After Fahad Al Mirdasi facts, another issue seems to have happened, about one of the officials selected for WC. Kenyan assistant referee Marwa Range is under focus this time.
According to some sources, but still without an official statement by FIFA, the assistant referee from Kenya, appointed as AR2 in Gassama's trio, has been implicated in a bribery scandal in which he was filmed receiving money. We will follow this vicissitude, giving you the updates, when available. The source also reports that assistant referee has been removed from WC officials.
FIFA has removed the name of the assistant referee from the official PDF:
FIFA.COM
FIFA has removed the name of the assistant referee from the official PDF:
FIFA.COM
Source:
Kenyans.co.ke
Imagine if FIFA had published the official trios, now they can do and they can manage it as they want.
ReplyDeleteHowever, let me say, shocking, we never experienced a WC in which a few days before the start, there wera already two officials removed...
FIFA is way too inconsistent.
ReplyDeleteBack in the old days, when something happened the whole trio would go home.
I remember back on 2006, Mejuto Gonzalez went home because 1 of his AR's failed the fitness test. They didn't replace the AR with another one or send 2 to a WC.
Unbelievable.
Would you send Gassama and Birumushahu home because of this now??
DeleteYes, definitely. Because it would be unfair for a referee who has been send home on previous WC editions to see another referee retained with his team changed.
DeleteIf one must be honest, it should be the same as it happened for Al Mirdasi's assistant referees, otherwise, it is something unfair.
DeleteProblem, as I already said, is that trios were not officially confirmed, so the Saudi trio was in a different situation than CAF officials, because they all three were from the same nation. Here the fact that the trio was Gassama - Birumushahu and Range was just an assumption, but FIFA can easily deny that.
In any case, the worst management ever.
In this situation, maybe they will not even make it public, about the removal of Kenyan assistant referee.
I understand... On consistency grounds definitely yes but on performance grounds absolutely no... FIFA has probably gone for the later!!
DeleteAll referee teams have gone through several years of preparation: refereeing FIFA matches, physical tests, a number of seminars. All as a team. You are appointed to the World Cup as a team, FIFA tells all the officials. Apparently not.
DeleteIn the Al-Mirdasi statement FIFA stated that this preparation principle was the reason they dropped his two assistant referees as well. It would therefore be inconsistent and unfair to apply a different standard to Gassama's team. The fact that Range is not Gambian is irrelevant to the level of preparation.
The fact that Range has been removed, while Gassama and Birumushahu have not seems to indicate that FIFA has already made a decision. FIFA will not want to send another referee home, especially the no.1 referee from CAF. There is of course an argument to be made that the Saudi ARs were only selected because Al-Mirdasi was selected, which is not the case with Gassama and Birumushahu. However, FIFA has acted in the opposite way in all similar cases before now.
In any case, I wonder how they will deal with the new team Gassama. Are they still the no.1 trio from CAF? I would imagine they will be appointed to a low-profile match on MD1.
The only saving grace is Etchiali is a highly experienced AR himself so it might end up boosting team Gassama but yes it's of course a disadvantage that the regular team is now broken... One line which I do find very logical is this : "There is of course an argument to be made that the Saudi ARs were only selected because Al-Mirdasi was selected..."
DeleteSorry, but how stupid can you be to ruin your World Cup for 600USD and you have guaranteed 20000 in Russia?
ReplyDeleteThat is the thing... He took the gift during January in the CHAN tournament... He even officiated in the final
DeleteI‘m sorry to use these words, but let me say that this a disaster. You cannot appoint a trio for games at a WC that NEVER worked together. Therefore, although I think FIFA does not care, Gassama should not get any game. I know, this would be very sad for him, but we may not ignore that the team’s performance will suffer if you have no time to get used to a new teammate. Harmony within the team is essential for a good performance. Mohamed‘s chances to officiate a game are rising...
ReplyDeleteYes you can. Remember 2002:D
DeleteYes, I remember :-) Football has changed and has become more professional. Of course there were good reasons to not rely on the mixed-team-principle any longer, too.
