FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Final 2019: Moraes (BRA)

1 December 2019

Final
Italy – Portugal
Referee 1: Ivo Moraes (BRA, photo)
Referee 2: Said Hachim (MAD)
Referee 3: Ingilab Mammadov (AZE)
Timekeeper: Sofien Benchabane (FRA)
Reserve AR: Suhaimi Mat Hassan (MAS)

Match for Third Place
Russia – Japan
Referee 1: Juan Angeles (DOM)
Referee 2: Gustavo Dominguez (PAR)
Referee 3: Gionni Matticoli (ITA)
Timekeeper: Raul Gonzalez (ESP)
Reserve AR: Gonzalo Carballo (SLV)

From fighting crime to flagging offside

Who would be a referee? It’s a question that has been posed innumerable times. Observers, admirers and even critics tend to acknowledge that match officials’ jobs seem, at best, unenviable and, at worst, near-impossible. Abuse, of course, is all but guaranteed from amateur level upwards, while elite referees cope with the added stresses of media scrutiny and partisan, unforgiving crowds. A thick skin is essential, and Kylie Cockburn’s – for one good reason – is thicker than most.

The 30-year-old, who officiated at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, spends her Saturdays refereeing in Scotland’s top flight. But as the rest of her week is spent serving as a police officer, pleading players and complaining coaches hold no fear whatsoever. “Abuse? As you probably can imagine, I get far worse at work!” she told FIFA.com. “The stuff you hear when you’re refereeing is nothing in comparison.” Besides enabling her to “build up a resilience” to remarks that would stop others in their tracks, Cockburn’s day job has equipped her with other transferable skills invaluable to refereeing.

“Being in the police, you learn how to speak to people and also how to de-escalate situations when things are getting tense or tempers are flaring,” she explained. “In my job, I’m dealing with problems and people who aren’t happy day in, day out. That helps a lot when you encounter issues around the football pitch.” Policing, though, wasn’t Cockburn’s first love. And nor was refereeing. In her teens, she had dreams of making it to a Women’s World Cup as a player, and pursued that objective with a passion. But competing work commitments, and a growing realisation that she lacked the ability needed to star for her country, prompted a change of course. “I was 21 when I started refereeing and at the time I had been playing in the women’s first division here in Scotland. But with the shifts I was working with the police, it was getting really difficult to make the games and three or four nights of training. I’d been in the Scotland elite squad at U-17 level but I dropped out after that and I could see at that point that I wasn’t going to make it at the highest level. But I’m the kind of person who doesn’t take these things lying down, and I just thought, ‘Right, in that case, what can I do to get to the top?’ That was when I tried to give refereeing a try and I’m glad I did.”

Trying her hand at officiating has since led to all manner of fantastic experiences, from running out at her country’s biggest stadiums to overseeing international matches in Jordan, Uruguay and across Europe. But the unrivalled highlight of Cockburn’s refereeing career came with an unexpected call-up to the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019. “France was always a target but it was still a surprise when the call came because, in the grand scheme of things, I’m still quite new to this level of refereeing,” said Cockburn, who arranged unpaid leave from the police in order to attend. “To then stay on to the knockout stages – and be there right until the end - was amazing. I fully expected just to get one match and be on my way, so to get the call for three games and two as a VAR was amazing and way beyond what I could have dreamed of. “I really enjoyed the VAR side of things too. It took some getting used to. But the training we’d done in Qatar had prepared us really well for that and got us in the right mindset for that. “There was scrutiny of course – that goes with the territory – but as a group we were proud of what we did over there. Women’s football has grown and improved a lot in recent years, and for me there’s no doubt that women’s refereeing has followed suit. It helped that the refs were very close – like a family really – off the field. I definitely feel I’ve come away from it with friends for life. I’m going on holiday to Australia in November, and the first thing I did after booking up was arrange to meet the two Australian referees who were there in France.” That break Down Under, given the draining nature of both Cockburn’s profession and her passion, will be well earned. But this determined Scot will return ready to refocus on her next targets: top-level men’s matches and, of course, the Women’s World Cup of 2023.

