First step of selection on the road to World Cup 2027.
FIFA Women's Elite Referees Seminar (UEFA)
On this month, FIFA held a seminar in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
This is a first step of the UEFA selection on the road to FIFA Women's World Cup Brazil 2027.
Pierluigi Collina, Massimo Busacca, Bibiana Steinhaus and a large FIFA staff have attended the gathering, preparing the referees.
Please find below the list of participants.
Herzogenaurach, Germany
5 - 9 May 2025
Emanuela Rusta ALB
Hristiyana Guteva BUL
Ivana Martinčić CRO
Frida Mia Klarlund Nielsen DEN
Abigail Byrne ENG
Marta Huerta De Aza ESP
Olatz Rivera Olmedo ESP
Stéphanie Frappart FRA
Eleni Antoniou GRE
Katalin Anna Kulcsár HUN
Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi ITA
Silvia Gasperotti ITA
Ivana Projkovska MKD
Shona Shukrula NED
Ewa Augustyn POL
Catarina Ferreira Campos POR
Iuliana Elena Demetrescu ROU
Ionela Alina Peşu ROU
Désirée Grundbacher SUI
Tess Olofsson SWE
Does this mean that anyone not on this list is basically already out of contention for the tournament?
ReplyDeleteThe working method is the one always used by FIFA. This first selection of referees has been identified as prospective for the competition that they should go to officiate in Brazil in 2027.
DeleteThere may be new entries in the next steps for various reasons, but the main focus is almost exclusively on the first selected group, followed by cuts time after time , coming closer to the date of tournament.
What El classico! Incredible! Several suspicious decisions. Now I rewind and I think that Mbappe was offside prior first Real goal (prior penalty). It was not even so close for me. We didn’t see VAR decision about that - probably in VAR room they didn’t rewatch that situation. It was much obvious than when there was offside call when second penalty occur. But it was clear dive from Mbappe, so he would get YC for simulation. It is incredible that such a player in match that watch the whole World nowadays with VAR fell down without any contact. Ref was not in good position and made big mistake.
ReplyDeleteIn madrid second goal there is foual valverde stamp in yamal foot
DeleteMybe penalty for rafinha for holding
Possible dogso against tchowmini
Second goal for barcelone maybe handball by dejong
Incredible that this wasn’t PK for Barca! Unbelievable! But I have to say that VAR room is awful - they didn’t show 2 much better angles to a ref. These 2 angles were the worst two.
DeleteYes agree there is two angles sown by the brodcaster the hand very far nutral postion
DeleteSp1nish referreing one of the worst
How on earth with OFR There is no penalty with the blatant handball by Tchouameni…Unbelievable !
ReplyDeleteVery poor référée for The Clasico game. Many incompréhensible decisions. And if someone can explain why there was no handball for Tchouameni and there was no handball for Fermin I would love to hear!
ReplyDeleteSorry, there was handball for Fermin..it seems exactly the same situation that was judged differently
DeleteMistakes from REF TEAM:
ReplyDelete1. Real first goal after obvious offside. In VAR room they didn’t even check this. Incredible!
2. Second Real goal after possible foul on Yamal.
3. Whistled PK after missed offside from AR2. Wrong penalty, clear dive from Mbappe. If it wasn’t offside, who knows whether the ref would be called for an OFR.
4. Clear PK missed for Barca.
5. Missed handball prior Fermin’s goal.
These were just crucial mistakes. And many more. Interesting that Barca got 4 YCs and got beaten, and Real received only 3 YCs. Unbelievable. Very poor performance from whole REF team.
I forgot possible RC for Tchouameni as it was DOGSO! Ref showed something like Torres were going off the goal and towards a goal. It wasn’t the case.
DeleteI looked at some incidents of El Clasico, unfortunately not all of them, but maybe I wil watch more later.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wanted to say that the level of the comments above unfortunately doesn't seem to me to be the highest, speaking with respect.
How can you believe that in a match like this the VAR would miss an offside before a penalty awarded? It's obvious that they checked and the player is regular or they made a certain assessment, maybe the defender's foot keeps onside attacker's upper body but looking at it, it can look the opposite.
Next one, the possible foul on Yamal before Real's goal: something that only the referee should whistle, VAR intervention is not appropriate for me. It's not a scandal toplay on, a strong but risky challenge.
On the possible penalty for Barcelona for handball: you just look at the blatant nature of the arm touch, but the position of the arm? It's not a wide open arm, it's Ok to me to say that Real Madrid defender hadn't to tput it behind his back (only way to avoid contact).
I don't know about the other cases, maybe I'll watch them later, but I give you some advice, try to write more about understanding the referee's point of view and not with the eyes of fans and sensationalism, apparently surprised by incredible things, which instead have their own (and clear, in some cases) explanation.