DeleteI may be wrong but Gassama has some experience working with Etchiali in CAF games some years ago... The ARs almost often changes in those games so basically every ref has worked with the ARs at some point :D
DeleteMohamed is a good referee here in AFC competitions almost all the times and him getting a game surely won't be undeserved... I can't see him getting more than one game this year, though!
DeleteLast time (2014) Lescano worked with Roldan on his second match without being used to work together.
Delete(I couldn’t say they never did since in Conmebol was usual to appoint Duos and not trios some years ago, but still)
According to some sources, it seems as it was a deliberate action by the same AR to resign as WC official.
ReplyDeleteAlso in this case, things are not clear at all.
Does that explain the no statement by FIFA on removal of Range??
DeleteMy feeling is that FIFA forced him to resign rather than it being Range's call, it would be too much for them to admit to two referees admitting to match fixing. In statements now they can just refer to his resignation, without the clear reason why.
DeleteA huge worry for CAF, overshadowing the two rejected bribes including by Victor Gomes in recent times which was such a good news for them.
The problem is that Gassama is the big hope of CAF, and the only referee on paper with chances to make sth big in Russia. Looking through his palmares at AFCON, I would guess Achik (MAR) or Ahmed (SUD) is most likely to replace Range but it would be de facto impossible to make a good knowledge.
Refereeing at this WC is set up to be the biggest disaster since at least 2002, even before the first whistle is blown (hopefully by Ricci as he will be my prediction :-D).
I am convinced that any referee who has even a couple of performances with a really positive medial echo, could attend a Semifinal or so, even without having a high number of credits within FIFA RefCom (with all respect, eg Turpin, Cunha, Sato, Ramos Palazuelos et al.)
Achik and Ahmed are in Grisha's team and since Grisha will have games in the middle I don't think the trio will be broken... Charef's ARs that is Etchiali or Hmila are the most likely to be drafted in IMO
DeleteIn this tournament we do have some extremely experienced referees from all the confederations... If all of them go free from controversies and doesn't generate much negative medial attention then it will be all those names for the later stages and to be fair we have plenty of such big names this time!
Would it not be an obvious solution to let Charef/Etchiali/Hmila work together on the pitch now (if that was not planned anyway)? Charef is maybe not so experienced on international level, but at least he is coming from one of the strongest domestic leagues in CAF. And I don't remember anything particularly bad from his FIFA tournaments.
DeleteAnd Gassama could be only 4th (and maybe AVAR) then.
Charef is a talent for sure but I'm not sure if he is ready for the big step yet... But what you say is indeed possible!! Gassama can be a VAR for the likes of Turpin, Diedhiou and so on!!
DeleteToday is June 7
ReplyDeleteOn 7 June 2014 FIFA published team and referees profiles on Youtube. Can we expect that this year too?
This time it's already released in the form of a PDF two days back :)
DeleteLink?
Deletehttps://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/statistical-kit-referees.pdf?cloudid=vkt8rnt7f87o4uq56cww
DeleteWow I had missed this release, thank you Soham.
DeleteI gave a first look... well, Brych could have smiled, his face is really worrying, if you ask me. :(
Don't be sad :D He is just trying to look serious and strict :D
DeleteFor smiles have a look at Cakir :D
Thank you Soham
DeleteAppointments for UEFA Zone, FIFA Women's WC Qualifiers can be found here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.uefa.com/womensworldcup/season=2019/matches/index.html
Vitulano, Hussein, Monzul and Larsson in action over the next couple of days amongst others
Just saw that Skomina knows Serbian lang. Heard that Kuipers will be Mazics VAR but why not Skomina since he knows serbian language?
ReplyDeleteWhere did you see this thing that Kuipers will be Mazic's VAR?? Any link??
DeleteWhat are the other pairings??
DeleteSerbian referee expert Dejan Nedic said that when EL final was ongoing.
DeleteMaybe just a guess or something!
DeleteWell, Nedic repeated it several times on national TV station. I don't think he only guesses, I believe he has information directly from Mazic.
