Group A
Baku, 12 June 2021 15:00 CET
WALES - SWITZERLAND
Referee: Clément Turpin (FRA)Assistant Referee 1: Nicolas Danos (FRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Cyril Gringore (FRA)
Fourth Official: Srđan Jovanović (SRB)
Fifth Official: Uroš Stojković (SRB)
Video Assistant Referee: François Letexier (FRA)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 1: Jérôme Brisard (FRA)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 2: Benjamin Pagès (FRA)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 3: Pawel Gil (POL)
UEFA Referee Observer: Nikolai Levnikov (RUS)
UEFA Delegate: Irakli Nakaidze (GEO)
Group B
Copenhagen, 12 June 2021 18:00 CET
Copenhagen, 12 June 2021 18:00 CET
DENMARK - FINLAND
Referee: Anthony Taylor (ENG)Assistant Referee 1: Gary Beswick (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Adam Nunn (ENG)
Fourth Official: Sandro Schärer (SUI)
Fifth Official: Stéphane De Almeida (SUI)
Video Assistant Referee: Stuart Attwell (ENG)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 1: Christopher Kavanagh (ENG)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 2: Filippo Meli (ITA)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 3: Marco Di Bello (ITA)
UEFA Referee Observer: Bo Karlsson (SWE)
UEFA Delegate: Jovan Šurbatović (SRB)
Group B
St. Petersburg, 12 June 2021 21:00 CET
St. Petersburg, 12 June 2021 21:00 CET
BELGIUM - RUSSIA
Referee: Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz (ESP)Assistant Referee 1: Pau Cebrián Devis (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: Roberto Díaz Pérez Del Palomar (ESP)
Fourth Official: Fernando Andrés Rapallini (ARG)
Fifth Official: Juan Pablo Belatti (ARG)
Video Assistant Referee: Alejandro José Hernández Hernández (ESP)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 1: João Pinheiro (POR)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 2: Iñigo Prieto López de Cerain (ESP)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 3: Juan Martínez Munuera (ESP)
UEFA Referee Observer: Pascal Garibian (FRA)
UEFA Delegate: Artur Azaryan (ARM)
All big names for these games, surely not a coincidence, we can see that some games could have offered different solutions to committee, but we have already Mateu, Taylor and Turpin, three big guns, after Makkelie. Committee wants to see an excellent start of the tournament.
ReplyDeleteRapallini is the first referee, originally appointed to handle games, to start only as fourth official. We will see the next appointments.
I agree with you, as in 2018 strong names to ensure a strong start for the tournament. I do think that the matches themselves merit these names as well, WAL-SUI has two middle-ranked teams who might be expected to fight for qualification and Belgium-Russia features two top teams who will want to get off to a good start. Perhaps DEN-FIN can be more football-focused due to Scandinavian mentality, but it is a derby and we may expect a lot of physical play. I also remember Moen making a mess of ISL-FIN in 2016. All in all, sensible appointments I would say.
DeleteAnyone care to speculate what these appointments mean for the final? ;-)
I think they learnt well from Svein Oddvar Moen's pretty disastrous performance in WALSVK on the first Saturday of EURO 2016 - you risk much more than you can gain by such appointments.
DeleteI'd guess also no risks for Sunday's matches, but in the midweek (early) games, it becomes a bit easier.
UEFA had some time to prepare the appointments for these opening weekend games, and I think that shows with these smart choices for the three matches.
ReplyDeleteIt's sensible that UEFA selected three big names for these games - the primacy effect and having a strong start to the competition for the officials is very important, even if perhaps the matches themselves aren't all the most sonorous going.
All three work quite well IMO:
- Turpin for a potentially challenging, combative game suits
- Taylor, an Englishman, for a Nordic derby makes sense
- Mateu can facilitate a nice football match in BELRUS
Personally, I might have waited into later in the competition for appointing the Spaniard after his visibly emotional CL final, time to recover, but Rosetti and his team know the referees current conditions, physical and mental, better than I.
Yes; it's clear that Uefa doesn't want any risk at the beginning of the tournaments and put the referees that, on the paper, will not make mistakes. Best wishes to all. Belgium- Russia will have a full spanish language team: very great choice
ReplyDelete"Belgium- Russia will have a full spanish language team: very great choice". Maybe you should pay more attention to the appointment. João Pinheiro is Portuguese.
DeleteI am very proud because out of MD1 so far I have correctly predicted António Mateu Lahoz for Belgium vs Russia.
ReplyDeleteI also predicted Oliver for Denmark vs Finland so unfortunate that it is the other Englishman who gets it!
Are referee teams ‘together’ for this tournament or just travelling from their own base? In previous one nation tournament finals, all referees are under one roof. Just curious what the set up this time, and will it benefit or be otherwise if they are not all together.
ReplyDeleteYes in Turkey they are accommodated. Referees wil travel from there to the matches.
DeleteAre they actually in Turkey, as initially planned, or moved to Switzerland?
