First professional referees in Portugal

Professional refereeing is being introduced in Portugal with a first group of nine FIFA referees: Pedro Proenca (photo), Olegario Benquerenca, Jorge Sousa, Artur Soares, Carlos Xistra, Duarte Gomes, Joao Capela, Hugo Miguel and Marco Ferreira. This new program will start in November 2013, with training sessions to be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, whenever possible, depending on their international match appointments.
"This is a historic day. The introduction of professional referees in Portugal will not eradicate the refereeing errors, but will definitely decrease them", said Melo Pereira, the chairman of the FPF Referees Committee. The referees will be paid 2,500 euro per month in addition to the game fees. The professional model will be adjusted next season, with the number expected to increase to 12/14 referees, with a fixed salary staggered into three groups, more game fees and performance bonus determined by technical criteria. In 2014-2015, the 10 FIFA assistant referees will be added to the list. In 2015-2016, the Portuguese Referees Committee estimates that the number of professionals will increase to 18/20 referees plus 10 assistant referees.

Source: Record

Aleckovic suspended for two years

FIFA referee Emir Aleckovic was recently suspended for two years by the Disciplinary Committee of the Bosnian Football Federation and will be removed from the FIFA List. He was found guilty of sending inappropriate text messages to the youth referees that he was mentoring in his home country. In July, Aleckovic was sent home by UEFA from the U-19 Euro 2013 in Lithuania, for "alleged wrongdoings in Bosnia-Herzegovina". Aleckovic, 33, became a FIFA referee in 2010. He was among the six referees selected for the UEFA U-19 Euro tournament, where he was only appointed to one match, France – Georgia.

Source: Sport.ba

FIFA U-17 World Cup 2013 – Quarter-finals

1 November 2013
Brazil – Mexico
Referee: Svein Oddvar Moen (NOR, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Kim Haglund (NOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Frank Andas (NOR)
Fourth Official: Daniel Bennett (RSA)
Reserve AR: Marwa Range (KEN)

Honduras – Sweden
Referee: Abdulrahman Abdou (QAT)
Assistant Referee 1: Taleb Al Marri (QAT)
Assistant Referee 2: Yaser Marad (KUW)
Fourth Official: Khalil Al Ghamdi (KSA)
Reserve AR: Miguel Nievas (URU)

2 November 2013
Uruguay – Nigeria
Referee: Jair Marrufo (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Eric Boria (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Ricardo Morgan (JAM)
Fourth Official: Pavel Kralovec (CZE)
Reserve AR: Martin Wilczek (CZE)

Argentina – Cote d’Ivoire
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Jan-Hendrik Salver (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Mike Pickel (GER)
Fourth Official: Norbert Hauata (TAH)
Reserve AR: Mark Rule (NZL)

Copa Sudamericana – Quarter-finals (First Leg)

29 October 2013
Lanus – River Plate
Referee: Diego Abal (ARG, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Ivan Nunez (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Gustavo Rossi (ARG)
Fourth Official: Silvio Trucco (ARG)
Referee Observer: Abel Gnecco (ARG)

30 October 2013
Sao Paulo – Atletico Nacional
Referee: Victor Carrillo (PER)
Assistant Referee 1: Johnny Bossio (PER)
Assistant Referee 2: Cesar Escano (PER)
Fourth Official: Manuel Garay (PER)
Referee Observer: Antonio Pereira (BRA)

31 October 2013
Ponte Petra – Velez Sarsfield
Referee: Dario Ubriaco (URU)
Assistant Referee 1: Mauricio Espinosa (URU)
Assistant Referee 2: Carlos Pastorino (URU)
Fourth Official: Daniel Fedorczuk (URU)
Referee Observer: Ednilson Corona (BRA)


Libertad – Itagui
Referee: Sandro Ricci (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Emerson Carvalho (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcio Santiago (BRA)
Fourth Official: Pericles Cortez (BRA)
Referee Observer: Manuel Bernal (PAR)

FIFA U-17 World Cup 2013 – Round of 16

28 October 2013
Italy – Mexico
Referee: Nestor Pitana (ARG, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Juan Belatti (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Diego Bonfa (ARG)
Fourth Official: Juan Soto (VEN)

Japan – Sweden
Referee: Badara Diatta (SEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Djibril Camara (SEN)
Assistant Referee 2: El Hadji Samba (SEN)
Fourth Official: Slim Jedidi (TUN)

Brazil – Russia
Referee: Khalil Al Ghamdi (KSA)
Assistant Referee 1: Badr Al Shumrani (KSA)
Assistant Referee 2: Hamed Al Mayahi (OMA)
Fourth Official: Abdulrahman Abdou (QAT)

Honduras – Uzbekistan
Referee: Pavel Kralovec (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Martin Wilczek (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Roman Slysko (SVK)
Fourth Official: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA)

29 October 2013
Uruguay – Slovakia
Referee: Marco Rodriguez (MEX)
Assistant Referee 1: Marvin Torrentera (MEX)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcos Quintero (MEX)
Fourth Official: Elmer Bonilla (SLV)

Morocco – Cote d’Ivoire
Referee: Craig Thomson (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Derek Rose (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: Alan Mulvanny (SCO)
Fourth Official: Mark Clattenburg (ENG)

Argentina – Tunisia
Referee: Svein Oddvar Moen (NOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Kim Haglund (NOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Frank Andas (NOR)
Fourth Official: Wolfgang Stark (GER)

Nigeria – Iran
Referee: Heber Lopes (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Alessandro Rocha (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcelo Van Gasse (BRA)
Fourth Official: Raul Orosco (BOL)

Expectations of World Cup referees

An intense month in the football calendar has come to an end. The last group qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil have come and gone, and the final berths are about to be claimed via the playoffs. Slowly but surely, the make-up of next year’s tournament is taking shape. Yet this isn’t just an intense time for the teams; the same is true for the officials. Impeccable performances and the fullest concentration are expected of them. Participation at the World Cup is on the line, and that means there’s a lot at stake - a huge amount in fact. So it isn’t just the players and football associations who are feeling the pressure. The world’s top referees are also in the spotlight. My team and I will analyze those games in detail. Part of the prospective team of officials for Brazil is currently in the United Arab Emirates for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, while other referees are officiating at tournaments in the confederations, taking the opportunity to stake their claim for a part in the biggest and most important tournament in the world. The anticipation is building among the referees too.
The plan is for the world’s best to officiate next summer. That’s what we are working towards. In a way, we’re leading “team neutral” to the World Cup. Let’s cast our minds back briefly. In mid-April we organised four-day seminars in each confederation. I led those intensive sessions, which covered various theoretical and practical exercises. We are presently working with three-man teams of officials from over 50 countries, but there is still an opportunity for others to add their name to the list of those who will referee in Brazil. Officials may not have the necessary abilities today, but that may not be the case tomorrow. Right now we are still only at the qualifying stage and we don’t yet know who’ll be in our team for the World Cup! The next thing for us to do is to make sure that the candidates for 2014 make decisions on the pitch based on uniform and consistent criteria. We are working towards achieving uniformity and consistency in our decision-making. These are the vital factors we have to consider. For me, the most important messages we have to get across to the players and the rest of the world are fair play and respect. We are travelling to Brazil, one of the top footballing nations. We need fair play and we need respect. Some situations require a split-second decision, while others arise when the referee doesn’t have a perfect view. So co-operation is extremely important. The players need to realise that football is a game that needs to be enjoyed and not ruined. It’s often very difficult for the referee to make the right decision when the players don’t play fair. One of the most important aspects of a referee’s training is to understand different footballing mentalities. How can referees improve in this area? Through practising their skill relentlessly, just as a player or coach would do. They have to watch and re-watch videos, noting down the differences. They have to “nourish” themselves with football, as it were. We have to understand every zone, whether it be Africa, Asia or Central America. That way our referees won’t be caught out by unexpected situations or reactions. We have to grasp the different football cultures as best we can. We place great importance on the referee being in the best possible position during the game, focusing especially on his movement and where he places himself during a game. A well-positioned referee can, for example, better assess and recognise what’s happening in the penalty area or in peripheral areas of the pitch where it can be difficult to see exactly what’s taking place. Obviously we can’t eradicate every mistake although we can do our utmost to minimise errors. But at the end of the day, we are all human and we will always make mistakes.

Source: Massimo Busacca / The FIFA Weekly

Seitz has retired after historic career

United States referee Kari Seitz recently announced her retirement, following a remarkable career that included 14 years at football’s highest levels. The 42-year-old worked matches in four FIFA Women's World Cups (1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011), the inaugural FIFA U-19 Women's World Cup in 2002 and three Olympic Games (Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012).
"I've had opportunities that I never could have imagined as an official starting out at just 14 years of age," said Seitz. "My life experiences as a referee have shaped me into the person I am today, from supporting youth matches, officiating amateur, professional matches in MLS, WUSA, WPS and recently NWSL. At the world stage with five World Cups and three Olympic games and countless other world class experiences, I can step aside with a tremendous sense of pride from helping advance the game in the United States.” Her farewell match took place on October 20, when she refereed the friendly international between the U.S. and Australia, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. "Kari has played a key role in the growth of women's soccer in the United States over the past 15 years, and her dedication to her craft has always been admirable," said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati. "She will always be a role model for young referees and we want to thank her for her tremendous work on behalf of U.S. Soccer and the women's game, both domestically and internationally."
Seitz has been in the middle for more than 200 professional matches, more than 1,000 college matches, and has refereed the U.S. Women’s National Team more than 50 times. She has also officiated 45 different women's national teams in 20 countries. She is the only referee to officiate in three different regional championships, working confederation tournaments in CONCACAF, Europe and Asia. Seitz became a member of the FIFA International List of Referees in 1999 after beginning her professional officiating career in 1998 as an assistant and center referee in MLS. In 2005, she was selected as one of 38 women - one of only five from CONCACAF - to participate in FIFA's first referee workshop for women at the 2005 Algarve Cup in Portugal. The full-time advertising executive also owns the distinction of having been selected to referee the women's Bronze Medal match at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, where she was one of only two referees chosen to represent the United States, as well as the Third Place Match at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany. She was also selected to officiate the opening women's match between Great Britain and New Zealand at the 2012 London Olympics.

