The committee has updated the UEFA categories for the first part of the new season.
Promoted to Category 1:
MEN
Ondrej Berka CZE
John Brooks ENG
Sven Jablonski GER
Yigal Frid ISR
Simone Sozza ITA
Damian Sylwestrzak POL
Luís Miguel Branco Godinho POR
Marian Alexandru Barbu ROU
Nenad Minaković SRB
WOMEN
Michaela Pachtova CZE
Lotta Vuorio FIN
Miriama Bočková SVK
Pawson ENG
ReplyDeleteStefanski POL
Lopes Martins POR
Demoted to Cat. 2
- Brooks (artificially so far) created as the future England's No.1.
ReplyDelete- I really don't know what they see in Frid...
- Jablonski over Schlager while I think the latter suits more to UEFA games
Jablonski is clearly better than Schlager. He has an excellent understanding of the game and speaks the language of the players.
DeleteJablonski over Schlager is not a big surprise. Jablonski has a better reputation domestically and I think also internationally. He's set to become Germanys No. 1 in a few years.
DeleteI think the biggest changes will happen in January.
ReplyDeleteThe demotion of Pawson instead of Kavanagh to make room for Brooks makes little sense
ReplyDeletePawson 45 that’s why Kavanagh is 6 years younger
DeleteYet Pawson is more experienced and IMO a better referee than Kavanagh
DeleteYes but age is the logic behind it
DeleteAll three demotions are related to the promotion committe made.
ReplyDeletePawson replaced by Brooks, at the end the latter is the choice for the upcoming Elite English referee after Taylor and Oliver.
Tiago Martins out to age as well and focused on VAR duties, replaced by Gondinho.
Stefanski, very long time Cat. 1, will now leave room to Sylwestrzak.
As always, minor changes in the middle of the year, while the big changes in Elite are always expected on December.
About the promotions, Sozza was expected as Italian, even if the last game with Sajin didn't go very well, he must go ahead.
Frid is a name in focus by committee, but I can agree with Euro Soccer Ref that he didn't show too much so far.
Don't know that much about Berka, but after long time a CZE in that category was expected (of course this can't be only motivation, but still...).
Romania always with a certain power :) Maybe we know why.
Due to retirement of Orsato and Cullum (and to be honest the point that Karasev, Koulbakov and Sidiropolus are "de facto" no elite referee), I was expecting a couple of promotion into Elite. Especially it's strange Mariani's situation, who is appointed for Copa America but still remain in first class. Maybe Uefa would wait for the official retirement of Orsato (end of July), avoiding to have 4 italian in the top class.
ReplyDeleteIt would be more balanced to step down Karasev, Koulbakov and Sidiropolous since they are no more acting as Elite, and probably Hategan even if a recovery for him is still possible.
Is Soares Dias going to retire end of Euro 2024 ?
For Class 1, fully expected Sozza's promotion and Jablonski.
I'm still convinced that only three classes are very few; the huge population in each of them is not given the real value of the referees inside. A higher granularity is needed to me
Decreasing the number of category was a specific choice of Rosetti committee, just to have accelerated careers in case of focus on a referee starting from Cat. 2, but indeed I must agree with you. Making a very detailed analysis of all the officials, three categories are definitely not enough.
DeleteI would personally reorganize the categories the way they used to be.
DeleteCategory 3 -> Category 2 -> Category 1 -> Elite Development > Elite
Any chances for Dabanović to be promoted to Elite?
ReplyDeleteI am very happy with Sylwestrzak's promotion. He is a young, very talented referee who officiated, among others, 2 matches in the group stage of the Conference League, and is currently in Japan and officiates several J-League matches. I hope that he is Marciniak's successor and in four years we will see him at Euro 2028. Szymon made his Euro debut at the age of 35, Damian will be 36 in 2028 - the perfect moment to advance to the elite. It is worth remembering the name Sylwestrzak, it will appear many times on this forum.
ReplyDeleteJablonski was full expected and could get the German Nr1 at least for next EURO, too...
DeleteI won't comment on Brooks & Sozza's promotions since they seem already to be the main topics of conversation :D
ReplyDeleteGladly surprised by Minaković's promotion, he looked far ahead and much more mature/prepared than his peers at U17 EURO, only Serbia reaching SF prevented him from handling the final. He has certainly Elite potential and tbh I'd dare to say he could have a higher ceiling than Jovanović.
Godinho, at last. He was on a weird position of consistently receiving 'First Cat-ish' appointments while being overlooked for years for promotion. Swapped with now VAR specialist Martins, I guess the plan is Pinheiro getting promoted to Elite in winter 2024/summer 2025 while Godinho and Nobre stay in Cat 1.
Barbu & Berka, maybe not expected but IMO deserved for two very competent refs. At last, Czech Republic breaks the post-Královec curse of having literally zero representation in First, let alone Elite.
