DFB wants explanation from FIFA for the dismissal of referee Brych

For German referee Felix Brych, the 2018 World Cup ended after just one match. The 42-year-old will no longer be used in the remaining tournament games, as FIFA announced on Wednesday. The German Football Association (DFB) wants to find out now the grounds of his dismissal. 

For DFB, the 2018 World Cup ran by no means as desired. At least, Brych could have had a small advantage from the early elimination of the German team, but things turned out quite differently: like the national team, the 42-year-old from Munich has to travel home earlier than planned. Brych’s services are no longer in demand at the World Cup - although he has only whistled one game. In the Swiss 2-1 first-round victory against Serbia, the referee was involuntarily in focus. Due to contentious decisions, including a case of a missed penalty kick, the Serbian team felt disadvantaged. Serbian national coach Mladen Krstajic then caused a verbal derailment, which resulted in a fine. "Obviously, Felix's difficult and controversial no penalty decision was rated by FIFA to be so serious that there was no more need for him", puzzled DFB Vice-President Ronny Zimmermann. 

Disappointment for Brych and German refereeing 

The DFB wants to work on the game now in peace, but at the same time to research for a reason for the early return home of his referee. "Of course, for Felix Brych personally and the German refereeing generally, it is very disappointing", said Lutz-Michael Fröhlich, chairman of the Referees Committee. So far, there has been no explanation for the decision by FIFA. Meanwhile, Brych received the backing of former World Cup referee Walter Eschweiler. "Felix Brych should remember the many big games that he has led, especially in Europe, and there will be more," said the 82-year-old German to the press. "I wish him one thing and that was always my premise: what does not upset you just makes you stronger, he's been whistling at a high level for years." Brych himself was militant: "Life goes on and we will come back." Hopes for more games and the final can make after his departure other referees such as the Dutchman Björn Kuipers, Iran's Alireza Faghani or Nestor Pitana from Argentina. The only German referee who, so far, has whistled a World Cup final remains Rudi Glöckner. He led the 1970 final in Mexico City between Brazil and Italy (4-1) in front of more than 100,000 spectators. 

Source: Kicker

Match officials retained for next phase of FIFA World Cup 2018

The FIFA Referees Committee has selected 17 referees, 37 assistant referees and 10 video assistant referees for the next phase of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. Given the number of matches left and the teams that have qualified for the next round, the number of referees has been reduced. 

Referees 

AFC: Alireza Faghani (IRN, photo), Nawaf Shukralla (BHR) 

CAF: Malang Diedhiou (SEN), Janny Sikazwe (ZAM) 

CONCACAF: Mark Geiger (USA), Jair Marrufo (USA), Cesar Ramos (MEX) 

CONMEBOL: Andres Cunha (URU), Nestor Pitana (ARG), Sandro Ricci (BRA) 

OFC: Matthew Conger (NZL) 

UEFA: Cuneyt Cakir (TUR), Bjorn Kuipers (NED), Antonio Mateu Lahoz (ESP), Milorad Mazic (SRB), Gianluca Rocchi (ITA), Damir Skomina (SVN).

Assistant Referees 

The 34 ARs of the 17 referee teams retained plus Mark Borsch (GER), Carlos Astroza (CHI) and Corey Rockwell (USA) – for the AVAR 2/Reserve AR roles. 

Video Assistant Referees 

CONMEBOL: Wilton Sampaio (BRA), Mauro Vigliano (ARG) 

UEFA: Bastian Dankert (GER), Artur Dias (POR), Pawel Gil (POL), Massimiliano Irrati (ITA), Danny Makkelie (NED), Daniele Orsato (ITA), Paolo Valeri (ITA), Felix Zwayer (GER).

Clattenburg: “Huge VAR mistake”

Colombia midfielder Wilmar Barrios should have been sent off in the World Cup last-16 clash against England, claims former top referee Mark Clattenburg.

Barrios appeared to move his head into Jordan Henderson’s chest and then quickly move his head up onto the England star’s chin in the first half. However, Barrios was only given a yellow card despite the use of the Video Assistant Referee. Clattenburg says the first contact was only a yellow but claims the movement up was violent conduct and a red card should have been brandished.

“Clearly England are not getting any justice with the VAR system,” he said on ITV. “What you can see from this footage is that the defender has put his head into Jordan Henderson’s chest, therefore I think this is a yellow card. But what I then do see is the movement up with his head and that is clearly violent conduct because he knows what he’s doing and this is a pre-meditated act." Clattenburg says the VAR should have told the on-field referee to review the incident on the side of the pitch. “The referee’s on the pitch, he’s got the temperature, the feeling," he added. “You can see in the first half it’s a very spiky game. He knows the feeling on the pitch. What I would rather see is the video referee, instead of giving his opinion which is a yellow card, I would rather see the referee go to the review area and make the correct call, which is a red card for violent conduct.” 