DeleteAbout Skomina - 0f course that he knows Serbian and Croatian. Both Mazic and Skomina could and should say that they know Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin (those are almost the same languages) and understand Macedonian - that's good for their CV :-)
https://internationalreferee.blogspot.com/2018/06/curiosidad-estadistica.html
ReplyDeleteInteresting analysis on Arbitro Internacional with a statistic study on the different tendency to YC, RC, fouls etc in the different continents. The analysis is limited to all central referees attending the world cup over their latest 4 years, if I understood correctly.
I think that everyone that can read Spanish decently should have a look.
However, I must say I really don't get how CONMEBOL referees can have overall a lower RC average than UEFA when almost all of them (especially Ricci and Roldan) have a higher RC rate per match than UEFA ones.
I explain myself:
DeleteThe analysis is not only from the last 4 years, it takes all the FIFA tournaments the referees participated in.
BUT it ONLY takes the FIFA tournaments and not the continental ones, that’s why there’s a low average on cards issued by Conmebol refs.
Furthermore, there comes something to light I liked a lot: It statistically prooves that some referees have to adapt themselves to FIFA tournaments and change completely their styles and that could be a performance issue FIFA has not taken into consideration or simply it did not matter to them.
This last paragraph heavily applies for Roldan I think đŸ¤”
DeleteAnd that there is where FIFA's Ref Com strategy is completely misdirected and wrong. Referee's are evaluated and chosen mainly based on their performances in their domestic league and their confederation competitions. Yet FIFA tries to fix something that isn't broken and tries to reinvent the wheel by having referee's change their style. And then FIFA is on such a high level of delusion. That they are shocked and/or surprised when referee's struggle in FIFA competitions.
DeleteThe Ref Com should do the their homework and do the difficult work of assigning referee's to matches based on the style that most fits the match. Just like no two referee's look completely alike. No two referee's should be forced to officiate in the exact same manner.
Indeed the part that I missed was that the analysis only considers FIFA games. This is crucial to understand the results.
DeleteThanks for the clarification and sorry for any confusion I might have created
Fair and consistent. Two words that have nothing to do with the FIFA Referee Committee since Busacca has been in charge.
ReplyDeletePoor referee management and selection.
Poor match designations.
Inconsistent, unfair, selective enforcement of punitive actions.
Complete lack of transparency.
Implementation and demand of an utterly wrong/dangerous type of officiating.
Zero accountability.
No acceptance or admission of ever being at fault or of mistakes.
The only thing at which Busacca has excelled at is in his use of his endless list of excuses.
With all this said. Gassama should be going hime much like Al-Mirdasi's AR's went home. You're a trio not 3 individuals. If one fails, they all fail. You're only as strong as your weakest link. Yes I'm a huge supporter of CONCACAF referee's. But Joel Aguilar should also be at home. As one of his AR's failed a fitness test.
If a head ref fails they all fail. The head ref is the teams leader. If an assistant fails you can replace him...
DeleteI disagree. They were selected as a trio as a team not as individual pieces. It's about them being a team and not having individualistic mentality. One piece of the puzzle is just as important as the other two.
DeleteOT: While FIFA and it's referee committee remain in the stone age and insist on complete secrecy. The NBA continues to take the lead in innovating and new ways to make the jobs of it's referee's more transparent.
ReplyDeletewww.usatoday.com/story/sports/ftw/2018/06/06/best-of-luck-to-the-nba-referees-who-are-livetweeting-game-3-of-the-finals/111172154/
But here we sit. with three cases of referee's who were either pre-selected or selected for the World Cup .That have been involved in match fixing, bribe taking or bribe asking. And yet the complete silence from Busacca and Co is deafening. They have once in a lifetime opportunity to publicly come out and say that the Committee has found the cases and cut them in the bud and that they have gotten rid of the few bad apples.
NBA refereeing is a joke. Watch finals and have a laught.
DeleteMove on you to make a generalized comment like that without actually explaining your reasoning.
DeleteFurthermore, it's no worse than what we saw this season in the UCL.
Only difference is that the NBA is a lot more transparent in its evaluation and criticism of their Referee's and the calls they make.