Source: FIFA

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2019 – Semi-finals

30 November 2019

Italy – Russia
Referee 1: Ebrahim Al-Mansory (UAE)
Referee 2: Sofien Benchabane (FRA, photo)
Referee 3: Alex Valdiviezo (PER)
Timekeeper: Gustavo Dominguez (PAR)
Reserve AR: Raul Gonzalez (ESP)

Japan – Portugal
Referee 1: Lukasz Ostrowski (POL)
Referee 2: Bakhtiyor Namazov (UZB)
Referee 3: Ingilab Mammadov (AZE)
Timekeeper: Vitali Gomolko (LTU)
Reserve AR: Mariano Romo (ARG)

Arabian Gulf Cup 2019

Referees

1. Ali Shaaban (KUW)
2. Ahmed Al-Kaf (OMA, photo)
3. Ali Sabbah (IRQ)
4. Khamis Al-Marri (QAT)
5. Ameen Radman (YEM)
6. Mohammed Abdulla (UAE)
7. Ali Al-Samaheeji (BHR)
8. Alexandre Boucaut (BEL)
9. Lionel Tschudi (SUI)
10. Ryuji Sato (JPN)

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup 2019 – Quarter-finals

28 November 2019

Italy – Switzerland
Referee 1: Mariano Romo (ARG, photo)
Referee 2: Raul Gonzalez (ESP)
Referee 3: Vitali Gomolko (LTU)
Timekeeper: Lukasz Ostrowski (POL)
Reserve AR: Bakhtiyor Namazov (UZB)

Brazil – Russia
Referee 1: Said Hachim (MAD)
Referee 2: Juan Angeles (DOM)
Referee 3: Ebrahim Al-Mansory (UAE)
Timekeeper: Bakhtiyor Namazov (UZB)
Reserve AR: Lukasz Ostrowski (POL)

Senegal – Portugal
Referee 1: Gonzalo Carballo (SLV)
Referee 2: Ivo Moraes (BRA)
Referee 3: Gustavo Dominguez (PAR)
Timekeeper: Ingilab Mammadov (AZE)
Reserve AR: Suhaimi Mat Hassan (MAS)

Japan – Uruguay
Referee 1: Sofien Benchabane (FRA)
Referee 2: Gionni Matticoli (ITA)
Referee 3: Alex Valdiviezo (PER)
Timekeeper: Suhaimi Mat Hassan (MAS)
Reserve AR: Ingilab Mammadov (AZE)

Still calling the shots at 75

At 46 years and 261 days old, Dutchman Roel Liefden is the oldest player to have featured at a FIFA tournament after reaching this remarkable milestone at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Tahiti, in 2013. Not a bad achievement, you might think. Englishman John Lewis went a step further by refereeing the final of the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament 1920 between Belgium and Czechoslovakia at the age of 65 years and 156 days. While these are undoubtedly impressive figures, Heidi Wegner has outdone them both. The 75 year old is the oldest referee still active in Germany and is still keeping players in line today, having overseen several thousand matches from juniors to veterans during her long career.

"I refereed the district championships at the Peene shipyard back in 1968", Wegner recalled a few months ago in an interview on fussball.de, the home of German amateur football. "I was in good hands there, and initially spent two years officiating without a refereeing badge. I had already overseen more than 100 matches by the time I took my exam." For the sprightly pensioner who keeps fit by cycling and hiking, the idea of hanging up her whistle is out of the question. "I have better stats than some younger referees," she explained. "I run around the pitch more than others do. Some referees only move around in the centre circle. We also officiate 90 per cent of our matches alone, so you have to be fit, get moving and keep up with the play." There is no doubting the veracity of this statement – Wegner covers several kilometres out on the pitch in a single game. The ‘Football Granny from the Peene’, as she is affectionately known, discovered her passion for football at a relatively early age. "I started going down to the playing fields with my father when I was very young," she said. "I also played football out in the street and played handball at school. My parents virtually had to drag me off the street every evening." That passion has remained undimmed ever since. Wegner has been refereeing matches in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for more than 50 years and knows the Laws of the Game inside out. Referees must sit an exam three times a year, and Wegner has never failed it. In 2014, the German Football Association (DFB) presented the athletic 75-year-old – who shares her birth year with footballers such as Sepp Maier, Jurgen Grabowski and Gunter Netzer – with its badge of merit to acknowledge her voluntary work. Wegner spent more than 30 years as a youth team coach at FC Rot-Weiss Wolgast, organising tournaments and keeping tabs on the club’s financial affairs as its treasurer. "I do it for the joy of it and to keep fit," she explained. "I go and help wherever I’m needed." Heidi Wegner is a remarkable woman who undoubtedly laid the foundation for the current generation of female referees in Germany, including Bibiana Steinhaus, who became the first woman to officiate matches in the men’s Bundesliga, and Riem Hussein, who became the second woman after Steinhaus to referee in the professional men’s game.