Source: USSF/CONCACAF

UEFA Europa League – Group Stage (Matchday 3)

24 October 2013
 
Wigan – Rubin
Referee: Florian Meyer (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Holger Henschel (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Christoph Bornhorst (GER)
Additional AR 1: Bastian Dankert (GER)
Additional AR 2: Robert Hartmann (GER)
Fourth Official: Marco Achmuller (GER)
Referee Observer: Erol Ersoy (TUR)

Anji – Tromso
Referee: Gediminas Mazeika (LTU)
Assistant Referee 1: Vytautas Simkus (LTU)
Assistant Referee 2: Saulius Dirda (LTU)
Additional AR 1: Sergejus Slyva (LTU)
Additional AR 2: Jurij Paskovskij (LTU)
Fourth Official: Vytenis Kazlauskas (LTU)
Referee Observer: Leslie Irvine (NIR) 

Shakhter – AZ Alkmaar
Referee: Yevhen Aranovskiy (UKR)
Assistant Referee 1: Oleksandr Voytyuk (UKR)
Assistant Referee 2: Serhiy Bekker (UKR)
Additional AR 1: Serhiy Boiko (UKR)
Additional AR 2: Anatoliy Abdula (UKR)
Fourth Official: Volodymyr Volodin (UKR)
Referee Observer: Karel Bohunek (CZE)

PAOK – Maccabi Haifa
Referee: Fernando Teixeira (ESP)



Assistant Referee 1: Victoriano Diaz Casado (ESP)



Assistant Referee 2: Teodoro Sobrino (ESP)



Additional AR 1: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (ESP)



Additional AR 2: Carlos Del Cerro (ESP)
Fourth Official: Javier Rodriguez (ESP)
Referee Observer: Kaj Natri (FIN)

Sheriff – Tottenham
Referee: Liran Liany (ISR)



Assistant Referee 1: Shabtai Nahmias (ISR)



Assistant Referee 2: David Elias Biton (ISR)



Additional AR 1: Menashe Masiah (ISR)



Additional AR 2: Daniel Natan (ISR)
Fourth Official: Oren Borneshtain (ISR)
Referee Observer: Zoran Petrović (SRB)

Genk – Rapid Wien
Referee: Antony Gautier (FRA)



Assistant Referee 1: Guillaume Debart (FRA)



Assistant Referee 2: Nicolas Danos (FRA)



Additional AR 1: Benoît Millot (FRA)



Additional AR 2: Olivier Thual (FRA)
Fourth Official: Frédéric Haquette (FRA)
Referee Observer: Zdravko Jokić (SRB)

Dinamo Kyiv – Thun
Referee: Halis Özkahya (TUR)



Assistant Referee 1: Çem Satman (TUR)



Assistant Referee 2: Kemal Yilmaz (TUR)



Additional AR 1: Tolga Özkalfa (TUR)



Additional AR 2: Süleyman Abay (TUR)
Fourth Official: Serkan Ok (TUR)
Referee Observer: Stephen Bennett (ENG)

Liberec – Sevilla
Referee: Michael Dean (ENG)



Assistant Referee 1: Jake Collin (ENG)



Assistant Referee 2: Simon Long (ENG)



Additional AR 1: Lee Probert (ENG)



Additional AR 2: Robert Madley (ENG)
Fourth Official: Darren Cann (ENG)
Referee Observer: Michel Piraux (BEL)

Freiburg – Estoril
Referee: Stanislav Todorov (BUL)



Assistant Referee 1: Veselin Dobriyanov (BUL)



Assistant Referee 2: Ivo Kolev (BUL)



Additional AR 1: Nikolai Yordanov (BUL)



Additional AR 2: Ivaylo Stoyanov (BUL)
Fourth Official: Ivan Valchev (BUL)
Referee Observer: Fritz Stuchlik (AUT)

Lyon – Rijeka
Referee: Artur Soares (POR)



Assistant Referee 1: Bertino Miranda (POR)



Assistant Referee 2: Rui Tavares (POR)



Additional AR 1: João Capela (POR)



Additional AR 2: Hugo Miguel (POR)
Fourth Official: Venâncio Tomé (POR)
Referee Observer: Jozef Marko (SVK)

Betis – Guimaraes
Referee: Michael Koukoulakis (GRE)



Assistant Referee 1: Dimitrios Saraidaris (GRE)



Assistant Referee 2: Christos Baltas (GRE)



Additional AR 1: Tasos Sidiropoulos (GRE)



Additional AR 2: Anastassios Kakos (GRE)
Fourth Official: lazaros Dimitriadis (GRE)
Referee Observer: Frank De Bleeckere (BEL)

Trabzonspor – Legia
Referee: Vladislav Bezborodov (RUS)



Assistant Referee 1: Nikolai Golubev (RUS)



Assistant Referee 2: Vyacheslav Semenov (RUS)



Additional AR 1: Aleksei Eskov (RUS)



Additional AR 2: Sergei Ivanov (RUS)
Fourth Official: Maksim Gavrilin (RUS)
Referee Observer: Jan Carlsen (DEN)

Apollon – Lazio
Referee: Manuel De Sousa (POR)



Assistant Referee 1: Ricardo Santos (POR)



Assistant Referee 2: Nuno Pereira (POR)



Additional AR 1: Carlos Xistra (POR)



Additional AR 2: Marco Ferreira (POR)
Fourth Official: Antonio Godinho (POR)
Referee Observer: Marinus Koopman (NED)

Swansea – Kuban
Referee: Kristinn Jakobsson (ISL)



Assistant Referee 1: Sigurdur Thorleifsson (ISL)



Assistant Referee 2: Áskell Gíslason (ISL)



Additional AR 1: Thoroddur Hjaltalin (ISL)



Additional AR 2: Gunnar Jónsson (ISL)
Fourth Official: Gunnar Gunnarsson (ISL)
Referee Observer: Shmuel Shteif (ISR)

Valencia – St. Gallen
Referee: Pol van Boekel (NED)



Assistant Referee 1: Angelo Boonman (NED)



Assistant Referee 2: Berry Simons (NED)



Additional AR 1: Dennis Higler (NED)



Additional AR 2: Tom van Sichem (NED)
Fourth Official: Patrick Langkamp (NED)
Referee Observer: Alan Snoddy (NIR)

Chornomorets Odesa – Ludogorets
Referee: Alexandru Tudor (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Aurel Onita (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Miklos Nagy (ROU)
Additional AR 1: Marius Avram (ROU)
Additional AR 2: Robert Dumitru (ROU)
Fourth Official: Ovidiu Artene (ROU)
Referee Observer: Georgios Bikas (GRE)

Dinamo Zagreb – PSV Eindhoven
Referee: Pawel Gil (POL)



Assistant Referee 1: Piotr Sadczuk (POL)



Assistant Referee 2: Marcin Borkowski (POL)



Additional AR 1: Robert Malek (POL)



Additional AR 2: Paweł Raczkowski (POL)
Fourth Official: Konrad Sapela (POL)
Referee Observer: Bertrand Layec (FRA)

Elfsborg – Esbjerg
Referee: Michael Oliver (ENG)



Assistant Referee 1: Stuart Burt (ENG)



Assistant Referee 2: Darren England (ENG)



Additional AR 1: Andre Marriner (ENG)



Additional AR 2: Jonathan Moss (ENG)
Fourth Official: Michael Mullarkey (ENG)
Referee Observer: Stefano Farina (ITA)

Salzsburg – Standard Liège
Referee: Ivan Kružliak (SVK)



Assistant Referee 1: Martin Balko (SVK)



Assistant Referee 2: Tomaš Somolani (SVK)



Additional AR 1: Richard Trutz (SVK)



Additional AR 2: Peter Kralović (SVK)
Fourth Official: Tomaš Mokoš (SVK)
Referee Observer: Luciano Luci (ITA)

Zulte Waregem – Maribor
Referee: Stephan Studer (SUI)



Assistant Referee 1: Jean-Yves Wicht (SUI)



Assistant Referee 2: Sladan Josipović (SUI)



Additional AR 1: Alain Bieri (SUI)



Additional AR 2: Stephan Klossner (SUI)
Fourth Official: Johannes Vogel (SUI)
Referee Observer: Raymond Ellingham (WAL)

Paços Ferreira – Dnipro
Referee: Tony Chapron (FRA)



Assistant Referee 1: Stephan Luzi (FRA)



Assistant Referee 2: Fredji Harchay (FRA)



Additional AR 1: Said Ennjimi (FRA)



Additional AR 2: Wilfried Bien (FRA)
Fourth Official: David Benech (FRA)
Referee Observer: Matteo Trefoloni (ITA)

Fiorentina – Pandurii
Referee: Miroslav Zelinka (CZE)



Assistant Referee 1: Ondřej Pelikán (CZE)



Assistant Referee 2: Patrik Filipek (CZE)



Additional AR 1: Petr Ardeleanu (CZE)



Additional AR 2: Radek Příhoda (CZE)
Fourth Official: Krystof Mencl (CZE)
Referee Observer: Johannes Reijgwart (NED)

Bordeaux – Apoel
Referee: Martin Strömbergsson (SWE)



Assistant Referee 1: Joakim Flink (SWE)



Assistant Referee 2: Per Brogevik (SWE)



