Selected officials for 2021 CWC, to be played in United Arab Emirates from 3 to 12 February 2022. This is the last FIFA tournament before 2022 World Cup.
AFC:
Referee: Christopher Beath (AUS)
Assistant Referees: Anton Shchetinin (AUS), Ashley Beecham (AUS)
Assistant Referees: Anton Shchetinin (AUS), Ashley Beecham (AUS)
VAR: Ammar Aljeneibi (UAE)
CAF:
CONCACAF:
Referee: César Arturo Ramos Palazuelos (MEX)
Assistant Referees: Alberto Morín Méndez (MEX), Miguel Ángel Hernández Paredes (MEX)
CONMEBOL:
Referee: Fernando Rapallini (ARG)
Assistant Referees: Juan Pablo Belatti (ARG), Diego Bonfá (ARG)
Referee: Clément Turpin (FRA)
Assistant Referees: Nicolas Danos (FRA), Cyril Gringore (FRA)
Referee: Mustapha Ghorbal (ALG)
Assistant Referees: Mokrane Gourari (ALG), Abdelhak Etchiali (ALG)
Assistant Referees: Mokrane Gourari (ALG), Abdelhak Etchiali (ALG)
VAR: /
Referee: César Arturo Ramos Palazuelos (MEX)
Assistant Referees: Alberto Morín Méndez (MEX), Miguel Ángel Hernández Paredes (MEX)
VAR: Drew Fischer (CAN)
CONMEBOL:
Referee: Fernando Rapallini (ARG)
Assistant Referees: Juan Pablo Belatti (ARG), Diego Bonfá (ARG)
VAR: Mauro Vigliano ARG), Nicolas Gallo (COL)
UEFA:
Referee: Clément Turpin (FRA)
Assistant Referees: Nicolas Danos (FRA), Cyril Gringore (FRA)
VAR: Willy Delajod (FRA), Massimiliano Irrati (ITA), Pol van Boekel (NED)
Support Referee (OFC):
David Yareboinen (PNG)
How shall we read Turpin's appointment? As a top UEFA referee or as a trial by FIFA after an unsuccessful Euro?
ReplyDeleteI think both of them but especially the first one - Top UEFA referee.
DeleteA good UEFA referee that needs to be tested and gain experience in challenging games that include different cultures and tempers.
DeleteA very good European referee that needs to gain some more experience at the top international competitions and FCWC will do that for him.
DeleteInternational Friendly
ReplyDelete18/01/2022
Moldova - Uganda
Referee: Melis Özçiğdem (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Betül Nur Yılmaz (TUR)
Assistant Referee2: Sedef Aktan (TUR)
Fourth Official: Neslihan Muratdağı (TUR)
What's the point of assigning Cesar Ramos?
ReplyDeleteFIFA and CONCACAF both know what he offers and what they have in him.
Minor tournaments like this should be used to try out new talented/promising referees in an International competition.
Once again OFC referees get screwed over by the FIFA Ref Comm. Unless you're from New Zealand, what's the point of becoming a FIFA Referee/AR in Oceania. You'll never get an opportunity outside of your confederation.
It is simply Ramos' turn to be seen after his Concacaf competitors were already seen at previous tournaments (Olympics, CWC 2019 and 2020 or Arab Cup).
DeleteRamos and Turpin seem like the odd ones out here to me. Beath, Ghorbal, and Rapallini are each the most on-form referees in their respective confederations at the moment. Meanwhile Ramos has promising challengers from his own country trying to unseat him, and Turpin is on actually somewhat poor form. I think this tournament is quite important for those two; they need to show that they are the right men for the job for when the World Cup comes around in 10 months.
ReplyDeleteAlternatively, maybe FIFA likes Turpin and Ramos a lot more than we think they do and views them in the same echelon as Beath, Ghorbal, and Rapallini!
Turpin’s appointment is quite understandable. As a French, he is obviously going to the WC 2022 and considered to be (at least) top 5-8 of Europe right now.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand he had an unsuccessful WC 2018 and EURO 2020. So far, he is not showing his best on the big tournements.
Furthermore, he has an opportunity to get to know other cultures and improve his player management skills. Being the ‘distanced ref’ is not always gonna work on a World Cup, if you ask me.
Can't agree about WC2018. He was going to have only one game and managed to obtain two on group stage. The second one was satisfactory as well, but not enough for KO, which is understandable and would not be satisfactory for 2022
DeleteEuro 2020 agree for sure
OT
ReplyDeleteWhich referees are potentially used for a South-American clash on the World Cup?