Source: Express

FIFA World Cup 2018 – Quarter-finals

6 July 2018
Uruguay – France
Referee: Nestor Pitana (ARG, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Hernan Maidana (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Juan Belatti (ARG)
Fourth Official: Alireza Faghani (IRN)
Reserve AR: Reza Sokhandan (IRN)
VAR: Massimiliano Irrati (ITA)
AVAR 1: Mauro Vigliano (ARG)
AVAR 2: Carlos Astroza (CHI)
AVAR 3: Paolo Valeri (ITA)

Brazil – Belgium
Referee: Milorad Mažić (SRB)
Assistant Referee 1: Milovan Ristić (SRB)
Assistant Referee 2: Dalibor Djurdjević (SRB)
Fourth Official: Jair Marrufo (USA)
Reserve AR: Corey Rockwell (USA)
VAR: Daniele Orsato (ITA)
AVAR 1: Pawel Gil (POL)
AVAR 2: Mark Borsch (GER)
AVAR 3: Felix Zwayer (GER)

7 July 2018
Sweden – England
Referee: Björn Kuipers (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Sander van Roekel (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Erwin Zeinstra (NED)
Fourth Official: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (ESP) 
Reserve AR: Pau Cebrian Devis (ESP)
VAR: Danny Makkelie (NED)
AVAR 1: Bastian Dankert (GER)
AVAR 2: Carlos Astroza (CHI)
AVAR 3: Felix Zwayer (GER)

Russia – Croatia
Referee: Sandro Ricci (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Emerson de Carvalho (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcello Van Gasse (BRA)
Fourth Official: Janny Sikazwe (ZAM)
Reserve AR: Jerson Dos Santos (ANG)
VAR: Massimiliano Irrati (ITA)
AVAR 1: Wilton Sampaio (BRA)
AVAR 2: Roberto Diaz Perez (ESP)
AVAR 3: Paolo Valeri (ITA)

Referees released after Round of 16

According to various online sources, FIFA released the following referees after the Round of 16: Ravshan Irmatov (UZB), Mohammed Abdulla (UAE), Bakary Gassama (GAM), Ghead Grisha (EGY), Joel Aguilar (SLV), Enrique Caceres (PAR), Wilmar Roldan (COL), Felix Brych (GER), Sergei Karasev (RUS), Szymon Marciniak (POL), Clement Turpin (FRA). Although not yet confirmed by FIFA, it is implied that Brych (photo) and Marciniak refused VAR intervention in Switzerland – Serbia and, respectively, Germany – Sweden, resulting in critical and important errors. All support officials were also released, along with VARs Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (QAT), Gerry Vargas (BOL) and Tiago Martins (POR).

The Al-Jassim controversy

Everyone must have noticed that FIFA changed (twice) the appointment of the fourth official for the match Brazil – Serbia, when Nawaf Shukralla (BHR) was initially replaced by Ravshan Irmatov (UZB) and then by Jair Marrufo (USA). According to Arbitrage57 and Arbitro Internacional, it was due to a controversial decision by FIFA who wanted to appoint Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (QAT) for Panama – Tunisia and then they had to replace him with Shukralla (BHR). Simon Lount (NZL) was also replaced by Tevita Makasini (TGA) as reserve AR in the game Colombia – England, but that was due to the fact that Lount was born and raised in England.

UEFA is the most influential confederation within FIFA. But Asia now has a say too. The Vice-Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee is Qatari Hany Taleb. The latter, in consultation with Massimo Busacca, head of the FIFA refereeing department and Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, wanted to appoint Abdulrahman Al-Jassim to the match - without any stake - between Panama and Tunisia. There was a major problem: Al-Jassim does not appear on the list of 36 referees selected. The Qatari referee was invited to Russia only as a video assistant referee. The proposal was challenged by some members of the referees committee of the international body. What you need to know in order to fully understand this political maneuver is that Massimo Busacca is announced as director of refereeing in Qatar in the near future. Finally, the match between Panama and Tunisia was assigned to Bahraini referee Nawaf Shukralla, who can count on the strong support of Salman Al Khalifa, a native of Bahrain like him and who chairs the Asian Football Confederation since 2013 and who candidated for the FIFA presidency two years ago.

