Tuesday 29 May 2018

UEFA Referee Categories for the first half of the season 2018/19 (Men, Women, Futsal) UPDATED

Thank to h_demboveac on Twitter  these are the new categories for UEFA referees, valid from 01/07/2018 until 31/12/2018.  


Elite
Aytekin, Bastien*, Brych, Çakır, Collum, Eriksson, Gil Manzano*, Hațegan, Karasov, Kassai, Královec, Kuipers, Makkelie, Marciniak, Mateu Lahoz, Mažić, Oliver, Orsato, Rocchi, Sidirópoulos, Soares Dias*, Skomina, Taylor, Turpin, Undiano Mallenco, Zwayer.

Category 1
Ağayev*Aranovsʹkyy, Banti, Beaton, Bebek, Bezborodov, Blom, Bognár, Boyko, Buquet, del Cerro Grande, Delférière, Ekberg, Estrada Fernández, Gestranius, Gil, Göçek, Gözübüyük, Gräfe, Grinfeld, Jovanović*Jug, Kabakov*, Kehlet, Kovács, Kružliak, Kulbakou, Lechner, Madden, Mažeika, Massa*, Mazzoleni, Moen, Nijhuis, Özkahya, Pawson*, Raczkowski, Schörgenhofer, Siebert*, Sousa, Stavrev, Stefański, Stieler, Strömbergsson, Treimanis, Vad, Vinčič, Welz, Yes'kov, Zelinka

Category 2
Abed, Al-Hakim*, Ardeleánu, Árnason, Attwell, Avram, Bieri, Boucaut, Brisard, Clancy, Colțescu, Costa Veríssimo*, Dabanović, Dallas, Dankert, de Burgos Bengoetxea, Delerue, Di Bello, Dingert, Doveri, Doyle, Drachta*, Evans*, Farkas, Frankowski, Frischer*, Fritz, Glova*, Guida, Hansen, Harkam, Harvey*, Hernández Hernández, Higler*, Hunter, Irrati, Ivanov, Jaccottet, Jorgji, Jović, Kalkavan, Kalogeropoulos, Klossner, Komínis, Kráľovič, Kristoffersen, Kuchin, Lapochkin, Lardot, Letexier, Levnikov*, Lopes Martins, Maae*, Madley, Martínez Munuera, Mečkarovski, Meler*, Meshkov, Miguel, Millot, Munukka, Nevalainen, Nilsen, Palabıyık, Pandžić, Papapetrou*, Peljto, Petrescu, Popov, Rainville, Reinshreiber, Rumšas*, Sánchez Martínez, Sant, Schärer, Schneider, Schüttengruber, Shmuelevitz, Stoyanov, Þórarinsson*, Tierney, Tohver, Trattou, Tsynkevich, Tykgaard, Valeri, van Boekel, Vertenten, Xistra

Category 3
á Høvdanum, Aliyev, Andó-Szabó, Anufrijevs, Apostolov, Aretópoulos, Atazhanov, Balakin, Baliyan, Banari, Barbeno, Barcelo, Branco Godinho, Burchardt, Chinkov, Christofí, Dimitríou, do Nascimento Teixeira, Đokić, Durieux, Eskås, Farrugia Cann, Feșnic, Frid, Găman, Golubevs, Griffith, Grujić, Hagenes, Hamiti, Həsənov, Hennessy, Hjaltalín, Hovhannisyan, Jäger, Jakimovski, Jakubik, Järvinen, Kajtazovič, Kaluđerović, Karakó, Karlsson, Kasumi, Kennedy, Kjærsgaard, Kopriwa, Kozyk, Kristjánsson, Kruashvili,, Laforge, Lambrechts, Lukjančukas, Mántalos, Marhefka, Markham-Jones, Marshall, Masiás, Matyunin, McLaughlin, McNabb, Milačić, Muntean, Musiał, Nikolić, Nuza, Nyberg, Obrenovič, Očenáš, Orel, Pajač, Papadópoulos, Papir, Paşayev, Pejin,, Pires Martins, Poulsen, Příhoda, Proske, Robertson, Romanov, Saggi, Sakhi, San, Santos Capela, Schnyder, Šehović, Shcharbakou, Shurman, Silva Pinheiro, Steen, Strukan, Tarajev, Tean, Todorov, Troleis, Tschudi, Ulusoy, Vadachkoria, Viljanen, Vilkov, Visser, Walsh, Weinberger, Xhaja, Zammit, Zebec

* = Re-categorised

Here you can find the PDF documents with the new categories. 


