The last set of referee appointments for MD2: Anthony Taylor will make his debut in South Korea - Ghana, second assignment for Alireza Faghani with Portugal - Uruguay, the same goes for Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed with Cameroon - Serbia and Iván Barton with Brazil - Switzerland.
Game 29 - Al-Wakrah (11:00 CET)
CAMEROON - SERBIA
CAMEROON - SERBIA
Referee: Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed (UAE)
Assistant Referee 1: Mohamed Al-Hammadi (UAE)Assistant Referee 2: Hasan Al-Mahri (UAE)
Fourth Official: Ma Ning (CHN)
Reserve Assistant Referee: Shi Xiang (CHN)
Video Assistant Referee: Nicolas Gallo (COL)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Juan Soto (VEN)
Offside Video Assistant Referee: Ezequiel Brailovsky (ARG)
Support Video Assistant Referee: Leodan Gonzalez (URU)
Standby Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Gabriel Chade (ARG)
Game 30 - Al Rayyan (14:00 CET)
SOUTH KOREA - GHANA
SOUTH KOREA - GHANA
Referee: Anthony Taylor (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Gary Beswick (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Adam Nunn (ENG)
Fourth Official: Kvin Ortega (PER)
Reserve Assistant Referee: Michael Orue (PER)
Video Assistant Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski (POL)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Alejandro José Hernandez Hernandez (ESP)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Alejandro José Hernandez Hernandez (ESP)
Offside Video Assistant Referee: Kyle Atkins (USA)
Support Video Assistant Referee: Ricardo De Burgos (ESP)
Standby Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Corey Parker (USA)
Game 31 - Doha (17:00 CET)
BRAZIL - SWITZERLAND
BRAZIL - SWITZERLAND
Referee: Iván Barton (SLV)
Assistant Referee 1: David Moran (SLV)
Assistant Referee 2: Zachari Zeegelaar (SUR)
Fourth Official: Said Martinez (HON)
Reserve Assistant Referee: Walter Lopez (HON)
Video Assistant Referee: Drew Fischer (CAN)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Armando Villarreal (USA)
Offside Video Assistant Referee: Kathryn Nesbitt (USA)
Support Video Assistant Referee: Fernando Guerrero (MEX)
Standby Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Mahmoud Abouelregal (EGY)
Game 32 - Lusail (20:00 CET)
PORTUGAL - URUGUAY
PORTUGAL - URUGUAY
Referee: Alireza Faghani (IRN)
Assistant Referee 1: Mohammadreza Mansouri (IRN)
Assistant Referee 2: Mohammadreza Abolfazli (IRN)
Fourth Official: Abdulrahman Al Jassim (QAT)
Reserve Assistant Referee: Saoud Almaqaleh (QAT)
Video Assistant Referee: Abdullah Al Marri (QAT)
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Shaun Evans (AUS)
Offside Video Assistant Referee: Anton Shchetinin (AUS)
Support Video Assistant Referee: Redouane Jiyed (MOR)
Standby Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Ashley Beecham (AUS)
Performance principle for Barton, with this big game involving Brazil and Switzerland, FIFA still tries to respect confederations rule.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, we can say that until a few days ago, they had not still made the assignment for this game, as the referee from El Salvador had still to show his performance, that's interesting. A game like this could have been planned before.
"Normal" debut for Taylor who should then get a second game on MD3.
Faghani with a very important match after Brazil - Serbia, second appearance for Mohamed in what committee hopes a more challenging test to verify his skills.
About the missing names: it was expected to see Conger in only one game, but not the same for Gassama. This is said of course unless replacements and external reasons. There should be something about the Gambian, always reported as strong name from CAF but then getting almost nothing... this time it will be similar, because impossible to think after only one MD3 game he could get more.
I don't want to speculate but maybe differently from other referees, FIFA doesn't see him ready after the trainings..
This makes me think even more Ghorbal will get another game, as he seems one of the CAF officials with an "early trust" by committee, you surely understand what I mean... (and this way of managing referees sometimes can become troublesome if they don't answer properly).
I feel like it’s a pretty good guess that BRA vs SUI *was* planned, but the referee for whom it was planned for had a shaky performance in Portugal vs Ghana, so it went to his well-performing confederation-mate instead.