Additional AR 1: Johan Hamlin (SWE)



Additional AR 2: Mohammed Al-Hakim (SWE)
Fourth Official: Henrik Andren (SWE)
Referee Observer: Sokol Jareci (ALB)

Eintracht Frankfurt – Maccabi Tel Aviv
Referee: Antonio Damato (ITA)



Assistant Referee 1: Massimilano Grilli (ITA)



Assistant Referee 2: Andrea Padovan (ITA)



Additional AR 1: Mauro Bergonzi (ITA)



Additional AR 2: Carmine Russo (ITA)
Fourth Official: Giulio Dobosz (ITA)
Referee Observer: Miroslav Vitkovic (CRO)


 

FIFA U-17 World Cup 2013 – Group Stage (Matchday 3)

23 October 2013
Italy – Uruguay
Referee: Khalil Al Ghamdi (KSA)
Assistant Referee 1: Badr Al Shumrani (KSA)
Assistant Referee 2: Hamed Al Mayahi (OMA)
Fourth Official: Mohammed Mohamed (UAE)

New Zealand – Cote d’Ivoire
Referee: Abdulrahman Abdou (QAT)
Assistant Referee 1: Taleb Al Marri (QAT)
Assistant Referee 2: Yaser Marad (KUW)
Fourth Official: Bamalak Tessema (ETH)

Slovakia – UAE
Referee: Juan Soto (VEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jorge Urrego (VEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Carlos Lopez (VEN)
Fourth Official: Julio Quintana (PAR)

Honduras – Brazil
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Jan-Hendrik Salver (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Mike Pickel (GER)
Fourth Official: Abdelkader Zitouni (TAH)

24 October 2013
Venezuela – Russia
Referee: Daniel Bennett (RSA)
Assistant Referee 1: Marwa Range (KEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Zakhele Siwela (RSA)
Fourth Official: Kenn Hansen (DEN)

Japan – Tunisia
Referee: Norbert Hauata (TAH)
Assistant Referee 1: Mark Rule (NZL)
Assistant Referee 2: Tevita Makasini (TGA)
Fourth Official: Hugo Cruz (CRC)

Uzbekistan – Croatia
Referee: Elmer Bonilla (SLV)
Assistant Referee 1: Octavio Jara (CRC)
Assistant Referee 2: Hermenerito Leal (GUA)
Fourth Official: Julio Quintana (PAR)

Morocco – Panama
Referee: Pavel Kralovec (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Martin Wilczek (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Roman Slysko (SVK)
Fourth Official: Bamlak Tessema (ETH)

25 October 2013
Nigeria – Irak
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Elenito Di Liberatore (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Gianluca Cariolato (ITA)
Fourth Official: Kenn Hansen (DEN)

Sweden – Mexico
Referee: Kim Dong-Jin (KOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Hae Sang Jeong (KOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Byoung Eun Yang (KOR)
Fourth Official: Mohammed Mohamed (UAE)

Argentina – Canada
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Stephen Child (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Simon Beck (ENG)
Fourth Official: Abdelkader Zitouni (TAH)

Austria – Iran
Referee: Raul Orosco (BOL)
Assistant Referee 1: Efrain Castro (BOL)
Assistant Referee 2: Arol Valda (BOL)
Fourth Official: Hugo Cruz (CRC)

CONCACAF Champions League – Group Stage (Matchday 6)

22 October 2013
Club America – Alajuelense
Referee: Roberto Moreno (PAN, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Daniel Williamson (PAN)
Assistant Referee 2: Keytzel Corrales (NCA)
Fourth Official: John Pitti (PAN)
Referee Observer: Carlos Pastrana (HON)

Herediano – Cruz Azul
Referee: Walter Lopez (GUA)
Assistant Referee 1: Gerson Lopez (GUA)
Assistant Referee 2: Ronaldo De la Cruz (GUA)
Fourth Official: Juan Guerra (GUA)
Referee Observer: Amilcar Burgos (HON)

23 October 2013
Sporting Kansas City – CD Olimpia
Referee: Joel Aguilar (SLV)
Assistant Referee 1: Juan Zumba (SLV)
Assistant Referee 2: William Torres (SLV)
Fourth Official: Henry Bejerano (CRC)
Referee Observer: David Jones (BLZ)

Deportivo Toluca – Comunicaciones FC
Referee: Walter Quesada (CRC)
Assistant Referee 1: Leonel Leal (CRC)
Assistant Referee 2: Carlos Fernandez (CRC)
Fourth Official: Ricardo Montero (CRC)
Referee Observer: Sandra Hunt (USA)

San Jose Earthquakes – CD Heredia
Referee: Roberto Garcia (MEX)
Assistant Referee 1: Alberto Morin (MEX)
Assistant Referee 2: Jose Camargo (MEX)
Fourth Official: Armando Castro (HON)
Referee Observer: Amato DeLuca (CAN)

CD Victoria – LA Firpo
Referee: Oscar Reyna (GUA)
Assistant Referee 1: Juan Lemus (GUA)
Assistant Referee 2: Marco Diaz (GUA)
Fourth Official: Oscar Davila (NCA)
Referee Observer: Mauricio Morales (MEX)

24 October 2013
Arabe Unido – Houston Dynamo
Referee: Courtney Campbell (JAM)
Assistant Referee 1: Graeme Browne (SKN)
Assistant Referee 2: Ramon Louisville (SUR)
Fourth Official: William Anderson (PUR)
Referee Observer: Victor Moore (BRB)


Isidro Metapan – Los Angeles Galaxy
Referee: Paul Bonilla (MEX)
Assistant Referee 1: Hector Delgadillo (MEX)
Assistant Referee 2: Juan Rengel (MEX)
Fourth Official: Javier Santos (PUR)
Referee Observer: Efrain Rodriguez (CRC)

Copa Sudamericana – Round of 16 (Second Leg, II)

22 October 2013
Deportivo Pasto – Ponte Preta
Referee: Marlon Escalante (VEN, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Luis Sanchez (VEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Luis Murillo (VEN)
Fourth Official: Adrian Cabello (VEN)
Referee Observer: Pablo Montoya (COL)


23 October 2013
Universidad Catolica – Sao Paulo
Referee: Antonio Arias (PAR)
Assistant Referee 1: Rodney Aquino (PAR)
Assistant Referee 2: Carlos Caceres (PAR)
Fourth Official: Mario Diaz de Vivar (PAR)
Referee Observer: Patricio Basualto (CHI)

Sport Recife – Libertad
Referee: Dario Ubriaco (URU)
Assistant Referee 1: Carlos Pastorino (URU)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcelo Costa (URU)
Fourth Official: Andres Cunha (URU)
Referee Observer: Milton Octaviano (BRA)

24 October 2013
Bahia – Atletico Nacional
Referee: Diego Abal (ARG)
Assistant Referee 1: Hernan Maidana (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Ezequiel Brailovsky (ARG)
Fourth Official: Pablo Diaz (ARG)
Referee Observer: Manoel Serapiao (BRA)

Itagui – Coritiba
Referee: Carlos Vera (ECU)
Assistant Referee 1: Christian Lescano (ECU)
Assistant Referee 2: Byron Romero (ECU)
Fourth Official: Jose Espinel (ECU)
Referee Observer: Luis Agudelo (COL)

UEFA Champions League – Group Stage (Matchday 3)

22 October 2013
Arsenal London – Borussia Dortmund
Referee: Jonas Eriksson (SWE, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Mathias Klasenius (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Daniel Warnmark (SWE)
Additional AR 1: Stefan Johannesson (SWE)
Additional AR 2: Markus Strombergsson (SWE)
Fourth Official: Daniel Gustavsson (SWE)
Referee Observer: Oguz Sarvan (TUR)

Schalke – Chelsea

Referee: Viktor Kassai (HUN)
Assistant Referee 1: Gyorgy Ring (HUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Vencel Toth (HUN)
Additional AR 1: Sandor Ando-Szabo (HUN)
Additional AR 2: Zsolt Szabo (HUN)
Fourth Official: Robert Kispal (HUN)
Referee Observer: Vaclav Krondl (CZE)

Steaua – Basel
Referee: Matej Jug (SVN)
Assistant Referee 1: Matej Zunic (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Roland Brandner (AUT)
Additional AR 1: Slavko Vincic (SVN)
Additional AR 2: Dejan Balazic (SVN)
Fourth Official: Jure Praprotnik (SVN)
Referee Observer: Domenico Messina (ITA)

Olympique Marseille – SSC Napoli
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Bahattin Duran (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: Tarik Ongun (TUR)
Additional AR 1: Huseyin Gocek (TUR)
Additional AR 2: Baris Simsek (TUR)
Fourth Official: Emre Eyisoy (TUR)
Referee Observer: Terje Hauge (NOR)

FC Porto – Zenit St. Petersburg
Referee: Paolo Tagliavento (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Mauro Tonolini (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Lorenzo Manganelli (ITA)
Additional AR 1: Paolo Mazzoleni (ITA)
Additional AR 2: Paolo Valeri (ITA)
Fourth Official: Alessandro Giallatini (ITA)
Referee Observer: Manuel Díaz Vega (ESP)

Austria Wien – Atletico Madrid
Referee: Daniele Orsato (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Andrea Stefani (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Renato Faverani (ITA)
Additional AR 1: Luca Banti (ITA)
Additional AR 2: Andrea De Marco (ITA)
Fourth Official: Riccardo Di Fiore (ITA)
Referee Observer: Patrick Kelly (IRL)

Celtic Glasgow – Ajax Amsterdam
Referee: Ivan Bebek (CRO)
Assistant Referee 1: Tomislav Petrovic (CRO)
Assistant Referee 2: Miro Grgic (CRO)
Additional AR 1: Domagoj Vuckov (CRO)
Additional AR 2: Goran Gabrilo (CRO)
Fourth Official: Dalibor Conjar (CRO)
Referee Observer: Vitor Melo Pereira (POR)