I try to explain my point of viwe, but I think that today many people are unable to get in contact with the real dynamics of what refereeing is and what VAR interventions are.
I think that this blog is really the right place on the web, to try to understand more and offer ad hoc analysis for such situations.
Statements like "there were just crucial mistakes", mean that you just want only to see them like that. There are many and many grey areas, as long as you have an opinion, this doesn't mean that the referee was 100% wrong whilwe taking his decision.
This is not written for defending Hernandez Hernandez, and mistakes of course happen, but to tme the best way to talk about them is to analyze why and try to understand the reasons of the decisions behind.
+1 Excellent comment. I am sure many of those who write this kind of comments have never been referees. Many grey areas, very difficult match for Hdez Hdez.
DeleteI strongly disagree with your opinion, Cefren. After all, the purpose of this site, among other things, is for everyone to express their opinion — we can't all think the same way. And we shouldn't.
DeleteRegarding Real's first goal, it's clear that Mbappe was offside, it's very obvious. The only explanation is that the VAR room deemed that the Barcelona player intentionally played the ball, which is why they didn't disallow the penalty.
For the second goal, the referee is just 3 meters away, and the foul on Jamal is obvious, but it never crossed his mind to call it. As for the unawarded penalty for Barcelona — just imagine the situation where Real wouldn't get a penalty in such a case, against any opponent. Impossible.
In the VAR room, they gave Hernandez the two worst angles to review the situation, while there were much better ones clearly showing that the hand was sufficiently away from the body and increased its volume. If the criteria are that the ball was directed toward the hand, that the distance was short, etc., the same should apply to Fermín's goal.
Regarding the potential red card due to DOGSO, the referee signaled with his hand that Ferran Torres was heading towards the corner flag. Ridiculous. The man would have been one-on-one with the goalkeeper, it was a clear OGSO.
The VAR protocol is complete nonsense and must be changed because it leaves too much room for different interpretations of situations.
Finally, I don't know if you saw the huge controversy in the Spanish media about someone in the VAR room exclaiming "Thank God" when it was shown that the ball hit Fermín's hand before the goal
Today in Saudi Arabia
ReplyDeleteaš-Šabāb vs al-Ahlī
Felix Zwayer, Robert Kempter, Christian Dietz (Daniel Schlager)
at-Taʿāwun vs al-Qādisīya
Donatas Rumšas, Aleksandr Radiuš, Dovydas Sužiedėlis (Donatas Šimėnas)
al-Ittiḥād vs al--Faiḥāʾ
Nikola Dabanović, Vladan Todorović, Srđan Jovanović (Anastásios Tzílos)
Moreover, César Ramos handled today the title deciding game in Kuwait, similar case like yesterday's Benfica - Sporting in Portugal.
12/05
Deleteal-Hilāl vs al-ʿUrūba
Erik Lambrechts, Jo De Weirdt, Kevin Monteny (Bram Van Driessche, Michele Seeldraeyers)
al-Uḫdūd vs an-Naṣr
Anastásios Sidirópoulos, Polychrónis Kostarás, Lázaros Dimitriádis (Ángelos Evangélou)
FC BARCELONA - REAL MADRID CF
ReplyDeleteReferee: Alejandro José Hernández Hernández
Assistant Referee 1: José Enrique Naranjo Pérez
Assistant Referee 2: Marcos Cerdán Aguilar
Fourth Official: José Alberto Pardeiro Puente
Video Assistant Referee: Juan Martínez Munuera
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Diego Barbero Sevilla
All clips:
https://files.fm/u/4gjf87p7ta
03' - Soft FK followed by most likely missed offside under current interpretation followed by penalty rightly awarded for GK's tackle
09' - possible YC BAR35 for SPA
14' - Goal RMA - possible foul on Yamal in APP, good onside by AR2; imo, the contact with Yamal's foot is too soft for VAR to call the referee
22' - PAI holding
26' - possible YC RMA35 for SPA
29' - YC RMA8 for reckless tackle, mandatory
32' - Goal BAR - possible handball in APP; the handball is clear imo, perhaps VAR thought the APP lasted too long to include this incident?
36' - YC RMA14 for SPA - possible RC for DOGSO; the incident has place wide on the field but another defender is still very far away, controversial but rather not clear and obvious mistake
42' - PAI kicking; the kick is quite blatant on replays but had it impact on Raphinha's header?