DeleteI could imagine, that Beath was originally planned for one of these matches, but due to his below average first game, FIFA changed their idea. Maybe they also didn't like Al Jassim's first performance and the same counts for him. Therefore their AFC colleagues work again quite early.
DeleteOverall therefore logical appointments for Monday.
The disadvantage is, that all top performers outside UEFA and CONMEBOL already got their second match, which limits options for MD3 - unless someone gets a third game or confederation neutrality is broken.
And yes, the handling of Conger and Gassama is strange - unless there are some (health?) problems, that we are unaware of.
In general, giving a referee his (or her - that's another topic...) first game on MD3 seems unlogical to me. If someone is considered good enough to work at the tournament, (s)he should be appointed to MD 1 or 2, so that you then can give the decisive games on MD3 based on the first performances.
Unimportant MD3 matches are just too rare to plan with them - and if they happen, you can still assign someone with a bad first game.
The confederation rule can be easily kept. From the total of 16 games in MD3, 9 of them are available for European referees. UEFA has 11 refs. -1 Frappart=10 -1 Orsato=9. So all of them could get a second appointment. And Kovacs the first one. The rest of 7 can go to the rest: Conger, Claus, Rapallini, Gassama, Tello, Beath, Gomes, Al-Jassim etc. If you doubt that 9 places will go to UEFA in MD3, then you are right, my scenario is a little bit crazy.
ReplyDeleteI strongly think that Frappart will get a match. Imagine FIFA giving the impression to have nominated all female referees only to be Forth Officials... In this case, I rather see Kovacs not getting a match.
DeleteYes, there are enough options for UEFA referees.
DeleteMy point was rather that there might not be enough non-UEFA referees for the important other games, if FIFA really rejects Al Jassim, Beath, Elfath, Escobar and Sikazwe for their first performances.
But as there is only one UEFA-CONMEBOL game and all CONMEBOL referees did at least OK so far, there is indeed no need to break confed neutrality.
@Ref_1707 If so, this will piss off completely the media in Romania. As you(plural) probably know, in this country media is pretty interested in referees appointments, there is an article for every single Romanian ref appointment starting with group stages, no matter UCL, UEL or UECL, sometimes even in earlier stages.
DeleteWhat do they wite now? At first, enthusiastic reports about 4th official appointments. Now, they already start to ask questions and raise question marks. They still have patience and wait for a game, but I am afraid not to see a rant in future. But what write the press about referees in Romania is Collina's last worry I guess.
As I've just finished writing the predictions, I can tell you that it's pretty easy to keep confederation neutrality, and I went with just one "brave" prediction: Gomes for KSA - MEX.
DeleteThat being said, I would love to see Kovacs getting a game, but I'm not convinced he will get it in the end. I see a maximum of 8 UEFA referees getting a match on this MD and my gut feeling tells me it's gonna be either Frappart or Vinčić. However, I'm not good at predictions, so you need to take my gut feeling with a grain of salt.
I am not happy at all that Gallo and Soto are going to be in VAR room in Cameroon-Serbia, because they were there in Canada-Belgium where they made two crucial, biggest mistakes that VAR refs made so far.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that’s a sign that FIFA deemed those two calls correct instead of “two crucial, biggest mistakes”?
Delete4th Fourth Official appointment for Ma Ning. No chance for him for him in MD3 either looks like...
ReplyDeleteI am told that the females will not be getting a game. Its an Infantino pet project, not a Collina one.
ReplyDeleteIts look like that Beath, Al-Jassim and Elfath were originally planned for sth from these matches, and Barton (instead Elfath), and Faghani (instead Al-Jassim) will be earlier than planned.
ReplyDeleteI am still wandering about Gassama and Conger
ReplyDeleteAccording to my predictions, Rapallini should get USA - Iran, a hot game for the history of the two teams, but not a really challenging one if we talk about football, at least on paper and still in my opinion. So the referee from Argentina should be able to handle it.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Rapallini was my guess too.
DeleteFrappard for England Wales
ReplyDeletePrediction or leak ?
DeleteYes, better to clarify when writing comments, I think it is just a prediction (indeed the name is also wrongly written).
DeleteAs a prediction, in the games between English or Britain teams, French have , statistically, a priority
Delete