Source: FIFA

UEFA Europa League 2019/2020 – Group Stage (Matchday 5)

28 November 2019

SC Braga – Wolverhampton Wanderers
Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (BLR, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Dmitri Zhuk (BLR)
Assistant Referee 2: Oleg Maslyanko (BLR)
Fourth Official: Denis Scherbakov (BLR)
Referee Observer: Bo Karlsson (SWE)

FC Krasnodar – FC Basel
Referee: Robert Madden (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: David Roome (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: Graeme Stewart (SCO)
Fourth Official: Kevin Clancy (SCO)
Referee Observer: Fritz Stuchlik (AUT)

Trabzonspor – Getafe CF
Referee: Andris Treimanis (LVA)
Assistant Referee 1: Haralds Gudermanis (LVA)
Assistant Referee 2: Aleksejs Spasjonnikovs (LVA)
Fourth Official: Aleksandrs Golubevs (LVA)
Referee Observer: Marinus Koopman (NED)

FC Astana – Manchester United
Referee: Donatas Rumšas (LTU)
Assistant Referee 1: Aleksandr Radius (LTU)
Assistant Referee 2: Dovydas Sužiedėlis (LTU)
Fourth Official: Donatas Šimenas (LTU)
Referee Observer: Andrejs Sipailo (LVA)

Feyenoord – Rangers FC
Referee: Damir Skomina (SVN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jure Praprotnik (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Robert Vukan (SVN)
Fourth Official: Asmir Sagrković (SVN)
Referee Observer: Konrad Plautz (AUT)

BSC Young Boys – FC Porto
Referee: Tamás Bognar (HUN)
Assistant Referee 1: Balázs Buzás (HUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Péter Kóbor (HUN)
Fourth Official: Peter Solymosi (HUN)
Referee Observer: Sokol Jareci (ALB)

Ferencvárosi TC – Espanyol de Barcelona
Referee: Tiago Martins (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Luís Campos (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Pedro Mota (POR)
Fourth Official: Luís Godinho (POR)
Referee Observer: Paulius Malžinskas (LTU)

CSKA Moskva – PFC Ludogorets
Referee: Jakob Kehlet (DEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Lars Hummelgaard (DEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Heine Sorensen (DEN)
Fourth Official: Jens Maae (DEN)
Referee Observer: Nuno Castro (POR)

FC Oleksandriya – VfL Wolfsburg
Referee: Manuel Schüttengruber (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Roland Brandner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Robert Steinacher (AUT)
Fourth Official: Rene Eisner (AUT)
Referee Observer: Jan Wegereef (NED)

AS Saint Étienne – KAA Gent
Referee: Irfan Peljto (BIH)
Assistant Referee 1: Senad Ibrisimbegović (BIH)
Assistant Referee 2: Davor Beljo (BIH)
Fourth Official: Admir Šehović (BIH)
Referee Observer: John Ward (IRL)

Pellets Wolfsberger – Borussia Mönchengladbach
Referee: Serdar Gözübüyük (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Charles Schaap (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Jan de Vries (NED)
Fourth Official: Allard Lindhout (NED)
Referee Observer: Luciano Luci (ITA)

Medipol Başakşehir – AS Roma
Referee: Ovidiu Haţegan (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Octavian Șovre (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Sebastian Gheorghe (ROU)
Fourth Official: Sebastian Colţescu (ROU)
Referee Observer: Sergey Zuev (RUS)