DeleteI wonder, whether this could also mean, that some of the big names get 3 GS matches.
ReplyDeleteE.g., Turpin getting NED-AUT and SWE-POL or Mateu getting ENG-SCO and POR-FRA would still allow plenty of rest days in between.
And maybe there are more than 2 referees in the squad, whom UEFA would rather only give one match...
OT: Copa America MD1 predictions (as it is still not cancelled...)
ReplyDeleteBRA-VEN: Vargas (BOL) - Tobar (CHI) - Lopez (PAR), de Burgos (ESP)
COL-ECU: Aquino (PAR) - Hermosilla (CHI) - Benitez (PAR), Munuera (ESP)
ARG-CHI: Roldan (COL) - Gil Manzano (ESP) - Ospina (COL), Soto (VEN)
PAR-BOL: Guerrero - Aragon (both ECU) - Reway, Traci (both BRA)
Can somebody explain me what the task is of the 5th official?
ReplyDeleteReplacing an assistant referee if injured.
DeleteMy predictions were all wrong...what a good start! Lahoz for BEL RUS makes sense, I would have give SUI WAL and DAN FIN to some other names considering the "low" importance of the games. Now in case of bad performances for these medium level games you risk to delete some of the big names for the hot games coming up in the next weeks
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of other top referees that would be able to do the big games over the next few days like Kuipers or Brych and there is plenty of rest time for say Lahoz to get England vs Scotland or Portugal vs Germany because that would be 6 or 7 days rest time which should be enough
DeleteI am not really buying into the big guns starting the tournament........ this are referees that where brought to officiate at the Euros and that is exactly what they are doing... the so less big guns in your opinions will still officiate a game wether it be beginning, middle or end and if they are to produce substandard performances, it will still happen, besides the last leaves the long lasting memory. The game that mattered is the first game and for the remaining games, Rossetti and Co are just appointing their referees to games and not thinking the big gun mentality, because in my opinion when is the right time to actually have a sense of satisfaction that the tournament has been started in the best possible way and they can actually relax on who Dey appoint, well the answer is an emphatic NONE, there is no time for that. It’s a sprint till the end of the tournament and let’s stop over thinking the essence of some set of appointments as not compromising because it’s not as if Lahoz or Turpin where not selected for the Tournament and they had to call them to come and officiate so the tournament can start good, that’s not the case they where called up for this very purpose and that is what they are gonna do. The games that are more significant if we are indeed to put a scale on this matches are the opening, the Finals and heave weight games like France vs Germany or England vs Scotland
ReplyDeleteUnusual VAR team mixing Englishmen and Italians. Is it the first time that Italian referees work alongside English ones?
ReplyDeleteProbably yes.
DeleteBut something like this is hard to avoid with no other native English speakers among the VARs.
Except Betts, who one might have expected instead of Meli.
Wales-Switzerland can be very intense and Belgium-Russia is eye-catching, so it is reasonable to appoint big names in these two. I am a bit surprised to see Taylor in Denmark-Finland as I expected to see relatively young faces, such as Grinfield and Kovacs
ReplyDeleteAbout Taylor, we should add that his recent form, especially shown in his last EL game, isn't definitely the best one.
DeleteBefore a big assignment he needs to recover, so I read this choice by committee also in this way. Appointing a big name, but giving him a test before something more. Wales - Switzerland and Belgium - Russia are clearly more sonorous games.
Indeed, that makes sense.
DeleteImportant to start with safe pairs of hands. Predictions for Sunday.
ReplyDeleteEngland-Croatia: BRYCH Felix (ger)
Austria-Northern Macedonia: DEL CERRO Carlos (esp)
Netherlands-Ukraine: ORSATO Daniele (ita)
OT: Brazil - France (Said Belqola) is today's final match from FIFA World Cup 1998.
ReplyDeleteI hope everyone that followed us enjoyed our coverage of WC 1998; bring on the EURO!
wc98refs.blogspot.com
DeleteBrilliant job, thank you, Mikael.
DeleteVery good analysis. Thank you. Cannot wait for your analysis on Codesal's controversial WC90 final! :)
DeleteUEFA not messing around in the first few days, we already have four referees out of their top 7 or 8.
ReplyDeleteI think this means without a shadow of a doubt it will be Orsato for FRA-GER, the last game of matchday 1. Brych is obviously out, Lahoz/Taylor/Makkelie have already been assigned, and I think Kuipers will be kept away from France at least for now after the UCL semifinal.
And, like another commenter, I wonder if we will see any referees with three group stage matches. Will be interesting to see how the rest of MD1 shapes out and if any of the "lower-tier" referees are selected.
What's Fifth official for???
ReplyDeleteIn normal matches the 4th official is seen as an eventual substitute for a referee, but he also has to substitute an AR in case of injury.
Delete5th officials enables injured ARs to be replaced by a specialist in the role. They have been a thing in World Cups and EURO since 2006 and 2008 respectively (even when in 2012 and 2016 EURO had AAAs there was also a reserve AR in every match)