Like Euro Soccer Ref, I'd have liked to see Schlager instead of Jablonski, but all factors pointed out to the latter for promotion (U19 EURO final, talent mentored, higher domestic rating), Germany needs to prepare the next Elite refs with relative urgency since both Zwayer & Stieler are turning 45 in two years.
Sylwestrzak, expected and probably deserved but I'm still yet to see his 'X factor' for Elite potential. Swapped with demoted and arguably retirement-bound Stefański.
Frid's promotion is a complete joke. There can be discussions about his quality as a referee (only watched him at last year's U19 and didn't rate him high) but in terms of focus/appointments this promotion comes completely out of the blue. Brooks & Sozza already made EL debut while in Second Cat, but Frid is (if my research isn't wrong) yet to make his first appearance in Conference League GS (!!!)
Possibly surprising 'overlooks': Karaoglan, Ciochirca, Šmajc, Bogár, none of the Dutch referees under focus (Kooij/vd Eijk) promoted either.
Excellent analysis 👏.
DeleteFrid already had 3 ECL GS games - but strangely none in the most recent season.
DeleteAnd Brooks is certainly a special case with 1 EL game, but no ECL game so far.
DeleteYou're right, Philipp. No Conference GS this season, but two games in 2021/22 and one in 2022/23.
DeleteJust a general comment, but affects Orsato who many seem to be talking about. I think he has been retained at Elite for first half of the season as technically speaking he is on the FIFA & UEFA Lists for the whole of 2024 as they are annual rather than seasonal. I may be wrong but I think this is the rationale behind retired officials retaining their levels.
ReplyDeleteActually, just noticed Willie Collum isn't retained though so no idea why that has been done!
DeleteNowadays one thing is UEFA and another is FIFA panel.
DeleteCollum has been removed because he announced the retirement before the next 1 July, the standard date that sets the end of 2023-24 and the start of 2024-25.
Orsato is still there because, to attend this tournament, he had to be confirmed by AIA on paper for the next season, because the EURO competition will last even during July. But it's already known he will resign once his experience at EURO will be over. So they had to keep him on the list for this season.
But what you say about FIFA it's true, they are annual, so Orsato name, despite of his retirement, should appear on FIFA list of referees until 31 December 2024.
Nevertheless, in recent times, FIFA started to be a bit fleaxible about that, a referee can't be replaced during the year in the panel, but we saw some very delayed additions, not at the start of year, but later (still new names not replacing an old one).
Copa America 2024 - United States
ReplyDeleteGroups
Argentina - Canada
Referee: Jesus Valenzuela (VEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jorge Urrego (VEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Lubin Torrealba (VEN)
Fourth Official: Ivan Barton (SLV)
Reserve Assistant Referee: David Moran (SLV)
Vidéo Assistant Referee: Leodan Gonzalez (URU)
Assistant Vidéo Assistant Referee : Richard Trinidad (URU)
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Peru - Chile
Referee: Wilton Sampaio (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Bruno Pires (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Bruno Boschilia (BRA)
Fourth Official: Edina Alves (BRA)
Reserve Assistant Referee: Neuza Back (BRA)
Vidéo Assistant Referee: Rodolpho Toski (BRA)
Assistant Vidéo Assistant Referee : Daniel Nobre (BRA)
Copa America 2024 - United States
ReplyDeleteGroups
Ecuador - Venezuela
Referee: Wilmar Roldan (COL)
Assistant Referee 1: Alexander Guzman (COL)
Assistant Referee 2: John Leon (COL)
Fourth Official: Kevin Ortega (PER)
Reserve Assistant Referee: Michael Orue (PER)
Vidéo Assistant Referee: Juan Lara (CHI)
Assistant Vidéo Assistant Referee : Edson Cisternas (CHI)
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Mexico - Jamaica
Referee: Ismail Elfath (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Corey Parker (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Kyle Atkins (USA)
Fourth Official: Tori Penso (USA)
Reserve Assistant Referee: Brooke Mayo (USA)
Vidéo Assistant Referee: Armando Villarreal (USA)
Assistant Vidéo Assistant Referee : Tatiana Guzman (NCA)
It would be worthy to have a dedicated post on Copa America 2024 assignments
DeleteI think that Frid was promoted instead of Reinshreiber, who retired from refereeing and got a job in Israel national team.
ReplyDeleteThere was already a focus on Frid, long time before Reinshreiber retirement. But maybe you want to say that the retirement of the latter, accelerated the promotion of the former, that's indeed possible.
DeleteI'm agree Chefren, he had very good semi final Spain-Italy in the Euro U19, and a very good 1/4 final UYL, In addition he is in Talents&Mentors program, so for me the promition isn't a surprise
DeleteIs Hategan the only Elite referee without any appointments since years?
ReplyDelete