42' - Penalty after dive by RMA9 revoked due to offside in APP, no sanction RMA9 for simulation
45+4' - Possible YC RMA17 for reckless step on foot
45+8' - Goal RMA disallowed for offside (AR2)
50' - YC RMA35 for reckless kick, mandatory, well spotted
52' - Goal BAR disallowed for offside (AR2)
54' - YC BAR5 for reckless studs challenge; dark YC but rather nothing more nowadays
72' - Possible YC RMA17 for unsporting behaviour
76' - PAI charging
79' - No penalty for handball upheld after OFR; huge controversy, arguments for and against awarding a penalty, I think UEFA would prefer a penalty here (Italian school)
85' - Possible YC BAR32 for delaying the restart
87' - YC BAR8 for LoR holding, mandatory
90+2' - Goal RMA disallowed for offside (AR1)
90+5' - After OFR, Goal BAR disallowed for goal scorer's handball - problematic to assess the subsequent touch by RMA as deliberate play and new APP or still same APP, therefore OFR instead of VAR-only intervention?
It’s maybe going to be very controversial, but for me, Hernandez Hernandez did well with the big actions.
ReplyDeleteThe first one claiming the foul on Yamal didn’t seem as big to me, will have to recheck it but I was okay with it.
The penalty not awarded, I stood to clap for his courage not to give it. For me, there wasn’t really a good decision to make there, the arm blocked a clear attempt to score, but the distance was too close and the arm was in a naturel, not too wide position. A penalty call would also have been supportable of course, but these are very extreme cases that happen and you have to take a decision.
I don’t understand the people criticizing the handball call on fermin, for me, it’s a clear no goal and good intervention from VAR.
Overall, the match also outside of the VAR interventions was very correctly handled by the spanish.
While the refereeing this year in Spain has been quite inconsistent and maybe even bad, the pressure the refereed are having is way too much. Also, the players( both teams) contest too much, it wouldn’t be accepted in Italy for sure.
Maurizio Mariani will referee the Coppa Italia final .... Probably chosen over Chiffi this year ... Overall probably a deserved appointment !
ReplyDeleteChiffi was in my opinion the other option for the season he had, but in the end one must agree that Mariani is the name.
DeleteEasy to predict, very good season, but mostly second part, in the early games of first half he had been still not that good.
He recovered and maybe also thank to Guida injury (one can't know what would have happened with UEFA in the different circumstance) he got the spotlights. His ptroblems in past were about crucial incidents in penalty area, always wrong assessments and many times he needed VAR. Now better, and also some international games allowing him to have a hope for a further development. Nevertheless, to me in domestic league still nr. 3 behind Guida and Massa, while in UEFA he made significant progress, as said, and in FIFA he can maybe dream of next's year World Cup. But all will be about Guida performances and career starting from today, being back from the injury. We will see.
yeah Chiffi could have gotten it, he was good.
DeleteWhat is surprising is that referees like Mariani, Guida have never gotten the final until now ( Guida might even never make it).
But like last year with Maresca, the best referee got the final which shows a little bit of consistency.
Greek Cup Final
ReplyDeleteSaturday 17/05/2025
OFI - Olympiakos
Referee: Szymon Marciniak
AR1: Listkiewicz Tomasz
AR2: Kupsik Adam Michal
FO: Papadopoulos Ioannis
VAR: Kwiatkowski Tomasz
AVAR: Evangelou Angelos
OAVAR: Papapetrou Anastasios
Observer: Bikas Georgios
Then four days later EL final? Now it becomes rather unlikely, but still possible, after this appointment.
DeleteStrong rumors - Kovacs CL final
ReplyDeleteAccording to DFB Schiris : Big news soon :D Zwayer to EL or UECL Final?
DeleteShould be Zwayer EL then, I think, if confirmed.
DeleteFrench Cup Final
ReplyDeleteSaturday 24 May - 21:00 CET
PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN / STADE DE REIMS
Stade de France
Referee : Benoît Bastien
AR1 : Hicham Zakrani
AR2 : Aurélien Berthomieu
4th Official : Jérémie Pignard
Reserve AR : François Boudikian
VAR : Nicolas Rainville
AVAR : Marc Bollengier
Second Coupe de France final for Bastien after Angers / PSG in 2017. I was pointing out the lack of obvious candidates a few days ago, and this is confirmed with this repetition of Bastien. 2 years in a row that we have a repetition after Letexier last year (reptition of 2021) is not a good signal to other referees, even more with this game (easy win expected, no need of Bastien there).
Deletehttps://www.uefa.com/news-media/news/0299-1dbd3134c0ae-d632a42a13d0-1000--referee-teams-for-2025-uefa-club-competition-finals-anno/
ReplyDeleteKovacs CL, Zwayer EL, and Peljto ECL.
And Schärer for the Nations League, and Martincic for the Women's CL.
DeleteWOMEN U17 - Far Oer Final match appointment
ReplyDeleteKirsty Dowle (Eng)
Tilde Larsson (Swe)
Angeliki Athanasopoullou (Cyp)
Nanna L. Andersen (Den)
Congratulations