At first I want to underline, as somebody already did also in past on the blog, that OFC confederation seems to have lost most of its reasons to exist. That's surely very sad. The problem seems to be that all competitions inside Oceania are mostly suspended for a long time due to COVID reasons and this doesn't help referees. Outside New Zealand is very difficult to find decent names for a WC preselection.
ReplyDeleteThe man from Papua New Guina will be surely very happy to work just as support referee, as it was mostly for Hauata, who in my opinion however could have deserved more.
Having said that, in my opinion the key factor for all the selected referees is the fact that they are mostly big names in their confederations. We can't discuss about Turpin in UEFA, as well as about Ramos as CONCACAF strong name. To be honest, I don't like the Mexican but FIFA has a different idea. Also, let's add again that maybe he was not the first choice, as originally Iván Barton from El Salvador had been reported as selected for this tournament.
Then, Ghorbal: I think nothing to add, at moment in my opinion among the strongest CAF names, and maybe for FIFA the strongest CAF name inside the preselected pool of African referees. He will have to renounce to AFCON final because selected for this tournament, this is a big unlucky because he would have been among the first candidates.
However for surely FIFA has big plans and I would say he is at moment also a candidate for CWC final in case of some circumstances.
Rapallini must be considered as the heir of Pitana, nothing to add, he had an excellent EURO and I think in this way he gained big credit under the eyes of Collina and FIFA.
Finally, Beath: I must be honest, he is the referee I know less than all ther other names, and I don't know how much he can be a very top. I need to watch more of him, at moment among the selected names I would say he is the one with least credit, but I can be wrong.
AFC is in a particular situation, differently from other confederations. The very strong names are only a few ones, first of all Faghani.
About VARs, the fact that there aren't officials from CAF could be related to AFCON, maybe FIFA didn't want to ask more CAF, after having selectd Ghorbal, at least they have decided to leave all the VAR in Cameroon until the end of tournament. UEFA is always the most trusted confederation for this role, and then CONMEBOL to follow with a special mention for Gallo.
@OFC: Probably it's already decided, that Conger will be their referee in Qatar. And as he already was tested at the Olympics and the Arab Cup and already took part in 3 CWCs, another nomination would not be that useful. And any other OFC referee would just take away a match from someone with a realistic WC chance.
Delete@CONCACAF: I thought, Barton might have been pulled back, because they need him in WC qualifiers. But now I have seen, that Ramos himself is appointed for CAN-USA on the 30th. So there should be another reason.
@Beath: He had the Olympic final, so he should be highly regarded by FIFA.
So I think, the 5 referees are on a similar level, which makes hard to predict someone for the final.
But Ghorbal could indeed have decent chances, if it's an argument against Beath and Ramos, that they already had the Olympic final resp. a previous CWC final. Especially, if the final is Chelsea-Palmeiras.
If you want to know a hint of where Beath sits in status simply look at some of the Olympic Final Referees from the last few tournaments.
Delete2008 - Victor Kassai - 2010 World Cup Semi Final + 2011 UCL Final
2012 - Mark Clattenburg - Howard Webb ahead of him for 2014 World Cup but 2016 Euro and UCL Final
2016 - Alireza Faghani (Who now referees with Beath in Australia) - 2018 World Cup 3v4 play-off. He also did the Asian Cup and CWC Finals in 2015.
2021 - Chris Beath - ? We shall see how he goes but he's in great company and there are high hopes for him.
Philipp S, where did you see Ramos appointed for CAN-USA? That match is scheduled for 30 January, while Ramos should be in UAE on 27 January. Maybe now will see Barton on that game?
DeletePleas, guys can anybody tell me does is Bussaca still head in Fifa, or it is Collina now?Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteCollina: chairman of the FIFA referees committee
DeleteBusacca: Head of FIFA Refereeing Development
They work together, very difficult to say more about their effective duties.
Ok, but who appoint referees in Fifa now?
DeleteBoth, and a few more people, this is not something that should be done by just one person, it's a committee that talks and comes to a consensus.
DeleteI'm astonished or I missed something. I was aware that the referee selected from CONCACAF was Ivan Barton not Ramos Palanzuoela. Was it a fake news or Barton has been replaced ? In the latter case do you know why he has been excluded. It's a pity, I like Barton and i guess that he will become a strong name.