AC Milan – FC Barcelona
Referee: Felix Brych (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Mark Borsch (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Stefan Lupp (GER)
Additional AR 1: Tobias Welz (GER)
Additional AR 2: Guido Winkmann (GER)
Fourth Official: Tobias Christ (GER)
Referee Observer: Horst Brummeier (AUT)

23 October 2013
Manchester United – Real Sociedad
Referee: Bas Nijhuis (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Rob van de Ven (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Charles John Schaap (NED)
Additional AR 1: Serdar Gozubuyuk (NED)
Additional AR 2: Ed Janssen (NED)
Fourth Official: Hessel Steegstra (NED)
Referee Observer: Roberto Rosetti (ITA)

Bayer Leverkusen – Shakhtar Donetsk
Referee: Stephane Lannoy (FRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Frederic Cano (FRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Michael Annonier (FRA)
Additional AR 1: Fredy Fautrel (FRA)
Additional AR 2: Ruddy Buquet (FRA)
Fourth Official: Eric Dansault (FRA)
Referee Observer: Levan Paniashvili (GEO)

Real Madrid – Juventus Torino
Referee: Manuel Grafe (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Thorsten Schiffner (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Guido Kleve (GER)
Additional AR 1: Marco Fritz (GER)
Additional AR 2: Tobias Stieler (GER)
Fourth Official: Christian Fischer (GER)
Referee Observer: Hugh Dallas (SCO)

Galatasaray – Kobenhavn
Referee: Aleksandar Stavrev (MKD)
Assistant Referee 1: Marjan Kirovski (MKD)
Assistant Referee 2: Dejan Kostadinov (MKD)
Additional AR 1: Dimitar Mecharovski (MKD)
Additional AR 2: Goran Spirkoski (MKD)
Fourth Official: Nikola Karakolev (MKD)
Referee Observer: Laszlo Vagner (HUN)

Benfica – Olympiacos
Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (ESP)
Assistant Referee 1: Raul Cabanero Martínez (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: Roberto Diaz Perez (ESP)
Additional AR 1: Carlos Clos Gomez (ESP)
Additional AR 2: Javier Estrada Fernandez (ESP)
Fourth Official: Pau Cebrian Devis (ESP)
Referee Observer: Rene Temmink (NED)

Anderlecht – Paris SG
Referee: David Fernandez Borbalan (ESP)
Assistant Referee 1: Jesus Calvo Guadamuro (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: Jose Fernandez Miranda (ESP)
Additional AR 1: Cesar Muniz Fernandez (ESP)
Additional AR 2: Jesus Gil Manzano (ESP)
Fourth Official: Roberto Alonso Fernandez (ESP)
Referee Observer: Francesco Bianchi (SUI)

CSKA Moskva – Manchester City
Referee: Ovidiu Hategan (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Cristian Nica (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Octavian Sovre (ROU)
Additional AR 1: Cristian Balaj (ROU)
Additional AR 2: Istvan Kovacs (ROU)
Fourth Official: Sebastian Gheorghe (ROU)
Referee Observer: Nuno Castro (POR)

Bayern Munchen – Viktoria Plzen
Referee: Alan Kelly (IRL)
Assistant Referee 1: Damien MacGraith (IRL)
Assistant Referee 2: Dermot Broughton (IRL)
Additional AR 1: Neil Doyle (IRL)
Additional AR 2: Padraigh Sutton (IRL)
Fourth Official: Allen Lynch (IRL)
Referee Observer: Ilkka Koho (FIN)

FIFA U-17 World Cup 2013 – Group Stage (Matchday 2)

20 October 2013
UAE – Brazil
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (ENG, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Stephen Child (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Simon Beck (ENG)
Fourth Official: Jair Marrufo (USA)

Slovakia – Honduras
Referee: Abdulrahman Abdou (QAT)
Assistant Referee 1: Taleb Al Marri (QAT)
Assistant Referee 2: Yaser Marad (KUW)
Fourth Official: Khalil Al Ghamdi (KSA)

Uruguay – Cote d'Ivoire
Referee: Craig Thomson (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Derek Rose (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: Alan Mulvanny (SCO)
Fourth Official: Bamlak Tessema (ETH)

Italy – New Zealand
Referee: Elmer Bonilla (SLV)
Assistant Referee 1: Octavio Jara (CRC)
Assistant Referee 2: Hermenerito Leal (GUA)
Fourth Official: Hugo Cruz (CRC)

21 October 2013
Croatia – Panama
Referee: Norbert Hauata (TAH)
Assistant Referee 1: Mark Rule (NZL)
Assistant Referee 2: Tevita Makasini (TGA)
Fourth Official: Abdelkader Zitouni (TAH)

Uzbekistan – Morocco
Referee: Raul Orosco (BOL)
Assistant Referee 1: Efrain Castro (BOL)
Assistant Referee 2: Arol Valda (BOL)
Fourth Official: Mohammed Mohamed (UAE)

Tunisia – Russia
Referee: Kim Dong-Jin (KOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Hae Sang Jeong (KOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Byoung Eun Yang (KOR)
Fourth Official: Julio Quintana (PAR)

Japan – Venezuela
Referee: Badara Diatta (SEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Djibril Camara (SEN)
Assistant Referee 2: El Hadji Samba (SEN)
Fourth Official: Kenn Hansen (DEN)

22 October 2013
Canada – Iran
Referee: Heber Lopes (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Alessandro Rocha (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcelo Van Gasse (BRA)
Fourth Official: Abdelkader Zitouni (TAH)

Mexico – Irak
Referee: Slim Jedidi (TUN)
Assistant Referee 1: Bechir Hassani (TUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Anouar Hmila (TUN)
Fourth Official: Bamlak Tessema (ETH)

Argentina – Austria
Referee: Jair Marrufo (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Eric Boria (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Ricardo Morgan (JAM)
Fourth Official: Kenn Hansen (DEN)

Sweden – Nigeria
Referee: Nestor Pitana (ARG)
Assistant Referee 1: Juan Belatti (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Diego Bonfa (ARG)
Fourth Official: Hugo Cruz (CRC)

Felix Brych allowed a “ghost goal” in Bundesliga

Bundesliga team Hoffenheim will protest against their 2-1 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen last night after Stefan Kiessling’s 70th minute header was awarded as a goal despite the ball clearly going wide of the post and through a hole in the side netting. Referee Felix Brych failed to see that the ball did not cross the goal-line, although Kiessling’s reaction suggested who knew exactly what had happened as he held his head in his hands in disbelief that he had missed the target. But after a few seconds of confusion had passed, the Leverkusen players realised that Brych had awarded the goal, to which the Hoffenheim players accepted as the ball was in the back of the net. Hoffenheim managing director Alexander Rosen said: "It's a scandal. That was no goal, there are no two ways about it. We are definitely going to protest".
Felix Brych, a FIFA referee pre-selected for the World Cup 2014, said that no player had indicated it was not a goal. "I had a slight doubt but the reaction from the players was clear - nobody was against [the decision]," Brych said. "I checked with Kiessling. But no-one, not even him, said that it wasn't a goal. The ball was in the net and for everyone on the pitch it was a legitimate goal." Meanwhile, goal-scorer Kiessling has apologised saying he could "fully understand the reactions" to the goal. "After seeing the replays on television, I can clearly see that it was not a legitimate goal," he said. "During the game, after heading the ball and turning my head, I did not exactly see whether the ball had gone into the goal or not. Somehow, the ball was lying in the goal and I said exactly that to the referee. I'm sorry for all sports fans. Naturally, it's not nice to win like that. Fairness is important in sport, for us in the club and for me personally." Several Hoffenheim substitutes raced behind the goal to examine the netting and appeared to try to point out Brych's error. But the referee was by then powerless to overrule his original decision.
Rudi Voller, Leverkusen's sporting director, said: "That's not how we wanted to win the game. The fair result would have been a 2-2." Leverkusen were leading through Sidney Sam's 26th-minute opener when the controversy happened. Germany international Kiessling headed a corner wide of the near post, and could be seen turning away in frustration before Brych awarded the goal. The referee then awarded Hoffenheim a generous penalty when Roberto Firmino was fouled a foot outside the penalty area. But Firmino's spot-kick was saved. Sven Schipplock pulled a goal back for Hoffenheim two minutes from the end, but they could not save a point and fell to their first home defeat of the season.

