Please find below the list of selected officials for 2023 UEFA Under 21 Championship.
Georgia & Romania, 21 June 2023 - 8 July 2023
Georgia, Group A & C
Referee: Äliyar Ağayev (Azerbaijan)
Assistant Referee 1: Zeynal Zeynalov (Azerbaijan)
Assistant Referee 2: Akif Ämirälı (Azerbaijan)
Referee: Duje Strukan (Croatia)
Assistant Referee 1: Bojan Zobenica (Croatia)
Assistant Refere 2: Alen Jakšić (Croatia)
Referee: Willy Delajod (France)
Assistant Referee 1: Erwan Christophe Finjean (France)
Assistant Referee 2: Cyril Mugnier (France)
Assistant Referee 1: Jan Erik Engan (Norway)
Assistant Referee 2: Isaak Bashevkin (Norway)
Referee: Horațiu Mircea Feşnic (Romania)
Assistant Referee 1: Valentin Avram (Romania)
Assistant Referee 2: Alexandru Cerei (Romania)
Assistant Referee 1: Jure Praprotnik (Slovenia)
Assistant Referee 2: Grega Kordež (Slovenia)
Fourth Officials: Juxhin Xhaja (Albania), Goga Kikacheishvili (Georgia)
Romania, Group B & D
Referee: Erik Lambrechts (Belgium)
Assistant Referee 1: Jo De Weirdt (Belgium)
Assistant Referee 2: Kevin Monteny (Belgium)
Assistant Referee 1: Jo De Weirdt (Belgium)
Assistant Referee 2: Kevin Monteny (Belgium)
Referee: Morten Krogh (Denmark)
Assistant Referee 1: Steffen Bramsen (Denmark)
Assistant Referee 2: Dennis Wollenberg Rasmussen (Denmark)
Assistant Referee 1: Steffen Bramsen (Denmark)
Assistant Referee 2: Dennis Wollenberg Rasmussen (Denmark)
Referee: Donatas Rumšas (Lithuania)
Assistant Referee 1: Aleksandr Radiuš (Lithuania)
Assistant Referee 2: Dovydas Sužiedėlis (Lithuania)
Assistant Referee 1: Aleksandr Radiuš (Lithuania)
Assistant Referee 2: Dovydas Sužiedėlis (Lithuania)
Referee: Allard Lindhout (Netherlands)
Assistant Referee 1: Erwin E. J. Zeinstra (Netherlands)
Assistant Referee 2: Rogier Honig (Netherlands)
Assistant Referee 1: Erwin E. J. Zeinstra (Netherlands)
Assistant Referee 2: Rogier Honig (Netherlands)
Referee: João Pedro Silva Pinheiro (Portugal)
Assistant Referee 1: Bruno Miguel Alves Jesus (Portugal)
Assistant Referee 2: Luciano António Gomes Maia (Portugal)
Assistant Referee 1: Bruno Miguel Alves Jesus (Portugal)
Assistant Referee 2: Luciano António Gomes Maia (Portugal)
Referee: Mohammed Al-Hakim (Sweden)
Assistant Referee 1: Fredrik Klyver (Sweden)
Assistant Referee 2: Robin Wilde (Sweden)
Assistant Referee 1: Fredrik Klyver (Sweden)
Assistant Referee 2: Robin Wilde (Sweden)
Fourth Officials: Sebastian Gishamer (Austria), Andrei Chivulete (Romania)
Wow, did my spell work? :D
ReplyDeleteThis list was already 'advanced' here IIRC when someone else asked for it. There are a couple of names I might disagree on, but overall it's a decent list and some of these referees should definitely be Elite material in the short/mid term.
My source from Slovenia told me, that Praprotnik will not go to championship.
ReplyDeleteNotable omissions in my opinion are Brisard, de Burgos, Glova and maybe Kavanagh as they are in the right age group and haven't been to an U21 EURO before (like all selected referees).