72 comments:

  1. It is reported here that Juan Martinez Munuera is selected for the U-19 Euro in Finland

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  2. Benoît Bastien, Jesús Gil Manzano and Artur Manuel Ribeiro Soares Dias promoted to Elite Group!

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    Replies
    1. Yep. Found it here: https://twitter.com/h_demboveac/status/1001556878898450432

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    2. It's my Twitter account, Quilava :D

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    3. Super happy for Bastien... A deserved promotion for him and I feel he is a real talent... Good to see Soares Dias promoted too... After being pre-selected for the World Cup this was always on its way!!

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    4. Also very happy with the promotions of Massa, Pawson and Higler... Particularly pleased for Pawson so hopefully he does well :)

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  3. finally, good news for portugal!

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  4. Promoted:
    Əliyar Ağayev (AZE, *1987), Srđan Jovanović (SRB, *1986), Georgi Kabakow (BUL, *1986), Davide Massa (ITA, *1981), Craig Pawson (ENG, *1979), Daniel Siebert (GER, *1984)

    Demoted:
    Oliver Drachta (AUT), Simon Lee Evans (WAL)

    Out from the list:
    Liran Liani (ISR), Clayton Pisani (MLT)

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    Replies
    1. My observation: For the first time I think all promoted to category 1 deserved their promotion - expecially Aghayev who is IMO number one category 2 referee. I am not surprised with Evans and Drachta demoted - it was obvious from their last appointments committee does not trust them so much anymore. I never understood Pisani's promotion to category 1, something very strange. I think it's a pitty UEFA will lose experienced referee like Liany, he was IMO one pair of safe hands. It is interesting that Stieler was not promoted, could it be due to Fandel's influence and related to suspenssion in Germany?

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    2. @Stieler: Could be, but we don`t know Fandel`s opinion about the incident. He probably did not decide his suspension.
      Another reason might be, that they wanted to avoid 4 Germans in Elite.
      Or he has just been assessed a bit worse than the other three.

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    3. Stieler was the referee of Crvena zvezda- Krasnodar. It is unbelievable for me that after an unacceptable performance in that game he received two games in CL group stage ...

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    4. True, petschovschi. However, his CL performance after that was faultless.

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    5. @RayHD

      After Crvena zvezda- Krasnodar Stieler got those CL groups games because of one single reason: he's german.
      Don't tell me that a referee from Romania, Serbia (you can add any other unimportant country) would have had the same treatment. Life (and promotions through categories) is more simple when you came from an important country...

      It doesn't matter Stieler had good perfomances in CL games. It's about meritocracy. After a very bad performance a referee shouldn't been rewarded no matter his nationality. Same thing is valid for Marciniak who initially got a EL semifinal.

      This is another reason for me to be against Collina. He talked about meritocracy but this principle is only on paper

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  5. I was expecting Bastien and Gil Manzano. But not Soares Dias.

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    Replies
    1. I was expecting Vincic...

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    2. Vincic, yes. But I guess Slovenia can't have 2 elite referees.

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  6. Any demotion on Elite list? Or are just covered with retired referees?

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    Replies
    1. No demotion from Elite Group.

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    2. Eriksson, to be honest, was one referee in danger for that.