Source: BBC Sports

FIFA U-17 World Cup 2013 – Group Stage (Matchday 1)

17 October 2013
Brazil – Slovakia
Referee: Marco Rodriguez (MEX, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Marvin Torrentera (MEX)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcos Quintero (MEX)
Fourth Official: Abdulrahman Abdou (QAT)

UAE – Honduras
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Elenito Di Liberatore (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Gianluca Cariolato (ITA)
Fourth Official: Svein Oddvar Moen (NOR)

Uruguay – New Zealand
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Jan-Hendrik Salver (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Mike Pickel (GER)
Fourth Official: Kenn Hansen (DEN)

Cote d'Ivoire – Italy
Referee: Nestor Pitana (ARG)
Assistant Referee 1: Juan Belatti (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Diego Bonfa (ARG)
Fourth Official: Julio Quintana (PAR)
 

18 October 2013
Croatia – Morocco
Referee: Jair Marrufo (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Eric Boria (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Ricardo Morgan (JAM)
Fourth Official: Hugo Cruz (CRC)

Panama – Uzbekistan
Referee: Daniel Bennett (RSA)
Assistant Referee 1: Marwa Range (KEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Zakhele Siwela (RSA)
Fourth Official: Bamlak Tessema (ETH)

Tunisia – Venezuela
Referee: Khalil Al Ghamdi (KSA)
Assistant Referee 1: Badr Al Shumrani (KSA)
Assistant Referee 2: Hamed Al Mayahi (OMA)
Fourth Official: Mohammed Mohamed (UAE)

Russia – Japan
Referee: Heber Lopes (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Alessandro Rocha (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcelo Van Gasse (BRA)
Fourth Official: Abdelkader Zitouni (TAH)
 

19 October 2013
Canada – Austria
Referee: Slim Jedidi (TUN)
Assistant Referee 1: Bechir Hassani (TUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Anouar Hmila (TUN)
Fourth Official: Julio Quintana (PAR)

Iran – Argentina
Referee: Pavel Kralovec (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Martin Wilczek (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Roman Slysko (SVK)
Fourth Official: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA)

Mexico – Nigeria
Referee: Svein Oddvar Moen (NOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Kim Haglund (NOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Frank Andas (NOR)
Fourth Official: Kenn Hansen (DEN)

Iraq – Sweden
Referee: Juan Soto (VEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jorge Urrego (VEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Carlos Lopez (VEN)

Fourth Official: Marco Rodriguez (MEX)

AFC Champions League Final 2013

First Leg, 26 October 2013
FC Seoul – Guangzhou Evergrande
Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (UZB, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Abduxamidullo Rasulov (UZB)
Assistant Referee 2: Bakhadyr Kochkarov (KGZ)
Fourth Official: Valentin Kovalenko (UZB)

Second Leg, 9 November 2013
Guangzhou Evergrande – FC Seoul
Referee: Nawaf Shukralla (BHR)
Assistant Referee 1: Yasser Tulefat (BHR)
Assistant Referee 2: Ebrahim Saleh (BHR)
Fourth Official: Ali Al-Samah (BHR)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – UEFA

15 October 2013

Bulgaria – Czech Republic
Referee: Viktor Kassai (HUN, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Gabor Eros (HUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Gyorgy Ring (HUN)
Fourth Official: Sandor Szabo (HUN)

Serbia – Macedonia
Referee: Richard Trutz (SVK)
Assistant Referee 1: Martin Balko (SVK)
Assistant Referee 2: Radomir Sluk (SVK)
Fourth Official: Peter Kralovic (SVK)

Belgium – Wales
Referee: Sergei Karasev (RUS)
Assistant Referee 1: Tikhon Kalugin (RUS)
Assistant Referee 2: Anton Averianov (RUS)
Fourth Official: Vitaly Meshkov (RUS)

Scotland – Croatia
Referee: Ovidiu Hategan (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Cristian Nica (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Octavian Sovre (ROU)
Fourth Official: Sebastian Coltescu (ROU)

Denmark – Malta
Referee: Aleksandar Stavrev (MKD)
Assistant Referee 1: Marjan Kirovski (MKD)
Assistant Referee 2: Dejan Kostadinov (MKD)
Fourth Official: Dejan Jakimovski (MKD)

Italy – Armenia
Referee: Michael Oliver (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Stuart Burt (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Darren England (NOR)
Fourth Official: Andre Marriner (ENG)

Sweden – Germany
Referee: William Collum (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: William Conquer (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: Martin Cryans (SCO)
Fourth Official: Robert Madden (SCO)

Ireland – Kazakhstan
Referee: Vadims Direktorenko (LVA)
Assistant Referee 1: Haralds Gudermanis (LVA)
Assistant Referee 2: Aleksejs Spasjonnikovs (LVA)
Fourth Official: Andris Treimanis (LVA)

Faroe Islands – Austria
Referee: Liran Liany (ISR)
Assistant Referee 1: Shabtai Nahmias (ISR)
Assistant Referee 2: Oren Bornshtain (ISR)
Fourth Official: Eli Hacmon (ISR)

Turkey – Netherlands
Referee: Olegario Benquerenca (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Ricardo Santos (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Joao Santos (POR)
Fourth Official: Carlos Taborda (POR)

Romania – Estonia
Referee: Marijo Strahonja (CRO)
Assistant Referee 1: Sinisa Premuzaj (CRO)
Assistant Referee 2: Igor Krmar (CRO)
Fourth Official: Ante Vucemilovic-Simunovic (CRO)
Referee Observer: Hugh Dallas (SCO)

Hungary – Andorra
Referee: Daniel Stefanski (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Rafal Rostkowski (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Krzysztof Myrmus (POL)
Fourth Official: Marcin Borski (POL)

Cyprus – Albania
Referee: Ivan Bebek (CRO)
Assistant Referee 1: Tomislav Petrovic (CRO)
Assistant Referee 2: Miro Grgic (CRO)
Fourth Official: Domagoj Vuckov (CRO)

Switzerland – Slovenia
Referee: Bjorn Kuipers (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Sander van Roekel (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Erwin Zeinstra (NED)
Fourth Official: Pol van Boekel (NED)

Norway – Iceland
Referee: Paolo Tagliavento (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Mauro Tonolini (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Lorenzo Manganelli (ITA)
Fourth Official: Paolo Mazzoleni (ITA)

Israel – N. Ireland
Referee: Laurent Duhamel (FRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Eric Dansault (FRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Laurent Stien (FRA)
Fourth Official: Fredy Fautrel (FRA)

Azerbaijan – Russia
Referee: Milorad Mazic (SRB)
Assistant Referee 1: Milovan Ristic (SRB)
Assistant Referee 2: Dalibor Djurdjevic (SRB)
Fourth Official: Bosko Jovanetic (SRB)
Referee Observer: Siegfried Kirschen (GER)

Portugal – Luxembourg
Referee: Bulent Yildirim (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Serkan Gencerler (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: Kemal Yilmaz (TUR)
Fourth Official: Baris Simsek (TUR)

Greece – Liechtenstein
Referee: Libor Kovarik (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Krystof Mencl (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Jiri Molacek (CZE)
Fourth Official: Radek Prihoda (CZE)

Lithuania – Bosnia
Referee: Felix Zwayer (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Markus Hacker (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Thorsten Schiffner (GER)
Fourth Official: Christian Dingert (GER)

Latvia – Slovakia
Referee: Ievgenii Aranovskiy (UKR)
Assistant Referee 1: Serhiy Bekker (UKR)
Assistant Referee 2: Semen Shlonchak (UKR)
Fourth Official: Yaroslav Kozyk (UKR)

England – Poland
Referee: Damir Skomina (SVN)
Assistant Referee 1: Matej Zunic (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Bojan Ul (SVN)
Fourth Official: Matej Jug (SVN)

Montenegro – Moldova
Referee: Robert Schorgenhofer (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Roland Brandner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Roland Braunschmidt (AUT)
Fourth Official: Rene Eisner (AUT)

San Marino – Ukraine
Referee: Harald Lechner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Alain Hoxha (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Maximilian Kolbitsch (AUT)
Fourth Official: Gerhard Grobelnik (AUT)

Spain – Georgia
Referee: Florian Meyer (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Holger Henschel (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Christoph Bornhorst (GER)
Fourth Official: Marco Fritz (GER)

France – Finland
Referee: Michael Koukoulakis (GRE)
Assistant Referee 1: Dimitrios Saraidaris (GRE)
Assistant Referee 2: Michael Karsiotis (GRE)
Fourth Official: Athanasios Giachos (GRE)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – CONMEBOL

15 October 2013

Uruguay – Argentina
Referee: Marcelo Henrique (BRA, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Rodrigo Pereira (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Fabio Pereira (BRA)
Fourth Official: Ricardo Marques (BRA)
Referee Observer: Rogger Zambrano (ECU)

Paraguay – Colombia
Referee: Diego Abal (ARG)
Assistant Referee 1: Hernan Maidana (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Ernesto Uziga (ARG)
Fourth Official: Mauro Vigliano (ARG)
Referee Observer: Gilberto Hidalgo (PER)

Chile – Ecuador
Referee: Leandro Vuaden (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Marcio Santiago (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Rodrigo Correa (BRA)
Fourth Official: Pericles Cortez (BRA)
Referee Observer: Juan Bernabe (PAR)

Peru – Bolivia
Referee: Enrique Caceres (PAR)
Assistant Referee 1: Juan Zorilla (PAR)
Assistant Referee 2: Eduardo Cardozo (PAR)
Fourth Official: Mario Díaz de Vivar (PAR)
Referee Observer: Adrian Gomez (VEN)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – CONCACAF

15 October 2013

Costa Rica – Mexico
Referee: Walter Lopez (GUA, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Gerson Lopez (GUA)
Assistant Referee 2: Philippe Briere (CAN)
Fourth Official: Javier Santos (PUR)

Jamaica – Honduras
Referee: Mark Geiger (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Mark Hurd (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Joe Fletcher (CAN)
Fourth Official: Silviu Petrescu (CAN)

Panama – USA
Referee: Courtney Campbell (JAM)
Assistant Referee 1: Garnet Page (JAM)
Assistant Referee 2: Kedlee Powell (JAM)
Fourth Official: Jeffrey Solis (CRC)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – CAF (Play-off, First Leg)

12 October 2013
Cote d'Ivoire – Senegal
Referee: Rajindraparsad Seechurn (MRI)
Assistant Referee 1: Balkrishna Bootun (MRI)
Assistant Referee 2: Vivian Vally (MRI)
Fourth Official: Ganesh Chutooree (MRI)

Burkina Faso – Algeria
Referee: Janny Sikazwe (ZAM)
Assistant Referee 1: Jerson Dos Santos (ANG)
Assistant Referee 2: Arsenio Marengula (MOZ)
Fourth Official: Joshua Bondo (BOT)