Source: Arbitrage57 / Arbitro Internacional

Poll: “FIFA missed a massive opportunity to stamp its authority”

Former World Cup referee Graham Poll has hit out at Cristiano Ronaldo for screaming in the face of the match official in Portugal's World Cup defeat by Uruguay. The Real Madrid superstar became incensed when referee Cesar Ramos failed to award Portugal a free-kick when Ricardo Quaresma went down under a challenge in injury time. The Portugal international sprinted towards the official as he gestured for a goal kick, and screamed at him angrily. Some fans watching the action believe he shouted "f*** you" at the referee, as he got right up in his face, and earned himself a yellow card for his trouble. 

Poll has reviewed the tape and believes FIFA should have thrown the book at the five-time Ballon d'Or winner. "FIFA missed a massive opportunity to stamp some authority by imposing a significant sanction on the world superstar after his outrageous dissent," Poll told the Daily Mail. "The tournament has been blighted by these scenes of over-the-top reactions to refereeing decisions with scant respect shown to match officials." He added: "FIFA must instruct referees to be stronger in dealing with protests and then impose significant sanctions if the game isn't to be lost to these screaming prima donnas." Portugal's defeat saw them crash out of the competition as Uruguay progressed to the quarter-finals, where they will now take on France. 

Source: Mirror

UEFA Champions League – First Qualifying Round (First Leg)

10-11 July 2018

Flora Tallinn – Hapoel Beer Sheva
Referee: Erik Lambrechts (BEL, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Thibaud Nijssen (BEL)
Assistant Referee 2: Pieter Becquet (BEL)
Fourth Official: Nathan Verboomen (BEL)
Referee Observer: Elmir Pilav (BIH)

Torpedo Kutaisi – FC Sheriff
Referee: Aleksandrs Golubevs (LVA)
Assistant Referee 1: Jevgeņijs Morozovs (LVA)
Assistant Referee 2: Raimonds Tatriks (LVA)
Fourth Official: Andris Treimanis (LVA)
Referee Observer: Tomasz Mikulski (POL)

F91 Dudelange – Videoton FC
Referee: Zaven Hovhannisyan (ARM)
Assistant Referee 1: Mesrop Ghazaryan (ARM)
Assistant Referee 2: Atom Sevgulyan (ARM)
Fourth Official: Suren Baliyan (ARM)
Referee Observer: Manuel Diaz Vega (ESP)

Alashkert – Celtic
Referee: Danilo Grujić (SRB)
Assistant Referee 1: Vladimir Jovanović (SRB)
Assistant Referee 2: Dragan Bogićević (SRB)
Fourth Official: Novak Simović (SRB)
Referee Observer: Stefano Podeschi (SMR)

Víkingur – HJK Helsinki
Referee: Robert Hennessy (IRL)
Assistant Referee 1: Allen Lynch (IRL)
Assistant Referee 2: Dermot Broughton (IRL)
Fourth Official: Robert Rogers (IRL)
Referee Observer: Jon Skjervold (NOR)

KF Shkëndija – The New Saints
Referee: Timótheos Christofí (CYP)
Assistant Referee 1: Michális Sotiríou (CYP)
Assistant Referee 2: Charálampos Georgíou (CYP)
Fourth Official: Chrysovalándis Theoulí (CYP)
Referee Observer: Stefan Messner (AUT)

Cork City – Legia Warszawa
Referee: Radu Petrescu (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Radu Ghinguleac (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Mircea Grigoriu (ROU)
Fourth Official: Marcel Bîrsan (ROU)
Referee Observer: Domenico Messina (ITA)

FC Astana – FK Sutjeska
Referee: Ferenc Karakó (HUN)
Assistant Referee 1: István Albert (HUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Péter Kóbor (HUN)
Fourth Official: Péter Solymosi (HUN)
Referee Observer: Michael Ross (NIR)

FK Sūduva – Apoel FC
Referee: Fedayi San (SUI)
Assistant Referee 1: Stéphane De Almeida (SUI)
Assistant Referee 2: Sladan Josipovic (SUI)
Fourth Official: Lionel Tschudi (SUI)
Referee Observer: Levan Paniashvili (GEO)

Spartaks Jūrmala – Crvena Zvezda
Referee: Mykola Balakin (UKR)
Assistant Referee 1: Volodymyr Vysotskyy (UKR)
Assistant Referee 2: Viktor Matyash (UKR)
Fourth Official: Anatoli Abdula (UKR)
Referee Observer: Charles Agius (MLT)

Spartak Trnava – HŠK Zrinjski
Referee: Dzianis Shcharbakou (BLR)
Assistant Referee 1: Yuri Khomchanka (BLR)
Assistant Referee 2: Andrey Hetsikau (BLR)
Fourth Official: Siarhey Tsynkevich (BLR)
Referee Observer: Eyjólfur Ólafsson (ISL)