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    3. Probably he will remain on the list until december, the he will probably retier. He just reached the record i Swedens highest league with the most number of matches. Ekberg is just now beeing pushed by the swedish referee committee, he is the only one that only has games with his regular assitants and big games

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  7. PROMOTED TO SECOND GROUP
    - Mohammed Al-Hakim (SWE)
    - Fábio José Costa Veríssimo (POR)
    - Juri Frischer (EST)
    - Filip Glova (SVK)
    - Robert Harvey (IRL)
    - Dennis Higler (NED)
    - Kirill Levnikov (RUS)
    - Jens Grabski Maae (DEN)
    - Halil Umut Meler (TUR)
    - Anastasios Papapetrou (GRE)
    - Donatas Rumšas (LTU)
    - Vilhjálmur Alvar Þórarinsson (ISL)

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  8. The three 45 year old gentlemen in Kuipers, Mazic and Rocchi are also staying till December at least... Hurrah :D

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  9. Kvirikashvili (GEO) and Kryvonosov (UKR), new FIFA referees from this year, seem to have been removed from Category 3 and from the whole UEFA list.
    Any people from these countries knowing more about that?
    It would be strange, however, I still left their names. Let's wait for some further info.

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    Replies
    1. Dragan Petrović (BIH) is removed, too.

      One more question: what about Liran Liani and Clayton Pisani from First Group? They are removed as well.

      Maybe a bug that will be fixed soon or maybe we don't know something...

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  10. Hopefully tomorrow or on next days we will publish Women and Futsal updates as well.

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  11. Nikola Dabanović (MNE) is the only Category 2 referee who attended the Winter Course but without being promoted in Category 1.

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    Replies
    1. What do you think is reason for that? It was kind of strange in the first place that he was invited there with only 2 UEL matches refereed and only one national teams qualifying match

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    2. Maybe Dabanović needs more time than the other promoted referees and the invitation to Winter Course was just a first step. Indeed, so far he has only 2 EL group stage games. Very likely we will see him in some games on next season as well, and maybe after that promotion to Category 1 will follow...

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  12. FULL LISTS

    Men
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VoC0_eQiM-N3oE6A_JkxWvO0-im8fOLD

    Women
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=14_vL4ARa3n-dqWhErqzggQzVhyWZOpOG

    Futsal
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WHmuI4pobVbUGZnoKXHe_0Wqe5Li8_s3


    All the referees in question (Liani, Pisani, Petrović, Kryvonosov and Kvirikashvili) have been removed from the list.

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  13. Liani surprisingly decided to stop his international career in January 2018.

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  14. First of all a bit thank you to Chefren and RayHD for providing the lists.

    Now to the main part.

    Bastien and Gil Manzano were deservedly promoted to the Elite Category. Both are really great talents and I believe that they will do fine. I am a little worried about Soares Dias. I don't know if he is up to the task. Some of his performances don't really justify the promotion. But I guess, time will tell.

    All the promotees to the First Group are reasonable choices and can't really disagree with any of them. I would like to comment on Pawson's promotion since it's clear the UEFA was mostly interested on his UEFA matches and not the PL ones. I note that since he is struggling in the PL but he seems to be doing well on UEFA matches.

    Seeing the rest of the 1st group I am surprised to see the names of Grafe and Welz. Both didn't have any UEFA match the last season and, IMO, both could open the space for younger referees.

    As for the second group, UEFA promoted most of the referees that attended the last 2 editions of the UEFA U17 final tournament.

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  15. Any new FIFA refs in men/womens AR list?

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    Replies
    1. No. New referees enters the list only on 1 January.

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  16. Greta post, very interesting, thank you Chefren as usual.
    New Elite referees were surely expected; No surprise I had bet on Bastien, Gil Manzano and Soares Dias.
    Probably It would be more fair to wait Gil Manzano's promotion at next season, when Undiano will retire in order to confirm his ability in other matches. Quite soon his promotion.
    While I was expecting Mazeika too; he is stable since long time on good performances and regularly appointed; why do you think he has been excluded ? Is it just for political reason, due to his lack country ?
    Probably Buquet were deserved promotion as well. Rocchi and Kuipers still in, but let's see what thy will decide after the world cup.
    Concerning first class I'm always amazed how much is populated. All of them deserve to be in first class ? Not for sure. Why officials like Blom, Grafe; Beaton, Gestranius are still there when they are not regularly appointed or never went to Champions League? Are they comparable with referee like Buquet, Moen, Vincic, Madden ? I don't think so.
    Anyway top one is Welz from Germany; if I'm ot wrong never appointed in any international match since two years and still in 1st class. :-( Who is he ? :-)