13 October 2013
Ethiopia – Nigeria
Referee: Neant Alioum (CMR)
Assistant Referee 1: Evarist Menkouande (CMR)
Assistant Referee 2: Yanoussa Moussa (CMR)
Fourth Official: Henry Mouandjo (CMR)

Tunisia – Cameroun
Referee: Koman Coulibaly (MLI)
Assistant Referee 1: Balla Diarra (MLI)
Assistant Referee 2: Aboubacar Doumbouya (GUI)
Fourth Official: Ousmane Karembe (MLI)

15 October 2013
Ghana – Egypt
Referee: Bouchaib El Ahrach (MAR)
Assistant Referee 1: Yussif Mabrouk (MAR)
Assistant Referee 2: Mohamed El Ahmady (MAR)
Fourth Official: Redouane Jiyed (MAR)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – UEFA

11 October 2013

Croatia – Belgium
Referee: Howard Webb (ENG, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Michael Mullarkey (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Darren Cann (ENG)
Fourth Official: Michael Dean (ENG)
Referee Observer: Nikolai Levnikov (RUS)


Wales – Macedonia
Referee: Suren Baliyan (ARM)
Assistant Referee 1: Mesrop Ghazaryan (ARM)
Assistant Referee 2: Vanik Simonyan (ARM)
Fourth Official: George Vadachkoria (GEO)

Armenia – Bulgaria
Referee: Felix Brych (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Mark Borsch (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Stefan Lupp (GER)
Fourth Official: Tobias Welz (GER)
Referee Observer: Zoran Petrovic (SRB)

Malta – Czech Republic
Referee: Matej Jug (SVN)
Assistant Referee 1: Primoz Arhar (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Marko Stancin (SVN)
Fourth Official: Mitja Zganec (SVN)
Referee Observer: Athanasios Briakos (GRE)

Denmark – Italy
Referee: Stephane Lannoy (FRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Frederic Cano (FRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Michael Annonier (FRA)
Fourth Official: Ruddy Buquet (FRA)
Referee Observer: Leslie Irvine (NIR)

Faroe Islands – Kazakhstan
Referee: Dumitru Muntean (MDA)
Assistant Referee 1: Oleg Molceanov (MDA)
Assistant Referee 2: Vitali Gorbatov (MDA)
Fourth Official: Sergiu Derenov (MDA)
Referee Observer: Sokol Jareci (ALB)

Germany – Ireland
Referee: Serge Gumienny (BEL)
Assistant Referee 1: Frank Bleyen (BEL)
Assistant Referee 2: Kristof Meers (BEL)
Fourth Official: Luc Wouters (BEL)

Sweden – Austria
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Bahattin Duran (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: Tarik Ongun (TUR)
Fourth Official: Huseyin Gocek (TUR)

Netherlands – Hungary
Referee: Martin Atkinson (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Peter Kirkup (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Jake Collin (ENG)
Fourth Official: Andre Marriner (ENG)

Andorra – Romania
Referee: Stephan Klossner (SUI)
Assistant Referee 1: Johannes Vogel (SUI)
Assistant Referee 2: Remy Zgraggen (SUI)
Fourth Official: Nikolaj Hanni (SUI)

Estonia – Turkey
Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Andrea Stefani (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Renato Faverani (ITA)
Fourth Official: Luca Banti (ITA)

Iceland – Cyprus
Referee: Istvan Vad (HUN)
Assistant Referee 1: Istvan Albert (HUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Zsolt Szpisjak (HUN)
Fourth Official: Tamas Bognar (HUN)
Referee Observer: Jan Fasung (SVK)

Albania – Switzerland
Referee: Pedro Proenca (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Bertino Miranda (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Tiago Trigo (POR)
Fourth Official: Duarte Gomes (POR)
Referee Observer: Michel Vautrot (FRA)

Slovenia – Norway
Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo (ESP)
Assistant Referee 1: Roberto Alonso Fernandez (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: Pau Cebrian Devis (ESP)
Fourth Official: Carlos Del Cerro Grande (ESP)

Luxembourg – Russia
Referee: Stephan Studer (SUI)
Assistant Referee 1: Sandro Pozzi (SUI)
Assistant Referee 2: Sladan Josipovic (SUI)
Fourth Official: Alain Bieri (SUI)
Referee Observer: Costas Kapitanis (CYP)

Portugal – Israel
Referee: Tom Harald Hagen (NOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Dag-Roger Nebben (NOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Jan Erik Engan (NOR)
Fourth Official: Dag Vidar Hafsas (NOR)

Azerbaijan – N. Ireland
Referee: Andrea De Marco (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Riccardo Di Fiore (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Alessandro Giallatini (ITA)
Fourth Official: Mauro Bergonzi (ITA)
Referee Observer: Adrian Casha (MLT)

Lithuania – Latvia
Referee: Petur Reinert (FRO)
Assistant Referee 1: Regin Egholm (FRO)
Assistant Referee 2: Jan Lidarenda (FRO)
Fourth Official: Thoroddur Hjaltalin (ISL)

Bosnia – Liechtenstein
Referee: Richard Liesveld (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Angelo Boonman (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Berry Simons (NED)
Fourth Official: Serdar Gozubuyuk (NED)

Greece – Slovakia
Referee: Deniz Aytekin (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Guido Kleve (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Markus Hacker (GER)
Fourth Official: Florian Meyer (GER)

Moldova – San Marino
Referee: Ignasi Villamayor (AND)
Assistant Referee 1: Laudino Lopez (AND)
Assistant Referee 2: Rui Miquel (AND)
Fourth Official: Radu Petrescu (ROU)
Referee Observer: Ferenc Szekely (HUN)

England – Montenegro
Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (ESP)
Assistant Referee 1: Raul Cabanero Martinez (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: Roberto Diaz Perez (ESP)
Fourth Official: Carlos Clos Gomez (ESP)
Referee Observer: Vaclav Krondl (CZE)

Ukraine – Poland
Referee: Jonas Eriksson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 1: Mathias Klasenius (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Daniel Warnmark (SWE)
Fourth Official: Stefan Johannesson (SWE)

Spain – Belarus
Referee: Bas Nijhuis (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Rob van de Ven (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Charles Schaap (NED)
Fourth Official: Danny Makkelie (NED) 

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – CONMEBOL

11 October 2013

Ecuador – Uruguay
Referee: Sandro Ricci (BRA, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Emerson Carvalho (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Fabricio Vilarinho (BRA)
Fourth Official: Wilton Sampaio (BRA)
Referee Observer: Carlos Coradina (ARG)

Argentina – Peru
Referee: Carlos Vera (ECU)
Assistant Referee 1: Christian Lescano (ECU)
Assistant Referee 2: Byron Romero (ECU)
Fourth Official: Roddy Zambrano (ECU)
Referee Observer: Gaston Castro (CHI)

Colombia – Chile
Referee: Paulo Oliveira (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Altemir Hausmann (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Kleber Gil (BRA)
Fourth Official: Wilson Seneme (BRA)
Referee Observer: Ernesto Filippi (URU)

Venezuela – Paraguay
Referee: Víctor Carrillo (PER)
Assistant Referee 1: Johnny Bossio (PER)
Assistant Referee 2: Cesar Escano (PER)
Fourth Official: Diego Haro (PER)
Referee Observer: Hebert Aguilera (BOL)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – CONCACAF

11 October 2013

Mexico – Panama
Referee: Joel Aguilar (SLV, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: William Torres (SLV)
Assistant Referee 2: Juan Zumba (SLV)
Fourth Official: Marlon Mejía (SLV)

Honduras – Costa Rica
Referee: Jair Marrufo (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Eric Boria (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Ricardo Morgan (JAM)
Fourth Official: Baldomero Toledo (USA)

USA – Jamaica
Referee: Elmer Bonilla (SLV)
Assistant Referee 1: Hermenerito Leal (GUA)
Assistant Referee 2: Ronaldo De La Cruz (GUA)
Fourth Official: Sandy Vasquez (DOM)