ReplyDeleteDelajod, Krogh and Lindhout seem to be the least advanced of the group as they haven't had their EL debut.
On the other side, Aghayev, Eskas, Pinheiro and Rumsas with CL experience and therefore probably front-runners for the later stages
Lindhout with Zeinstra is… interesting. They never work together and the latter is also with Gozubuyuk in Argentina.
ReplyDeleteIs Kuipers is the driving force behind this?
Delajod (from VAR to Main Referee), Rumsas (from Fourth Official to Main Referee), Zeinstra and Mugnier (both Assistant Referees) are the officials coming to this tournament directly from Argentina U20 WC.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is interesting how Zeinstra is managed at moment, after his outstanding career with Kuipers. It seems he is very eager to "help" his international colleagues to develop at international level. About Lindhout, a promotion to Category 1 is 100% expected, that is still a big miss for Netherlands, with two referees in Elite and nobody following them since a quite long time, definitely too long.
As for the rest, we have indeed the classic mix of this tournament, with some referees more experienced, having already attended Champions League group stage games. For them, this tournament is an occasion to develop more, on the road to possible Elite promotion. Then, we have some "middle" names, ready for Champions League group stage, but not still appointed, and finally the Category 2 referees, still needing time before thinking to big achievements.
Let's have a try with a scheme about referees potential targets:
Äliyar Ağayev Promotion to Elite Category
Duje Strukan Further development as Category 1 (CL debut)
Willy Delajod Promotion to Category 1
Espen Eskås Promotion to Elite Category
Horatiu Fesnic Further development as Category 1 (CL debut)
Rade Obrenović Further development as Category 1 (CL debut)
Erik Lambrechts Further development as Category 1 (CL debut)
Morten Krogh Promotion to Category 1
Donatas Rumšas Promotion to Elite Category
Allard Lindhout Promotion to Category 1
João Pedro Silva Pinheiro Promotion to Elite Category
Mohammed Al-Hakim Further development as Category 1 (CL debut)
Then, there is surely a clear difference among all referees who have the same target, due to experience and other matters. The closest referee to jump in Elite Category, looking also at the committe members observing him in recent times, is surely Silva Pinheiro. One must also mention Rumsas for sure, already with 3 CL GS games, but it seems there was kind of a stop in his career's development for a certain period. Nevertheless, still a big name due to the experience he has in the bigf competition, if compared to others. Äliyar Ağayev would be even ahead in term of focus by committee during the years, but his situation, we already discussed, is particular (in this case you can clearly see the difference between referees coming from certain countries and how they are managed: long times for referees from "minor" countries while acceleration for major countries).
In the pool of officials trying to reach Category 1, for many reasons the Dutch is clearly ahead, and he can't fail.
Of course you can disagree with my analysls :)
A final remark about VAR, if I'm not wrong, it was reported it will be NOT used: well, given that we had VAR in previous U21, I think that this can be even a specific choice by committee to have their referees always challenged and not relying on the tool. This tournament must be seen as real training for the future, so starting with VAR wouldn't help in understanding the real nature of some of them. This is just my idea, I don't know whether there were indeed technical issues for the stadiums in Georgia and Romania but basically I think committee could test their officials more, in this way.