Beşiktaş JK – Slovan Bratislava
Referee: Enea Jorgji (ALB)
Assistant Referee 1: Ridiger Çokaj (ALB)
Assistant Referee 2: Rejdi Avdo (ALB)
Fourth Official: Eldorjan Hamiti (ALB)
Referee Observer: Kevin Azzopardi (MLT)

AZ Alkmaar – FK Partizan
Referee: Daniel Stefański (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Marcin Boniek (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Dawid Igor Golis (POL)
Fourth Official: Bartosz Frankowski (POL)
Referee Observer: Ferenc Székely (HUN)

F91 Dudelange – Apoel FC
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Giorgio Peretti (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Giorgio Schenone (ITA)
Fourth Official: Paolo Valeri (ITA)
Referee Observer: Domagoj Vučkov (CRO)

Sevilla FC – Qarabağ FK
Referee: Mohammed Al-Hakim (SWE)
Assistant Referee 1: Fredrik Klyver (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Mahbod Beigi (SWE)
Fourth Official: Martin Strömbergsson (SWE)
Referee Observer: Laurent Duhamel (FRA)

FC Lugano – FC Kobenhavn
Referee: Aleksei Eskov (RUS)
Assistant Referee 1: Dmitri Mosyakin (RUS)
Assistant Referee 2: Valeri Danchenko (RUS)
Fourth Official: Vladislav Bezborodov (RUS)
Referee Observer: Pascal Garibian (FRA)

Malmö FF – Dynamo Kyiv
Referee: Pavel Královec (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Ivo Nadvornik (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Tomáš Mokrusch (CZE)
Fourth Official: Miroslav Zelinka (CZE)
Referee Observer: Neale Barry (ENG)

Rosenborg BK – Linzer ASK
Referee: Giorgi Kruashvili (GEO)
Assistant Referee 1: Zaza Menteshashvili (GEO)
Assistant Referee 2: Giorgi Elikashvili (GEO)
Fourth Official: Georgi Vadachkoria (GEO)
Referee Observer: Jan Carlsen (DEN)

Sporting CP – PSV Eindhoven
Referee: Orel Grinfeld (ISR)
Assistant Referee 1: Roy Hassan (ISR)
Assistant Referee 2: Idan Yarkoni (ISR)
Fourth Official: Roi Reinshreiber (ISR)
Referee Observer: Erol Ersoy (TUR)

Lazio – CFR Cluj
Referee: Ali Palabiyik (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Serkan Olguncan (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: Çem Satman (TUR)
Fourth Official: Mete Kalkavan (TUR)
Referee Observer: David Malcolm (NIR)

Celtic FC – Stade Rennais
Referee: Espen Eskas (NOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Jon-Michael Knutsen (NOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Oystein Ytterland (NOR)
Fourth Official: Rohit Saggi (NOR)
Referee Observer: Cyril Zimmermann (SUI)

Vitória SC – Standard de Liège
Referee: Serhiy Boiko (UKR)
Assistant Referee 1: Semen Shlonchak (UKR)
Assistant Referee 2: Viktor Matyash (UKR)
Fourth Official: Yevheni Aranovskiy (UKR)
Referee Observer: Alon Yefet (ISR)

Arsenal FC – Eintracht Frankfurt
Referee: Ruddy Buquet (FRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Guillaume Debart (FRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Julien Pacelli (FRA)
Fourth Official: Frank Schneider (FRA)
Referee Observer: Juan Fernández Marín (ESP)

IFFHS World’s Best Referee 2019: Skomina (SVN)

Selected journalists and experts from 90 countries around the World took part at the 2019 annual election of the Top Referee, the 33th time it has been carried out by the IFFHS since 1987. Damir Skomina, the Slovenian referee (43 years old), won the Award with a little margin before Felix Brych, the winner of 2017. Skomina was the referee of the UEFA Champions League Final between FC Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspurs and realized constant performances during the year. FIFA listed since 2003, he has directed more than 530 matches in his career (301 Prva Liga games, 50 UEFA Champions League games, 17 Europa League matches, 60 international games for UEFA Euro, World Cup and Olympic Tournament). He is the 19th referee to win this Award since 1987. Italy’s Top Referee Pierluigi Collina holds the Record with 6 consecutive Awards (1998 to 2003). (Source: IFFHS)

