ekberg from  Sweden has joined Category 1, replacing his countryman Stefan Johannesson, who retired from the list. We can expect more changes on next update, on June 2018.


Elite

Atkinson, Aytekin, Brych, Çakır, Collum, Eriksson, Fernández Borbalán, Hațegan, Karasov, Kassai, Královec, Kuipers, Makkelie, Marciniak, Mateu Lahoz, Mažić, Oliver*, Orsato, Rocchi, Sidirópoulos, Skomina, Taylor*, Turpin, Undiano Mallenco, Zwayer

Category 1

Aranovsʹkyy, Banti, Bastien, Beaton, Bebek, Bezborodov, Blom, Bognár, Boyko, Buquet, del Cerro Grande, Delférière, Drachta, Ekberg*, Estrada Fernández, Evans, Gestranius, Gil, Gil Manzano, Göçek, Gözübüyük, Gräfe, Grinfeld, Jug, Kehlet, Kovács, Kružliak, Kulbakou, Lechner, Liani, Madden, Mažeika, Mazzoleni, Moen, Nijhuis, Özkahya, Pisani, Raczkowski, Schörgenhofer, Soares Dias, Sousa, Stavrev, Stefański, Stieler, Strömbergsson, Treimanis, Vad, Vinčič, Welz, Yes'kov, Zelinka

Category 2

Abed**, Ağayev, Ardeleánu, Árnason, Attwell**, Avram, Bieri, Boucaut, Brisard**, Clancy, Colțescu, Dabanović, Dallas, Dankert, de Burgos Bengoetxea**, Delerue, Di Bello**, Dingert, Doveri**, Doyle, Farkas, Frankowski, Fritz, Guida, Hansen, Harkam, Hernández Hernández, Hunter, Irrati, Ivanov, Jaccottet, Jorgji, Jovanović, Jović, Kabakov, Kalkavan, Kalogerópoulos, Klossner, Komínis, Kráľovič, Kristoffersen, Kuchin, Lapochkin, Lardot, Letexier, Martins, Madley, Martínez Munuera, Massa, Mečkarovski, Meshkov, Miguel, Millot, Munukka, Nevalainen, Nilsen, Palabıyık, Pandžić, Pawson, Peljto, Petrescu, Popov, Rainville, Reinshreiber, Sánchez Martínez, Sant, Schärer, Schneider, Schüttengruber, Shmuelevitz, Siebert, Stoyanov, Tierney**, Tohver, Trattou, Tsynkevich, Tykgaard, Valeri, van Boekel, Vertenten, Xistra

Category 3

á Høvdanum**, Al-Hakim, Aliyev, Andó-Szabó, Anufrijevs, Apostolov, Aretópoulos, Atazhanov, Balakin, Baliyan, Banari, Barbeno, Barcelo, Branco Godinho, Burchardt, Chinkov**, Christofí**, Costa Veríssimo, Dimitríou, do Nascimento Teixeira, Đokić, Durieux, Eskås, Farrugia Cann, Feșnic, Frid**, Frischer, Găman, Glova, Golubevs, Griffith, Grujić**, Hagenes**, Hamiti**, Harvey, Həsənov, Hennessy, Higler, Hjaltalín, Hovhannisyan, Jäger**, Jakimovski, Jakubik, Järvinen, Kajtazovič**, Kaluđerović, Karakó, Karlsson**, Kasumi**, Kennedy, Kjærsgaard, Kopriwa, Kozyk**, Kristjánsson**, Kruashvili, Kryvonosov**, Kvirikashvili**, Laforge, Lambrechts, Levnikov, Lukjančukas, Maae, Mántalos, Marhefka, Markham-Jones, Marshall, Masiás, Matyunin, McLaughlin, McNabb, Meler, Milačić**, Muntean, Musiał, Nikolić, Nuza, Nyberg, Obrenovič, Očenáš, Orel, Pajač**, Papadópoulos**, Papapétrou, Papir, Paşayev, Pejin, Petrović**, Pires Martins**, Poulsen, Příhoda, Proske, Robertson, Romanov**, Rumšas, Saggi**, Sakhi, San, Santos Capela, Schnyder**, Šehović**, Shcharbakou, Shurman**, Silva Pinheiro, Steen, Strukan, Tarajev, Tean, Þórarinsson, Todorov, Troleis, Tschudi**, Ulusoy, Vadachkoria, Viljanen**, Vilkov, Visser, Walsh, Weinberger**, Xhaja**, Zammit, Zebec

* = Re-categorised
** = New on FIFA list

Here you can find the PDF documents with the new categories. Thank again to RayHD.

2017 FIFA Club World Cup - Referee Appointments

Appointments of match officials at 2017 FIFA Club World Cup, in United Arab Emirates.

2018 FIFA WC - Predictions About Match Officials - Results

These are the results of the polls about your predictions for WC 2018. 

Europa League 2017/18 - Referee Appointments - Matchday 6

UEFA Referees Committee has appointed the following officials to handle MD6 games of 2017/18 Europa League group stage. 

Champions League 2017/18 - Referee Appointments - Matchday 6 (II)

This is the last set of appointments for 2017-18 Champions League Group Stage, games to be played on 6 December 2017. 

Champions League 2017/18 - Referee Appointments - Matchday 6 (I)

The following officials have been appointed by UEFA Referees Committee to handle Tuesday's matches of Matchday 6 in 2017-18 Champions League Group Stage. 

2018 FIFA WC - Predictions About Match Officials - Make Your Choice

FIFA has released an early list of selected officials for WC 2018. They have attended a course in Adu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to prepare the WC. The list includes both main and reserve referees. Now it's your turn to make some choices.