PFC Ludogorets – Crusaders FC
Referee: Dumitru Muntean (MDA)
Assistant Referee 1: Andrei Bodean (MDA)
Assistant Referee 2: Vladislav Lifciu (MDA)
Fourth Official: Vladislav Ivancenco (MDA)
Referee Observer: Michális Argyroú (CYP)

FK Kukësi – Valletta FC
Referee: Thóroddur Hjaltalín (ISL)
Assistant Referee 1: Frosti Gunnarsson (ISL)
Assistant Referee 2: Oddur Gudmundsson (ISL)
Fourth Official: Thorvaldur Árnason (ISL)
Referee Observer: Muharrem Aksoy (TUR)

Olimpija Ljubljana – Qarabağ FK
Referee: Lawrence Visser (BEL)
Assistant Referee 1: Karel De Rocker (BEL)
Assistant Referee 2: Jo De Weirdt (BEL)
Fourth Official: Bram Van Driessche (BEL)
Referee Observer: Paulius Malžinskas (LTU)

Valur Reykjavík – Rosenborg BK
Referee: Rade Obrenovič (SVN)
Assistant Referee 1: Grega Kordež (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Tomislav Pospeh (SVN)
Fourth Official: Asmir Sagrkovič (SVN)
Referee Observer: Jens Larsen (DEN)

Coelho: Corner kicks would make better tiebreaker

Former World Cup final referee Arnaldo Cezar Coelho disapproves of fair-play as a tiebreaker at the tournament and thinks a corner count would be a better way of separating teams who finish level on points and goals, he told Reuters. Senegal became the first team in World Cup history to be eliminated on yellow cards after finishing level with Japan on points, goal difference and goals scored in Group H. The Africans picked up six yellow cards in their three games to Japan’s four. FIFA said it had no plans to change the rules.

Brazilian Coelho (photo), who also criticized the use of video assistant referees (VAR) in incidents such as handball, said tiebreakers should be decided by objective criteria. “The problem is that a yellow card is subjective... and some referees tend to be stricter and give more yellow cards than others,” he said in an interview. “So, if a team plays in a match with a stricter referee, they will be at a disadvantage. For me there is another way... counting corners. It’s a technical criteria and to win corners you have to attack, you have to play football.” Japan’s final match, a 1-0 defeat by Poland, ended in farce as they effectively stopping playing, thereby avoiding picking up bookings or red cards that would have jeopardized their second-place finish. “They wouldn’t have done that if corners had been used,” said Coelho, who commentates for Brazilian television. He said there was nothing match officials could do in such circumstances and added that he was speaking from experience, having been a linesman during the so-called “non-aggression” match between Germany and Austria in 1982. “I felt powerless,” he said, recalling Germany’s 1-0 win that sent the both teams through at the expense of Algeria after a soulless kick about.

Coelho, the first non-European to referee a World Cup final when he officiated at the Italy-Germany match in 1982, said that VAR was a good idea in principle but its use should be restricted to objective decisions such as offside. “In these cases, VAR is important to resolve problems, to help save the referee... it’s a parachute,” he said. “On the other hand, to resolve any incident which is a matter of interpretation, it’s very risky because the referee on the field sees the normal movement of the game and can interpret things at five meters distance by the movement of the players. The video referee, meanwhile, makes calls based on slow motion which distorts the incident because it does not always reflect the intensity of the movement.” Coelho said that similar handball incidents were still producing different decisions, even with the help of VAR. “People interpret decisions differently, that is why there are controversies in football,” he said. “There isn’t a common criteria among the VARs. We saw similar incidents such as handballs where one gave a penalty, the other didn’t... So we have the same problem which existed before”.

Source: Reuters

FIFA World Cup 2018 – Round of 16 (Matches 55-56)

3 July 2018

Sweden – Switzerland
Referee: Damir Skomina (SVN, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Jure Praprotnik (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Robert Vukan (SVN)
Fourth Official: Nawaf Shukralla (BHR) 
Reserve AR: Yaser Tulefat (BHR)
VAR: Daniele Orsato (ITA)
AVAR 1: Bastian Dankert (GER)
AVAR 2: Roberto Diaz Perez (ESP)
AVAR 3: Massimiliano Irrati (ITA)

Colombia – England
Referee: Mark Geiger (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Joe Fletcher (CAN)
Assistant Referee 2: Frank Anderson (USA)
Fourth Official: Matthew Conger (NZL)
Reserve AR: Tevita Makasini (TGA)
VAR: Danny Makkelie (NED)
AVAR 1: Pawel Gil (POL)
AVAR 2: Carlos Astroza (CHI)
AVAR 3: Mauro Vigliano (ARG)