ReplyDeleteConcerning OFC, I'm very sad and disappointed but it since a long time that I'm sustaining, as Chefren said, that there is no reason to be an autonomous confederation. No reason to exist neither for teams nor for refereeing. Covid didn't help it due to long lockdown and suspension but even before the referees chosen form that confederation were always very limited. I can't understand why its' not merged into an other confederation; for example New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, can follow Australia and join AFC, while all the other countries in the Pacific can join CONCACAF in a common region called AMERICA and PACIFIC, Logistically and geographically could be suitable and I don't see political conflicts. Globally there are only 9 FIFA referees belonging to OFC:
HOPKEEN (Vanuatu), CONGER, WALDROM and KAWANA-W (New Zealand), LACOUR (New Caledonia), YAREBOINEN (Papua NG), HAUATA & ZITOUINI (Tahiti) TIME (Solomon Island), while Tonga, Fiji and Cook Island don't have any international referees. Nobody of them is in tile to act as VAR or VMO.
I'm suspecting that the WC qualification mini tournament will be officiated by AFC referees due also to the location (Qatar); it's a pity. Nevermind I guess that Yareboinen will be so happy to be at CWC only as IV official. Good luck to him and enjoy it !!!!!
No Big surprises from teh other confederations: Turpin fully deserves it and I'm happy to see an aussie for AFC because I feel a bias with special treatment To Arabin officials (UAE, Qatar, Arabia etc)
About Iván Barton, as I wrote, he had been announced by the same CONCACAF source that announced Ramos a few days ago, so very likely FIFA changed the appointment. We can't know the reasons, I asked but no answers so far. I would have liked to see him indeed, instead of Ramos.
DeleteI see that some federations are now releasing as news the FIFA refereeing panels for 2022, so indeed the process before publication on FIFA site is taking a very long time for this reason, I don't know why this was not made before the end of the year, as it should be.
ReplyDeleteIn past years, FIFA was working definitely better.
The handwringing over the OFC confederation on this site never ceases to amaze me.
ReplyDeleteThe population of the entire confederation is about 15M people. In other words, the entire population of OFC is somewhere between the population of the Netherlands and Belgium. To go outside Europe, it's somewhere between Senegal and Zambia.
OFC is a confederation for logistical reasons. Outside New Zealand, the nations are largely impoverished. Travel is challenging and costly. Geographic concerns require that OFC is its own entity. The idea, floated above, that the island nations of the Pacific could join CONCACAF is one of the most insane football-related proposals I've ever seen. Tuvalu traveling to play Antigua and Barbuda--and vice versa? The suggestion shows not only no appreciation for the economics, but no understanding of geography and distances. Suva, Fiji to Ottawa, Canada is 12,600 km by air. Those are two of the more developed locales in each area and I can guarantee you right now you're not getting from one to the other without at least three flights.
Regardless... insofar as referee matters go, why does anyone care that OFC referees have a minimal chance to make it at the top? It's no less fair than many other realities that are hiding in plain sight. I mean, each edition there are at least a dozen CAF countries with populations over 20M that don't get a referee at the WC... is that unfair?
In other words, why does there have to be a quota for OFC referees just because OFC is an entity? It doesn't exist for refereeing purposes. It exists for political and geographic and economic purposes.
And, let's be brutally honest... we are watching now some pretty sub-standard refereeing in Africa (and have seen it in CONCACAF, too). Sure, an OFC official here and there might pass the eye test at a FIFA tournament. That doesn't mean we should extrapolate that they are actually elite or the standard of overall refereeing is high. The types of matches being officiated in OFC on a weekly basis are on par with mid-level amateur football AT BEST in Europe and the Americas. In addition to the people reading this site who officiate professionally, I would suggest that everyone here has officiated matches at a level on par with what a FIFA referee in OFC seems normally.
I could go on, but I'll stop there. I just don't get the fascination with OFC by some. It is bizarre.
FIFA World Cup is called World Cup not because it is a competition of world's elite teams, but because it is open to all confederations around the world.
DeleteUsaref, your message sounds to me racist.
DeleteTalk about not even engaging on the merits of the discussion. At what point did I say that the World Cup is only a competition of the world's elite teams? But, now that you mention it... everyone can qualify. You don't want the final 32 (and soon to be 48) being, at least in part, "elite?" That's odd. Plus we've been talking about referees, not teams. Do you want "non-elite" referees at the World Cup in order to fill a quota?
