Wednesday 1 June 2022

2022 Finalissima Referee Appointment

As revealed before, this appointment has been made jointly by the two confederations.



2022 Finalissima
1 June 2022, 20:45 CET - London, Wembley Stadium 
ITALY - ARGENTINA
Referee: Piero Daniel Maza Gómez (CHI)
Assistant Referee 1: Christian Schiemann (CHI)
Assistant Referee 2: Claudio Rios (CHI) 
Fourth Official: Jesús Gil Manzano (ESP)
Video Assistant Referee: Alejandro José Hernández Hernández (ESP)
Assistant Video Assistant Referees: Juan Martínez Munuera (ESP), Tiago Martins (POR) 
UEFA Delegate: João Morais (POR)     
UEFA Referee Observer: Enrique Caceres (PAR)

22 comments:

  1. Never heard this name, very strange choice, I didn't expect that. Can anybody from CONMEBOL say more about him?

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  2. When I red the name of the referee I went immediately to the 2022 list of international referees to check if he has a FIFA badge. Really unknown, I guess he also hasn't so many sonorous appointment on the Comnebol. But it confirms that this match is just a little bit more than a friendly

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  3. Piero Maza (how is named in assignments from CONMEBOL) is quite unknown even in South America. Tobar has recently failed on physical tests and Bascuñan is working as VAR, so Maza has became number 1 from Chile in assignments. Last matches were good, nothing impressive. It's important to say he has NEVER refereed a match between nations. Considering that the referee couldn't be selected to Qatar, there were plenty of names with experience in WC qualifying stage like Ostojich and Cunha (URU), Daronco (BRA), Roldán (COL) and Herrera (VEN). Completely unexpected choice.

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  4. Also interesting to read what Wikipedia has to report about him:
    https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_Maza

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  5. An unexpected choice to be sure. The only time I have come across Maza was when he was VAR for the 2019 Copa. He had no appointments in this turn of CONMEBOL WCQ IIRC. Schiemann and Ríos are the top two Chilean ARs though.

    Does anybody know btw if this match is a "full, FIFA-approved international game" or more of a glorified friendly?

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    1. more the second one. a "glorified" friendly. it is not an official cup or so.

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    2. Schiemann and Rios are Tobar's regular ARs. This might indicate that Tobar was initially assigned, but then failed the fitness test and was replaced with Maza.

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  6. I think it is a very bad approach if both UEFA and CONMEBOL consider this game only a friendly. It is a final with top players and it is a trophy at stake. Furthermore, given that is the first edition I expect that a lot of fans will watch it. Personally, I never imagined that this match would be refereed by a referee who is not on the World Cup list. I read that he is quite unknown even in South America, that makes the things even more illogical. At least the choice of the rest of the Spanish-Portuguese team makes sense.

    Anyway, good luck; but both confederations risk a lot with this appointment...

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    1. Probably some people here don't know there is a history with Conmebol/Uefa Championship, now it's in the new version called finalissima, but before exact the same cup was called: Arthemio Franchi Cup, and was played in 1993 Argentina-Denmark (Wich was played in Argentina, with European Referee Sandor Puhl), and in 1985 France-Uruguay in Parc des Prices (Paris) with Argentinian referee Abel Gnecco, so to me an Conmebol referee was expected, i'm not so sure iff both confederations see it as a friendly, why then they sould call it finalissima??

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    2. It is an official cup btw:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONMEBOL%E2%80%93UEFA_Cup_of_Champions

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  7. Just a small sidenote. I remember Piero Maza from Uefa CORE 33. So he definitely has some Uefa background.:)

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  8. The consideration of this trophy by Italian media seems indeed extremely low, La Gazzetta dello Sport, most important Italian sport newspaper calls it "Gran Gala" and you must go to page 15, almost in the middle of the newspaper, to read something about. Overall perception seems that it will be a friendly. More generally this kind of games, playing for a trophy after having won a big tournament, are always seen in a certain way, not real big games. We can mention Super Cup as first example in UEFA, and then the Super Cup in domestic competitions, I think that's because it is a game that could not even exist, being something "more" than a normal competition. We can also remember Confederations Cup, abolished by FIFA. Having said that, everything can still happen on the pitch.

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    1. Fully agree; global perception is about a friendly game. Nevertherless Maza is indeed a very weird choice

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  9. Well I will want to think is just a friendly game because i wouldn’t want to believe that FIFA would allow just the winner of Euro and conmebol when there are other confederations affliated with FIFA like CAF,OFC,AFC it wouldn’t be fair on the side of FIFA if this is a real match with a cup to it my opinion though.

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    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONMEBOL%E2%80%93UEFA_Cup_of_Champions

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  10. Rosetti is at Wembley for this game.

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  11. Referees are wearing CONMEBOL badges...

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  12. 39' reckless challenge by Bonucci with an open elbow while jumping, extremely borderline to RC for violent conduct, I agree with Hernandez Hernandez in supporting referee, now Italian player must be very careful, he did the same in a previous NL game with Karasev referee, you all remember. So far, a quite good officiating, cards whern needed and a certain attitude to allow a physical play when possible. There were protests by Italy for a possible foul before Argentina's goal, but this shouldn't even mentioned ;) as always, protests on everything. Quite good impression so far.

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  13. Missed YC in 52', mandatory in my opinion, very reckless challenge, especially for the point of impact, but luckily not a full contact.

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  14. 71', frustration foul by an Italian player and correct YC, this was caused by a long possession of the ball by Argentina and South American fans provoking Italy from the stands. Good reaction by referee who prevented something more to happen.

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  15. In 77', Barella got his deserved YC for another reckless challenge, on paper it could have been the second.

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  16. Never heard of Maza before last night but he did pretty decent job

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