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    Replies
    1. If we talk about Welz, we have to remember that he was injured for more than a year and has just recovered months ago. So, he got only 3 matches in German‘s highest division. However, I agree with your words: Gräfe, who has just some months left on the list, and Welz have no perspective. This is why I think Siebert‘s promotion, having had a great season (maybe his best season in his whole career), is a first reaction on this issue.

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  17. I have expected Vincic to get promoted to Elite. His permormances in U21 and in EL/CL were very good, he has very strong personality, he deserved it. Also he had very important observers. I really would like to know the reason why Comittee didnt promote him. Maybe Slovenia can not have 2 Elite referees as anonymous said.

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    1. So true. I don't know what more does he need to do in order to get promoted. Excellent referee.

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    2. It is really a pity, if you are good, you are good, it should not matter where are you from!

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    3. I am puzzled, I watched him a few times and he always impressed me, even since 2015 and GUI-DYK he showed to be a top class referee.

      He is the format of referee that the Elite Category is missing IMO, I doubt so many would have 'balls' like him, eg POL-SWE and DOR-SAL, but you can see it in every match he whistles not just isolatedly every now and again.

      Even more puzzling with regards to the politics on the RefCom, is the role of Mr Sajn!
      I hope Vincic can get his promotion in December, but I have my doubts...

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    4. Maybe UEFA prefers referees who "MANAGE" games instead of issuing cards. Just guessing...

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    5. Is there even a tiny bit of doubt about that Ray?

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    6. @RayHD

      Apparently, that's the case. Many examples of that.

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  18. UEFA UNDER-19 CHAMPIONSHIP - MATCH OFFICIALS

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MMU6JINzrxkPp0MjrWHlZCwp5cHGSVf8

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  19. Another BOOM! ;)

    Japanese assistant referee, Hiroshi Yamauchi (*1979), has been selected for the World Cup. It means we have a Japanese trio instead of a duo. They will most likely replace Saudians.

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    Replies
    1. This would be a good decision. Nevertheless, FIFA‘s non-transperency concerning the referees selection is annoying. It should not be too difficult to announce the teams that are likely to work on the pitch. This was common sense in the recent World Cups...

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    2. It's more than clear seeing the list... The referees whose both ARs are called will be the main referees and referees with only one AR called won't be in the middle!!

      @Ray Are the two Saudi assistants going to Russia?

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    3. So, if the list is clear, why don‘t they publish the trios? Do they want to surprise the referees? I am not sure whether they know their role themselves...

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    4. @Ref_1707 in my opinion it is clear that they want the maximum flexibility so they avoid to publish the trios.

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    5. @Ref They clearly know their roles!

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  20. Jonas Eriksson is retirees. Told swedish media that he has lost his motivation. Also today criticized Collina at the same time.

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    1. Basically what he says is that it is everyone but his fault... Who will take into account his poor performances that he served up one after the other?

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    2. Soham, you seem to forget some of the greatest performances that Eriksson provided to this game. You only focus on the negative ones.

      Why do you dislike him so much?

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    3. Agree with anonymous, you are so subjective Soham. Erikson is one good referee

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    4. I never said he isn't a good referee... But the fact that he is blaming FIFA, UEFA and everyone for the World Cup snub is uncalled for... He lost motivation in the last 2 seasons, performed extremely poorly and that didn't merit a World Cup call up... You can't call a referee based on how good he was 4 years ago! Eriksson has nothing to complain about as performances in last 2 seasons has been simply poor!

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    5. I think that Eriksson is right in blaming UEFA for losing his motivation. Eriksson is an Elite referee since July 2009. Meaning 9 years. It's definitely a long time.

      And on those 9 years, he didn't get the UCL final. It that fair for a referee who has been consistenly good and one of the best game-managers all those years? NO.