Halsey hits out at EPL ref standards

Mark Halsey has hit out at the standard of refereeing in the Barclays Premier League, blaming an "atmosphere of fear and paranoia" created by the body in charge of match officials.
The 52-year-old, who hung up his whistle at the end of last season, reckons only eight of the current crop are good enough and believes referees' chief Mike Riley and his assistant Keren Barratt are part of the problem. He told the Sun: "Don't get me wrong, there are some really top referees out there. "I reckon currently there is a 'great eight', in no particular order: Mark Clattenburg, Howard Webb, Mike Dean, Andre Marriner, Lee Probert, Martin Atkinson, Phil Dowd and Chris Foy. But as for the other 10 on the elite list, well...some are just not up to it while others need more experience, better nurturing and coaching." That puts referees including Mike Jones, Kevin Friend and Lee Mason on Halsey's list of those who are not good enough. Halsey believes much of the blame lies with the body that oversees referees - Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) - as well as their general manager Riley and select group manager Barratt. "[PGMOL] are running the whole show on an apparent power trip while creating an atmosphere of fear and paranoia," Halsey said. "That is not helping the weaker officials improve and the system often confuses and frequently frustrates the best referees who get mixed messages about what is expected of them." Halsey believes the wrong officials are often picked for big games and blames that on Riley and Barratt. He added: "Riley had a reputation for being an over-fussy and pedantic ref. And his manner as general manager of elite referees - whereby he liaises with the Premier League and League Managers' Association - appears not to have changed." Halsey described Barratt, and the dual role he plays as both their boss who draws up the match lists and also offer advice as a "mentor", as a "big problem". He said: "How can he do that (be their mentor) when he wears another hat as head of the evaluation committee, which adjudicates and has the power to mark down referees, axe officials from matches or ultimately kick them off the list? There is a clear potential conflict of interest in the two roles".
That has infuriated his ex-colleague Poll, who said “He is 100 per cent betraying what paid him a living, which he would never have earned as the warehouse manager he was or the taxi driver he was. The refereeing fraternity are absolutely appalled at what he is doing. He hasn’t thought it through. I think it is absolutely appalling. Mark has got to take a long, hard look at himself. He won’t. I know the guy. I have known him for years. He is that type of character I’m afraid. I would never buy the book and I hope lots of people don’t as well. The sensible thing would be to ignore him. It is what people did at the referees’ camp for a long time when he used to turn up with his Bolton kit to train rather than the kit that we all had on. He had a squad number at Bolton and we were told what to wear to train as a group and he ignored that and was on his own. Maybe he is getting back at people."
Responding to Poll’s comments, Halsey said
 “I’m passionate about refereeing and what I’m saying is these referees need help, they need managing. Refs are not happy with the way they’re managed and the way they’re spoken to. You have to treat men like man and it’s all about managing men and talking to them and getting them onside, and at the moment that doesn’t happen. Referees are scared to come out and say anything, because if they do they’ll upset the management and they go missing off the fixture list. I know that because I’ve been involved for the last few years. They [the PGMOL] don’t know how to manage men. If you manage men properly you get them onside. If you go back a few years ago, Andre Mariner, a good friend of mine and a great referee, was so, so close to being taken off the list. I had a conversation with one of our managers and said, ‘you’ve got to look after him and give him an assessor who marks well and give him some confidence’. He was a game away from being removed off the Premier League list and they did that. They looked after him and now he’s a fantastic referee. They should have done that with Stuart Attwell. He should never have been taken off the Premier League list. He should still be on it because he’s good referee but he wasn’t managed properly. He wasn’t given the right games. It’s like a young player - you put them in and take them out. Give them the right games to referee, and put your big name refs on the big games. It’s a massive step up from the Football League to the Premier League. There’s no hiding place and they’ve got to be looked after. It takes about three or four years to get the players to trust you. Once you do that it becomes easier and we have to manage the refs to allow them to get there. The PGMOL don’t know how to motivate referees. It’s the same with players – you’ve got to know how to motivate them and that’s not happening. They need more help”.

Source: TalkSport

Irish Alan Kelly headed to MLS

Following more than 350 matches and 14 years as a Ireland League referee, Alan Kelly has decided to bring his whistling skills to Major League Soccer in the USA.
Kelly took up refereeing in 1994 and joined the Cork Branch of the Irish Soccer Referees Society (ISRS). He refereed in local leagues including the Munster Senior League. He joined the League of Ireland Referees Panel in 1999 while participating in the first FAI Referee’s School of Excellence. In 2000 he was selected to referee the League of Ireland Cup Final between Derry City and Limerick City which was the first of four senior domestic Cup finals he refereed. He refereed his first FAI Cup Final in 2003 when Longford Town beat St Patricks Athletic at Lansdowne Road and became one of only a handful of Irish referees to referee multiple FAI Cup Finals when he took charge of the game between Sporting Fingal and Sligo Rovers in 2009 at Tallaght Stadium. The 38 year-old has been rising up the UEFA and FIFA ranks for many years now and has been on FIFA’s list of official referees since 2002. In recent years, Kelly has refereed Europa League games, Champions League group stage matches and some international qualifiers for both the World Cup and European Championships, as well as weekly League of Ireland ties.
According to the Irish Daily Star, the Corkman’s potential income will now increase dramatically. A League of Ireland referee earns €150 per game, while MLS match fees can rise to as high as $1,100 (or €810). He officiated his final game in Ireland last weekend when Sligo Rovers faced Shamrock Rovers in an FAI Cup semi-final.
Whilst working as a referee, Kelly has previously worked as a personal trainer/fitness instructor/gym manager in his native Cork but is likely to focus now on refereeing in a full-time capacity. His grandfather and father were both League of Ireland referees and Kelly has stated in the past that they were both the biggest influences on his career.
Back in 2006, Kelly handed out five red cards in the space of ten minutes to Russian players during an U-21 play-off second-leg between Denmark and the Russians. Kelly states that the spotlight shone on him in the aftermath of that game was “very unpleasant. All of the red cards I awarded were correct though”. Kelly has stated that the highlights of his career so far are: “The Champions League games were a major high for me: Cluj v Basel, Leverkusen v Genk, but the Real Madrid game at the Bernabeu will always stand out. It doesn’t really get any bigger than that in terms of club teams. It was a fantastic experience and one that, if I never refereed again, I would look back on for the rest of my life. “The Spain v Argentina game (back in 2009) is also a career highlight. Coming face-to-face with one of my heroes, Diego Maradona. Even to say that, is something that is surreal”.

Source: BackPageFootball

GLT buzz at half-time

The goal-line technology (Hawk-Eye) system recently worked better than expected in Netherland's First Division. Referee Danny Makkelie went crazy because of this new technology, which was used for the first time during a match in the Dutch top league last weekend. 
The reason: nobody had thought about the youth players from the home team, Utrecht, who were playing and trying to score during the half-time interval. According to AD Sportwereld, every time the ball crossed the goal line, Makkelie’s watch buzzed and the text “goal” was shown. The goal-line technology system is being turned on two hours before the match to test it. Since this was the first time the system was used in Netherlands, the technicians did not dare to turn it off because they were not sure if they could turn it back on.

Source: AD/Dutch Referee

UEFA Europa League – Group Stage (Matchday 2)

3 October 2013

Apoel Nicosia – Eintracht Frankfurt
Referee: Alexandru Tudor (ROU, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Cristian Nica (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Aurel Onita (ROU)
Additional AR 1: Ovidiu Hategan (ROU)
Additional AR 2: Cristian Balaj (ROU)
Fourth Official: Octavian Sovre (ROU)
Referee Observer: Tomasz Mikulski (POL)

Rapid Wien – Dynamo Kyiv
Referee: Michael Dean (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Jake Collin (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Simon Bennett (ENG)
Additional AR 1: Lee Probert (ENG)
Additional AR 2: Kevin Friend (ENG)
Fourth Official: Stuart Burt (ENG)
Referee Observer: Dani Koren (ISR)

KRC Genk – FC Thun
Referee: Robert Madden (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Alasdair Ross (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: Stuart Stevenson (SCO)
Additional AR 1: Euan Norris (SCO)
Additional AR 2: Alan Muir (SCO)
Fourth Official: David McGeachie (SCO)
Referee Observer: Herbert Fandel (GER)

Sevilla CF – SC Freiburg
Referee: Vladislav Bezborodov (RUS)
Assistant Referee 1: Nikolai Golubev (RUS)
Assistant Referee 2: Viacheslav Semenov (RUS)
Additional AR 1: Mikhail Vilkov (RUS)
Additional AR 2: Sergei Ivanov (RUS)
Fourth Official: Aleksei Lebedev (RUS)
Referee Observer: Marinus Koopman (NED)

Slovan Liberec – Estoril Praia
Referee: Kenn Hansen (DEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jakob Bille (DEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Lars Rix (DEN)
Additional AR 1: Jakob Kehlet (DEN)
Additional AR 2: Mads Kristoffersen (DEN)
Fourth Official: David Vang Andersen (DEN)
Referee Observer: Stefan Messner (AUT)

Rijeka – Betis Sevilla
Referee: Serhiy Boiko (UKR)
Assistant Referee 1: Oleksandr Voytyuk (UKR)
Assistant Referee 2: Volodymyr Volodin (UKR)
Additional AR 1: Yevhen Aranovskiy (UKR)
Additional AR 2: Anatoliy Abdula (UKR)
Fourth Official: Serhiy Bekker (UKR)
Referee Observer: Alain Hamer (LUX)

Olympique Lyon – Guimaraes
Referee: Florian Meyer (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Holger Henschel (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Christoph Bornhorst (GER)
Additional AR 1: Guido Winkmann (GER)
Additional AR 2: Robert Hartmann (GER)
Fourth Official: Mike Pickel (GER)
Referee Observer: Gudmunder Jónsson (ISL)

Trabzonspor – Lazio Roma
Referee: Martin Hansson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 1: Fredrik Nilsson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Joakim Flink (SWE)
Additional AR 1: Michael Lerjeus (SWE)
Additional AR 2: Mohammed Al-Hakim (SWE)
Fourth Official: Stefan Wittberg (SWE)
Referee Observer: Raymond Ellingham (WAL)

Legia Warsaw – Apollon
Referee: Martin Atkinson (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Peter Kirkup (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Darren England (ENG)
Additional AR 1: Jonathan Moss (ENG)
Additional AR 2: Craig Pawson (ENG)
Fourth Official: Simon Long (ENG)
Referee Observer: Jon Skjervold (NOR)

Anji – Tottenham
Referee: Bulent Yildirim (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Serkan Gencerler (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: Ekrem Kan (TUR)
Additional AR 1: Baris Simsek (TUR)
Additional AR 2: Mustafa Coskun (TUR)
Fourth Official: Kemal Yilmaz (TUR)
Referee Observer: Vladimir Antonov (MDA)

Tromso – Sheriff
Referee: Simon Lee Evans (WAL)
Assistant Referee 1: Philip Thomas (WAL)
Assistant Referee 2: Gareth Jones (WAL)
Additional AR 1: Mark Whitby (WAL)
Additional AR 2: John Dean (WAL)
Fourth Official: Edward King (WAL)
Referee Observer: Dragutin Poljak (CRO)

Shakhter Karagandy – Maccabi Haifa
Referee: Istvan Vad (HUN)
Assistant Referee 1: Istvan Albert (HUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Zsolt Szpisjak (HUN)
Additional AR 1: Sandor Szabo (HUN)
Additional AR 2: Zsolt Szabo (HUN)
Fourth Official: Laszlo Viszokai (HUN)
Referee Observer: Jānis Mezeckis (LVA)