DeleteAnyway, the fundamental questions are WHY are there six confederations and must they be treated equally? The obvious answers should be 1) politics/geography and 2) no.
If CONCACAF divided into three regions, would you mandate that a Caribbean referee and team always go to the World Cup?
If UEFA divided into 5 regional confederations, how would we then allott referees?
If Iberia became its own confederation, with a population of nearly 60M, would Spain, Portugal and Andorra compete for 2 spots every tournament?
India has almost a billion people. How many times has it particpated in the World Cup and how often does it send a referee to the World Cup?
Again, this is a bizarre, myopic focus. Oceania has 15M people and the VAST majority of them are from New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Do you know what percentage of the world we are talking about? If OFC nations need special rights and considerations, then a whole lot of other nations and peoples need them, too.
OFC exists as a political and geographic entity out of necessity. For it to follow that OFC needs a referee at FIFA tournaments as a matter of course is some galaxy-brain sort of logic. Particularly when we spend so much time critiquing the performances referees from all the other confederations.
I'd like to add sth to usaref's comment about this specific case - Yareboinen's appointment to this tournament is nothing other than a complete joke.
DeleteI'd invite you to watch the sequence from the video below, beginning at 35:50 on the player (22'), from a match in September 2020 in the PNG domestic competition:
https://www.facebook.com/emtvsports/videos/320697085808806
The entire world is talking about equality, diversity and inclusion and football (including refereeing) is part of it.
DeleteAnd you think having an OFC referee at the World Cup over an Indian or Chinese referee constitutes "equality, diversity and inclusion?!?!?!"
DeleteAgain, WHY does the OFC need to be on par with the other entitities? Those confederations are political creations of FIFA. They are not reflective of any else other than geography.
Oh, and you don't--or shouldn't--promote DEI issues at the expense of quality and/or ignoring ability. Particularly in a competitive sport at the highest level. Otherwise, why does this blog even exist? Let's just do a lottery for referees in each confederation, make sure there's a good mix of races and genders, and just let the chips fall as they may. What could go wrong?
Just honest about this match: if I look at an average 5th level match in the Netherlands (the lowest national leven in The Netherlands), you see referees who act stronger and better football. Not giving a red card for this behavior is simply ridiculous.
DeleteWhat I don't get is what happened to Hauata and Zitouni? At least they have experience. Honestly, I must not think about a situation in which this referee (with all respect, because I've read some interviews with him and I believe he is very motivated and a good referee in his country) has to take over a match if the referee is injured. Remember that Hauata was fourth official at Nigeria - Argentina?
Interesting discussion. What would be your solution? Looking at the amount of inhabitants isn't key. India for example - correct me if I'm wrong but the Indian people I know are not really into football. More cricket-minded.
DeleteBut yes, it is weird that OFC has special rights if for example a Group 2 referee from Europe has better qualities. IMO quality should be the most important when the WC spots are divided.
In lieu of this discussion, perhaps now is a good moment to reflect on the contribution of OFC officials to the World Cup in modern times (I can't comment on anything from the 70s and earlier):
Delete1982 - Tony Boskovic (AUS) was one of seven officials from the 41-strong refs squad to have been rejected by FIFA after their performances in the first stage match(es).
1986 - FIFA liked Aussie Chris Bambridge, he received their U17 WC final in '85 and was then called upon to ref the big Brazil vs. Spain game on Day2 of the WC; the game was going well for Bambridge when he and his American linesman Socha faced an unfortunate ghost goal incident.
After that, the Australian referee panicked a bit and somewhat spoiled his previous very good impression in the rest of the match; however, he was quite a good linesman (especially regarding working as a team member, eye contact etc.) and reached the QFs in this role.
1990 - Bambridge was in the running for Italy but probably after the 'ghost goal' controversy, they opted for a different AUS ref, a man called Richard Lorenc; in trying to 'tidy up' some negative resonance from 86, some of the refs squad only stood as linesman, including Lorenc, who finished on his three group stage appointments only.
1994 - The first tournament with specialist linesman, OFC got two officials to fulfil this role, both Australian (Dunster and Brazzale), and they worked on the opening game with Brizio Carter together amongst other appointments.
I wonder if Brazzale was, like Michał Listkiewicz, listed on the referee not linesman FIFA list, and his appointment some kind of political compromise; Dunster was highly rated and I guess a little bit unlucky not to get sth more than a QF in the final shake-up.
1998: OFC got an Australian ref (Lennie) and Pacific Islander assistant (Vanuatuan L. Fred) in France.