NBA refereeing is a real joke, I can confirm that. For example: basketball player can make 2 steps the most - if he makes 3, it is called travel. But, you have lot of examples where players made not 3, not 4, not 5, but 6,7,8 even NINE and TEN steps and THREE refs didn't see that!!! Something like that can never happened in Europe. See compilations I posted. Also - fouls. There are so, so many times that refs didn't see such a blatant fouls, that would be for YC in football or for 2 minutes exclusion in handball.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJvEwWZhZTk
Because football referee crews with AAR's and VAR always spot every infraction and always get it right. What I'm saying is that the NBA I unlike world football is quite transparent in regards to evaluating it's referees and keeping it's fans informed and educated. FIFA bunkers down, demands utter secrecy, and hopes that everything is simply forget by it's fans.
DeleteNo doubt that all regretsr in all forms of setsp miss calls. However a bit of transparency from it's respective referee committee goes a long way in appeasing their fan base.
According to some sources, also the Gambian FIFA assistant referee Ebrima Jallow has been filmed while accepting a bribe from an "investigator" journalist, who would then play the role of "provocative agent" to raise the case and condemn this type of behavior.
ReplyDeletehttps://freedomnewspaper.com/2018/06/08/gambia-gambian-fifa-referee-ebrima-jallow-allegedly-receives-600-from-an-investigative-journalist/
OT
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YUtt02CrhI
Italy - Portugal Women WC qualifiers
28:20 video minute
Goal?
To my point of view, ball didn`t cross the line fully after the first kick and after the knocking out of portuguese.
Deletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44354819
ReplyDeleteA nice article featuring the First Assistant in Matthew Conger's trio, Simon Lount.
Madrid
ReplyDeleteEven by usual standards, that is an even more particularly interesting insight from you :-D
DeleteThis time I give up as well. Impossible to make any interpretation...
DeleteI can't decipher anything but I'm so relieved and happy that Alberto is back after many days :D
DeleteMaybe he wanted to ask about Super Cup between (Real vs AtlĂ©tico) Madrid.. đŸ¤”đŸ˜ƒ
Delete@Alberto MONTERO PEREZ
DeleteI fully share your opinion.
@DrMr Any news about Mazic appointments in the World Cup that you might have managed?
DeleteMadrid's water sucks, as well as its heavy and chaotic traffic.
Delete@Soham
DeleteI think that only mr Bussacca knows that.
And Collina :D
DeleteVAR system easily explained:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/YdwOL08NfxQ
We can hope for great transperency. If it all works, this would be a success for everyone.
OT : Gehad Grisha has his birthday on 29 February 1976... So when does his age technically increase in the non leap years?? 28 February or 1 March??
ReplyDeleteYou can be born on 29 February but it cant be registered. Its either 28 february or 1 march.
DeleteFor Grisha it's registered as 29 February!!
DeleteWhy it couldn't be registered? It's a legal nonsense what you're saying.
DeleteMaybe that's different in different countries... But since my birthday is on the 28th (so I looked it up, to prevent questions) I think I know something about it. It can be registered, one ages anyway and can choose at which date one celebrates it. But if it's a non-29 year, I ssppose one ages at march 1.
DeleteSo he gets older every second year?
DeleteHe gets older every leap year (4years)
Delete@Andreja Grisha is currently listed as 42 years old which means that is not the case... If he got older every leap year then 42 years wouldn't have been possible :)
Delete@Soham, of course he gets older every year but having birthday on 29 February he gets offically older every 4th year, when there is a leap year. Otherwise it would be odd to have a referee in the age of 10.5 years at the WC :-)
ReplyDeleteHaha for sure :D :D
DeleteBribery: CAF disgraces Kenyan referee,(Aden Marwa) bans him for life
ReplyDeleteA Kenyan referee who had been due to officiate at the ongoing World Cup in Russia has been handed a life ban after being caught in a bribery sting in an expose aired by British broadcaster BBC in June.
See the full list of the disgraced officials @ CAF disgraces Kenyan referee,(Aden Marwa) bans him for life