IFFHS World’s Best Referees 2019       

1. Damir Skomina (SVN, photo) 136 p

2. Felix Brych (GER) 129 p

3. Björn Kuipers (NED) 61 p
4. Gianluca Rocchi (ITA) 58 p
5. Cuneyt Cakir (TUR) 47 p
6. Nestor Pitana (ARG) 38 p
7. Antonio Mateu Lahoz (ESP) 23 p
8. Clement Turpin (FRA) 23 p
9. Martin Atkinson (ENG) 21 p
10. Michael Oliver (ENG) 18 p
11. Jesus Gil Manzano (ESP) 16 p
12. Alireza Faghani (IRN) 13 p
13. Danny Makkelie (NED) 10 p
14. Felix Zwayer (GER) 9 p
15. Roberto Tobar (CHI) 8 p
16. Mark Geiger (USA) 7 p
17. Alioum Alioum (CMR) 5 p
18. Mario Escobar (GUA) 5 p
19. Ravshan Irmatov (UZB) 5 p
20. Milorad Mazic (SRB) 5 p
21. Bakary Gassama (GAM) 4 p
22. Cesar Ramos (MEX) 4 p
23. Ovidiu Hategan (ROU) 3 p
24. Daniele Orsato (ITA) 3 p
25. Wilton Sampaio (BRA) 3 p
26. Anthony Taylor (ENG) 3 p
27. Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (QAT) 1 p
28. Robert Madden (SCO) 1 p
29. Alberto Undiano Mallenco (ESP) 1 p
30. Simon Marciniak (POL) 1 p

IFFHS World’s Best Woman Referee 2019: Frappart (FRA)

90 experts and journalists from all continents crowned Stephanie Frappart to the World’s Best Woman Referee 2019 in the Annual IFFHS Awards. The French referee, already at the third place last year, succeeds to the four-time winner Bibiana Steinhaus from Germany, leaving a huge gap to the Russian Anastasia Pustovoitova, the other revelation of the year at the second place. At 35, Frappart stepped in a new area. She was the first French woman to referee a men’s Ligue 2 match in 2014, then a men’s Ligue 1 match in April 2019 and the first woman in Europe to whistle the UEFA Super Cup Final between FC Chelsea and FC Liverpool in August 2019. One month before, in July 2019, she was the referee of the Women World Cup Final between the USA and Netherlands in Lyon. What a year for Stephanie Frappart, crowned by IFFHS The Best Referee of the World Cup in July and the World’s Best Referee of the Year. (Source: IFFHS)

IFFHS World’s Best Women Referees 2019       
1. Stephanie Frappart (FRA, photo) 233 p

2. Anastasia Pustovoitova (RUS) 93 p

3. Bibiana Steinhaus (GER) 75 p
4. Edina Alves (BRA) 45 p
5. Sara Persson (SWE) 35 p
6. Kateryna Monzul (UKR) 20 p
7. Riem Hussein (GER) 17 p
8. Esther Staubli (SUI) 15 p
9. Claudia Umpierrez (URU) 15 p
10. Katalin Kulcsar (HUN) 9 p
11. Marie-Soleil Beaudoin (CAN) 8 p
12. Jana Adamkova (CZE) 6 p
13. Virginia Calderas (VEN) 3 p
14. Lina Lehtovaara (FIN) 3 p
15. Sian Massey-Ellis (ENG) 2 p
16. Lucila Venegas (MEX) 2 p
17. Salome Di Iorio (ARG) 1 p
18. Kate Jacewicz (AUS) 1 p
19. Anna-Marie Keighley (NZL) 1 p
20. Ekaterina Koroleva (USA) 1 p
21. Gladys Lengwe (ZAM) 1 p

Concacaf League Final 2019 (Second Leg)

26 November 2019

Motagua – Saprissa
Referee: Cesar Ramos (MEX, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Christian Espinosa (MEX)
Assistant Referee 2: Michel Morales (MEX)
Fourth Official: Luis Santander (MEX)