Edward Lennie completely lacked soft skills, but managed to correct his absolutely disastrous impression in Italy vs. Cameroon with a strong performance in a very challenging Romania vs. Tunisia decider later on. Off the back of his second appointment, I’d say that he managed to justify his WC place as at least defendable.
Lencie Fred was actually a very good AR (see his brilliant onside at 90’ in the Atlanta Olympic final!), but my feeling is that he struggled when faced with the spotlight in France - his group stage was very good, but he looked a bit nervous in the host's KO tie vs. Paraguay, and made a terrible mistake in the third place playoff; of course, the political value of appointing Fred was obvious, but on the whole, I think he deserved his place in the World(!) Cup.
2002: Youngster Mark Shield snuck into the Far East WC ahead of the competition (Grimshaw, and Micallef esp.) after strong performances in the U17 WC 2001, where he was probably being prepared for 2006 really.
DeleteAt the tournament though, Shield offered a weak performance in Belgium vs. Tunisia, very distant from the players and missing a clear penalty, simply I believe his WC call was too early.
In keeping with the whole WC2002, FIFA were way too arrogant after the ARs had done well in 98, ignoring quality and focusing on political value of appointments too much (after Blatter scrambled to be re-elected president that summer). Contrary to Fred, the Vanuatuan official who ran the line in Korea, Elise Doriri, was quite hopeless, and was rightly rejected after his first appointments.
(is worth stating that an all-Pacific Islands trio worked on two matches at Athens 2004, with the Tahitian referee arousing huge attention for ordering a penalty to be retaken over-and-over again; this experiment, in the early trio days, was never repeated again)
2006: Shield was a natural choice to return for Germany, and with his virtually carbon copy of what is now Jarred Gillett’s style, had two solid enough performances in the group stage; to be completely honest, I think this referee was a little overestimated on the whole. However, Shield later stood as fourth official in some very prominent matches, including the Portugal vs. France semi.
2010: Australia were out of OFC, so Matthew Breeze missed out against strong AFC colleagues, and Kiwi Michael Hester made history as the first referee from New Zealand to work at the WC; despite having quite a good style, his decisions in Korea vs. Greece were very weak indeed for the WC level, and FIFA drew the right conclusion not appointing him again.
And finally, I would say from personal observations that both Peter O’Leary and Matthew Conger are at about the same level as Shield - mostly solid enough, but relatively weak on the highest level.
While Abdelkader Zitouni did show good performances for FIFA in this cycle, I guess his (a bit Al-Sharif) style probably arouses more attention than Conger’s, so somewhat reluctantly I can understand the focus on Texas native Conger instead.
Contrary to Hauata and Zitouni, Yareboinen’s joining of this niveau is quite ridiculous and confirms very blatantly that it is blind tokenism on FIFA’s part.
BALANCE: mostly, OFC officials actually made generally at least decent contributions to the World Cup in their appearances. However, at least in the C.21st (AUS out from 06 onwards), I don’t think their absense would really have made the overall officiating at the WC much worse (remembering Rule’s mistake vs. Bosnia especially), and FIFA’s overall task with the OFC squads is rather in the name of damage limitation in more recent times.
@Mikael - I think you MUST eliminate Australia's historical contribution when talking about the situation now. Australia's inclusion in OFC would change things--both from a population standpoint and a footballing quality one (the A-League is LIGHT-YEARS ahead of any other competition in OFC).
ReplyDelete@icedteatower - I also don't think you can take the literal top two OFC referees from the largest country and use them as being indicative of OFC officiating overall. O'Leary and Conger might--MIGHT--be able to hang with the second tier of UEFA officials or lower Elite tier. But the drop off after those two guys is vast. If you took the top ten referees in OFC, I would venture to guess that 5-6 of them couldn't make the lowest tier of UEFA officials if we were being fair. I mean we are talking about referees from countries the size of San Marino and Gibraltar except they have no regular competition and no advanced training to make them better. I don't ever read people here arguing a Liechtenstein referee should be at EUROs. But that's essentially the argument being made when we talk about an OFC referee (outside New Zealand) deserving a spot at a FIFA event.
Yareboinen refereed two finals at least, u18 OFC New Zealand-Tahiti 2018 and Pacific Games gold medal New Zealand-New Caledonia. In hindsight, Yareboinen future in OFC may look bright, if NZL and Tahiti national team meet eachother in the future I think he will be a usual apointee for that game
ReplyDelete