      Almost everyone on the Elite group got the final and even referees that were added there after Eriksson.

      So, im ny eyes, UEFA never treated Eriksson properly. The reasons? Unknown.

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    6. If that is enough to make someone lose motivation then it's better for him to retire... He got the Europa League Final and the performance there certainly didn't make a compelling case for CL final after that... Skomina waited for so long and is still waiting, I've never seen him complain like Eriksson... What will you say of Frank de Bleeckre then who was one of the finest UEFA referees but never got a Final?? I never find him going to all sorts of media and bash his bosses... Well showing one's dignity in such situations is also an art which not everyone can master :)

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    7. If you remember that final, Eriksson was pissed. You can tell from his body language. Probably because everyone considered him for the CL final and he was only given the EL one.

      So your problem is that he complains? I can live with that. He is entitled to his opinion. And he can share it in public.

      But, I agree. He should have retired after EURO 2016 when his career was on it's peak.

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    8. So you admit that in a major Club competition final he was pissed... That effectively means he didn't give his best in the match that was in hand... That's just lack of professionalism, do you think Sevilla and Liverpool deserved a referee that would be uninterested and pissed in an EL Final just because he was kept out of CL Final?? It's very fair in itself that he isn't chosen for the World Cup... Would have made little sense anyway to take him to Russia, appoint him to Iran v Morocco and Panama v Tunisia and then send him home!!

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    9. Every referee can have a bad day.

      Even your favorite Kuipers had many bad days. He was practically the worst referee on Euro 2012. He was rightfully send home and should have been demoted after that failure.

      And don't tell me about his comeback because not many referees took a second chance.

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    10. So you mean to say Eriksson didn't get chances?? He got chances after chances since 2016 and served up dross in every match... And yes Kuipers had a bad day in Chelsea v PSG and his Euro 2012 wasn't good but of course not as bad as you state that he should be demoted and for sure you can see that Committee doesn't agree with you... You even said that Mazic deserved a demotion after Atletico v Real in 2015 so when someone can say that, well I know how good his interpretations are... Anyway then we saw what an absolutely fantastic 2012/2013 he had which culminated in a Final... Eriksson got games after games and messed up each one of them since the EL final in 2016... So deservedly he's out from World Cup and your comparison with Kuipers falls absolutely flat on its face!!

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    11. First of all, calm down. No need for insults. My interpretations are just fine. I follow UEFA/FIFA refereeing for many years, so I have formed a solid opinion.

      Second, you are missing the point. I am not saying the Eriksson should go to this WC (even though I would take him as VAR) but I am merely suggesting that his loss of motivation wasn't his fault. Before 2016, he could and should have gotten the CL final in numerous occasions. IMO, that's the bigger issue. The psychological effect. Seeing other referee's bypassing you on the selection order and when you have more years on the FIFA list, can be frustrating. Especially since your performances totally justify a final. And at the same time you watch other political choices to be selected ahead of you.

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    12. I don't agree to be honest... Skomina hasn't been ever selected for a World Cup and had to wait for his first final till 2017... If he never lost motivation it shows that what happened to Eriksson is not mainstream... And to be honest each one of Proenca, Rizzoli, Kuipers, Cakir and Clattenburg deserved their appointments fully based on performances across their careers till then... Eriksson got EL final and he should have taken that as an honour instead of losing motivation... In case of good performance from then on he could have CL final in the next years but he messed up his own chances!!

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    13. Do you remember Skomina prior to the 2014 WC? Do you remember his mistakes? He was rightfully left out of the WC, even though PLC tried to force him into it. This was an equally loss of motivation.

      Every referee has a bad period. Others had it an bounced back. Unfortunately Eriksson had it on the end of his career.

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    14. That's the thing... Eriksson himself has cost his chances this type!

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  21. UEFA has released an official tweet about the Women promoted. That's absolutely something new.

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  22. https://www.tvm.com.mt/mt/sports/jirtira-r-referee-clayton-pisani/
    The confirmation that Pisani has retired.

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