Mr Busacca, it should not work like this

In principle it is unfair to single out specific referees, and I would like to put firmly on the record that I wish Omar Al-Ali and his crew well for the New Zealand against Egypt match on Sunday evening. But, some things must be said: Al-Ali's selection as main referee is, from my perspective, one of the most dubiously-originated appointments in recent World Cup history.

When FIFA whittled the Asian candidates for the next World Cup down to the final stages, the weakest referee of the ten remaining in the race was Omar Al-Ali from UAE. It seems to me that Al-Ali benefitted a lot from the deficiencies shown by his compatriot, Adel Al-Naqbi, in the Paris Olympics. Al-Naqbi refereed poorly in the Hispanic derby group stage match between Spain and the Dominican Republic, and I would have rejected his performance in this game - indeed, it seems FIFA's internal assessment mirrors my own, because Al-Naqbi has not refereed a fixture in a FIFA competition since that afternoon.

Al-Ali's refereeing was, in my opinion, comparably unimpressive: he didn't leave a good impression in the easiest match of the last Gulf Cup, the dead-rubber between Bahrain and Yemen, and displayed significant weaknesses when handling the third place playoff of the Egytian Super Cup last season. Indeed, the on-field review which happened in this match is among the most remarkable episodes that I saw in all refereeing (certainly by WC-candidate officials!) all season: Al-Ali took over three minutes at the monitor to assess a handball penalty incident (clip here) before, finally, deciding to award a penalty. It should be clear that Mikael is not the person who takes a belittling approach to matches that seem exotic to a European audience, but I would underline - this incredible indecision took place during the third place playoff of the Egyptian Super Cup between Ceramica Cleopatra and FC Pyramids in a near-empty stadium.

One could continue to listing practical refereeing reasons as to why it is inappropriate to have chosen Omar Al-Ali as a main referee, but that is by the by - FIFA (and all refereeing bodies!) make technical assessments about the level of specific referees that are disagreeable, though they have very rarely done so in this World Cup. The reason why this appointment is so questionable is such: it very much appears to implicate the relationship between the FIFA Director of Refereeing, Massimo Busacca, and the United Arab Emirates FA. Busacca has regularly used the domestic competitions in that country to conduct personal observations about referees - for instance, the cup semifinals refereed by Herrera and Falcon respectively in that country in March of this year (spoken of in 'Who will FIFA choose?') were both personally supervised by Busacca in the stadium. The referees manager from Switzerland is said to be a frequent visitor to the United Arab Emirates, and accordingly planned to meet the European candidate referees for the next World Cup in Dubai, before geopolitical affairs necessitated a change in location last March.

I don't want to write something out of turn here, but not the wildest imagination is required to work out how this all works. In my opinion, the 'conflict of interests' here is writ rather large. In terms of level, it is absolutely indefensible to have promoted Al-Ali over the other two Asian referees who are being used as support officials. Busacca is too knowledgeable a person in refereeing, having overseen a very shrewd and competent composition of the overall referees' list for this World Cup, not to know that himself. So, the only conclusion one can draw is such: the Swiss referee manager has used his position to award a 'freebee' to the country in which he often works from. This is not the first affair under this heading, either. Our friends at Arbitro Internacional reported that Busacca tried in 2018 to impose as referee of the dead-rubber match between Panama and Tunisia, Abdulrahman Al-Jassim from Qatar (referee at this World Cup), who had only been nominated as a VAR for that tournament. The request was ultimately blocked.

Being a referees' manager in the 2020s is an incredibly difficult job, and one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't share a large degree of sympathy for the position that Busacca and Collina find themselves in, but I would be very firm on them with regards this appointment: Mr Busacca, it should not work like this.

It goes without saying, but surely worth reiterating, that I wish all referees well, always, and that I would be the first person who would be delighted if Omar Al-Ali handles New Zealand against Egypt in a good manner, and technically justifies his 'promotion' to being one of the main referees in this World Cup.