My predictions for NL
ReplyDeleteNEDCRO: Kovacs - Petrescu (ROU) - Dankert, Fritz (GER)
ESPITA: Vincic - Obrenovic - Jug, Kajtazovic (SVN)
3rd place: Kruzliak - Glova (SVK) - Dingert, Dankert (GER)
Final: Soares Dias - Verissimo - Martins (POR), Millot (FRA)
And for EURO qualifiers
NORSCO: Schüttengruber (AUT) CYPGEO: Orlic (MDA)
SCOGEO: Makkelie (NED) NORCYP: Kralovic (SVK)
GREIRL: Raczkowski (POL) GIBFRA: Weinberger (AUT)
FRAGRE: Mateu (ESP) IRLGIB: Karako (HUN)
MLTENG: Guida (ITA) MKDUKR: Vad (HUN)
UKRMLT: Jenkins (WAL) ENGMKD: Grinfeeld (ISR)
WALARM: Jovic (CRO) LVATUR: England (ENG)
ARMLVA: Putros (DEN) TURWAL: Massa (ITA)
ALBMDA: Kamphuis (NED) FROCZE: Pawson (ENG)
MDAPOL: Turpin (FRA) FROALB: Jablonski (GER)
AZEEST: Pajac (CRO) BELAUT: Orsato (ITA)
AUTSWE: Collum (SCO) ESTBEL: Kavanagh (ENG)
LTUBUL: Ciochirca (AUT) MNEHUN: Sidiropoulos (GRE)
HUNLTU: Peljto (BIH) BULSRB: Reinshreiber (ISR)
FINSVN: de Burgos (ESP) DENNIR: Gil Manzano (ESP) SMRKAZ: Griffth (WAL)
FINSMR - Derevinskyi (UKR) NIRKAZ: Stavrev (MKD) SVNDEN: Taylor (ENG)
ANDSUI: Osmers (GER) BLRISR: Ladebäck (SWE) KOSROU: Siebert (GER)
SUIROU: Oliver (ENG) ISRAND: Hennessy (IRL) BLRKOS: Manouchos (GRE)
LUXLIE: Fotias (GRE) ISLSVK: Bastien (FRA) PORBIH: Stefanski (POL)
ISLPOR: Jovanovic (SRB) BIHLUX: Spasjonnikovs (LVA) LIESVK: Jakubik (POL)
I cannot imagine that UEFA will appoint Schüttengruber for NORSCO. Given that (probably) 18 referees will be required for EURO 2024, I would expect an Elite referee or at least a prospective referee for that tournament. Schüttengruber did not even handle an Europa League game or a Conference League knockout game last season. I am not even sure how UEFA ranks the Austrian referees Schüttengruber and Weinberger (both Category 1) compared to Gishamer and Ciochirca (both Category 2). Lechner, our long-time number 1, seems to have reached the zenith of his international career ...
DeleteYes, you are probably right, that NORSCO is a rather important game in the group. And I wasn't aware how badly the last two seasons went for Schüttengruber.
DeleteSo maybe the easy solution would be to give that game to Lechner. He should be experienced and ranked highly (3 EL games this season) enough.
Or Makkelie there and the Austrian in SCOGEO, if one wants to argue, that the latter one is the smaller game.
Does anyone know the list of FIFA observers at the U20 World Cup in Argentina? Thanks a lot.
ReplyDeleteToday Calderon and Falahi in U20, news for tomorrow, thanks a lot
ReplyDeleteFull appointments of QFs.
DeleteJune 3 matches:
COLITA: Falahi (QAT)
BRAISR: Calderón (CRC)
June 4 matches:
KORNGA: Sánchez Martínez (ESP)
USAURU: Gozubuyuk (NED)
With this, all 5 UEFA referees have had at least one KO stage appointment.
While I agree with Rumsas possible promotion to Elite, I disagree with Agayev. He didn't really show enough. For Eskas it might be also a little bit too early this summer. As for Pinheiro, of course he is almost sure for promotion this summer, although I think Rosetti was not happy with his rejection of CONMEBOL-UEFA experience exchange. Remember how good the season started for him; still it was a good season for the Portuguese with sonorous games and good performancs but he could have achieved even more.
ReplyDeletePinheiro missed the CONMEBOL tournament due to his involvement in the email scandal in Portugal
Deletewhat this scandal is about
ReplyDeleteKrogh withdrew after just 2 minutes of decisive relegation battle between Horsens and Lyngby in Danish Superligaen pointing to his calf. Hopefully just a small scare and ready in three weeks.
ReplyDelete