AZ Alkmaar – PAOK
Referee: Luca Banti (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Massimiliano Grilli (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Nicola Nicoletti (ITA)
Additional AR 1: Domenico Celi (ITA)
Additional AR 2: Carmine Russo (ITA)
Fourth Official: Marco Barbirati (ITA)
Referee Observer: Peter Jones (ENG)

Kuban Krasnodar – Valencia
Referee: Marijo Strahonja (CRO)
Assistant Referee 1: Sinisa Premuzaj (CRO)
Assistant Referee 2: Igor Krmar (CRO)
Additional AR 1: Ante Vucemilovic-Simunovic (CRO)
Additional AR 2: Igor Pristovnik (CRO)
Fourth Official: Ivica Modric (CRO)
Referee Observer: Jozef Marko (SVK)

Swansea City – St. Gallen
Referee: Duarte Gomes (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Tiago Trigo (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Venancio Tome (POR)
Additional AR 1: Joao Capela (POR)
Additional AR 2: Hugo Miguel (POR)
Fourth Official: Antonio Godinho (POR)
Referee Observer: Rune Pedersen (NOR)

Ludogorets – Dinamo Zagreb
Referee: Stephan Studer (SUI)
Assistant Referee 1: Jean-Yves Wicht (SUI)
Assistant Referee 2: Sandro Pozzi (SUI)
Additional AR 1: Alain Bieri (SUI)
Additional AR 2: Adrien Jaccottet (SUI)
Fourth Official: Johannes Vogel (SUI)
Referee Observer: Kaj Natri (FIN)

Chornomorets Odesa – PSV Eindhoven
Referee: Liran Liany (ISR)
Assistant Referee 1: David Biton (ISR)
Assistant Referee 2: Oren Bornshtain (ISR)
Additional AR 1: Menashe Masiah (ISR)
Additional AR 2: Ziv Adler (ISR)
Fourth Official: Dvir Shimon (ISR)
Referee Observer: Konrad Plautz (AUT)

IF Elfsborg – Standard Liege
Referee: Tony Chapron (FRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Nicolas Danos (FRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Guillaume Debart (FRA)
Additional AR 1: Nicolas Rainville (FRA)
Additional AR 2: Olivier Thual (FRA)
Fourth Official: Stephan Luzi (FRA)
Referee Observer: Georgios Bikas (GRE)

Esbjerg – RB Salzburg
Referee: Manuel De Sousa (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Bertino Miranda (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Rui Barbosa (POR)
Additional AR 1: Artur Soares Dias (POR)
Additional AR 2: Marco Ferreira (POR)
Fourth Official: Nuno Pereira (POR)
Referee Observer: Jean Lemmer (LUX)

Rubin Kazan – Zulte Wagerem
Referee: Kristo Tohver (EST)
Assistant Referee 1: Hannes Reinvald (EST)
Assistant Referee 2: Jaanus Mutli (EST)
Additional AR 1: Eiko Saar (EST)
Additional AR 2: Roomer Tarajev (EST)
Fourth Official: Silver Koiv (EST)
Referee Observer: Charles Agius (MLT)

Wigan Athletic – NK Maribor
Referee: Aleksandar Stavrev (MKD)
Assistant Referee 1: Marjan Kirovski (MKD)
Assistant Referee 2: Dejan Kostadinov (MKD)
Additional AR 1: Dimitar Meckarovski (MKD)
Additional AR 2: Goran Spirkoski (MKD)
Fourth Official: Dejan Nedelkoski (MKD)
Referee Observer: Johannes Reijgwaart (NED)

Pacos de Ferreira – Pandurii Tg. Jiu
Referee: Aleksei Nikolaev (RUS)
Assistant Referee 1: Oleg Tselovalnikov (RUS)
Assistant Referee 2: Dmitry Mosyakin (RUS)
Additional AR 1: Vladimir Kazmenko (RUS)
Additional AR 2: Aleksandr Egorov (RUS)
Fourth Official: Maksim Gavrilin (RUS)
Referee Observer: Leslie Irvine (NIR)

Dnipro – Fiorentina
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Pawel Sokolnicki (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Tomasz Listkiewicz (POL)
Additional AR 1: Pawel Raczkowski (POL)
Additional AR 2: Tomasz Musial (POL)
Fourth Official: Radoslaw Siejka (POL)
Referee Observer: Nikolai Levnikov (RUS)

Girondins Bordeaux – Maccabi Tel Aviv
Referee: Michael Koukoulakis (GRE)
Assistant Referee 1: Dimitrios Saraidaris (GRE)
Assistant Referee 2: Christos Baltas (GRE)
Additional AR 1: Stavros Tritsonis (GRE)
Additional AR 2: Anastassios Kakos (GRE)
Fourth Official: Lazaros Dimitriadis (GRE)
Referee Observer: Rene Temmink (NED)

UEFA Youth League – Group Stage (Matchday 2)

1 October 2013
Celtic – Barcelona
Referee: Neil Doyle (IRL, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Emmet Dynan (IRL)
Assistant Referee 2: Declan Toland (IRL)
Fourth Official: Donald Robertson (SCO)
Referee Observer: Stephen Lodge (ENG)

Zenit St. Petersburg – Austria Wien
Referee: Jari Jarvinen (FIN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jukka Honkanen (FIN)
Assistant Referee 2: Olli Jantunen (FIN)
Fourth Official: Vasiliy Kazartsev (RUS)
Referee Observer: Are Habicht (EST)

Porto – Atletico
Referee: Peter Kralovic (SVK)
Assistant Referee 1: Erik Weiss (SVK)
Assistant Referee 2: Milan Cuninka (SVK)
Fourth Official: Vasco Santos (POR)
Referee Observer: Carlos Ferreira (POR)

Steaua – Chelsea
Referee: Aleksei Eskov (RUS)
Assistant Referee 1: Rinat Deushev (RUS)
Assistant Referee 2: Dmitriy Cheltsov (RUS)
Fourth Official: Andrei Antonie (ROU)
Referee Observer: Alexandru Deaconu (ROU)

Dortmund – Marseille
Referee: Thoroddur Hjaltalin (ISL)
Assistant Referee 1: Birkir Sigurdarson (ISL)
Assistant Referee 2: Thor Asgeirsson (ISL)
Fourth Official: Harm Osmers (GER)
Referee Observer: Ferenc Szekely (HUN)







Basel – Schalke



Referee: Michael Johansen (DEN)



Assistant Referee 1: Henrik Larsen (DEN)



Assistant Referee 2: Jannik Rosenkrands (DEN)



Fourth Official: Urs Schnyder (SUI)



Referee Observer: Cyril Zimmermann (SUI)







2 October 2013



CSKA Moskva – Plzen



Referee: Yaroslav Kozyk (UKR)



Assistant Referee 1: Maksym Chos (UKR)



Assistant Referee 2: Ievgen Petrakov (UKR)



Fourth Official: Timur Arslanbeko (RUS)



Referee Observer: Aleksei Spirin (RUS)







Bayer Leverkusen – Real Sociedad



Referee: Sebastian Coltescu (ROU)



Assistant Referee 1: Radu Ghinguleac (ROU)



Assistant Referee 2: Mircea Grigoriu (ROU)



Fourth Official: Sascha Stegemann (GER)



Referee Observer: Rusmir Mrković (BIH)







Shakhtar Donetsk – Manchester United



Referee: Sergei Lapochkin (RUS)



Assistant Referee 1: Alexei Kharlamov (RUS)



Assistant Referee 2: Valeri Danchenko (RUS)



Fourth Official: Vitaliy Romanov (UKR)



Referee Observer: Vasyl Melnychuk (UKR)







Juventus – Galatasaray



Referee: Harald Lechner (AUT)



Assistant Referee 1: Andreas Heidenreich (AUT)



Assistant Referee 2: Alan Kijas (AUT)



Fourth Official: Davide Ghersini (ITA)



Referee Observer: Michel Vautrot (FRA)







PSG – Benfica



Referee: Jonathan Lardot (BEL)



Assistant Referee 1: Laurent Conotte (BEL)



Assistant Referee 2: Nicolas Ponsar (BEL)



Fourth Official: Stephane Jochem (FRA)



Referee Observer: Cornelius Bakker (NED)







Real Madrid – Kobenhavn



Referee: Kevin Clancy (SCO)



Assistant Referee 1: Francis Connor (SCO)



Assistant Referee 2: Douglas Ross (SCO)



Fourth Official: José Luis Lesma Lopez (ESP)



Referee Observer: Manuel Lopez Fernandez (ESP)







Manchester City – Bayern



Referee: Svein-Erik Edvartsen (NOR)



Assistant Referee 1: Jan Erik Engan (NOR)



Assistant Referee 2: Tom Harald Grønevik (NOR)



Fourth Official: Darren Bond (ENG)



Referee Observer: Gerard Perry (IRL)







Ajax – Milan



Referee: Sascha Amhof (SUI)



Assistant Referee 1: Raffael Zeder (SUI)



Assistant Referee 2: Beat Hidber (SUI)



Fourth Official: Dennis Higler (NED)



Referee Observer: Michel Piraux (BEL)







Arsenal – Napoli



Referee: John Beaton (SCO)



Assistant Referee 1: Ross Haswell (SCO)



Assistant Referee 2: Stuart Macmillan (SCO)



Fourth Official: Andrew Madley (ENG)



Referee Observer: Edward Foley (IRL)







Anderlecht – Olympiacos



Referee: Stephan Klossner (SUI)



Assistant Referee 1: Vital Jobin (SUI)



Assistant Referee 2: Carmine Sangiovanni (SUI)



Fourth Official: Denis Vanbecelaere (BEL)



Referee Observer: Robert Jeurissen (BEL)