Who is going to be the man in the middle when the eyes of the globe are on the World Cup final here on July 9?
A handful of the leading candidates appear to have ruled themselves out with blunders, blowing the field wide open.
The referees' committee is due to meet today to decide who will officiate the quarter-finals. Their choices will give a clear pointer as to who could get the nod for the final.
PHOTO: AP
For the 2002 climax in Yokohama, it was an easy decision to make, but with the incomparable Pierluigi Collina now retired, FIFA have a problem.
Quite simply, there is no outstanding ref in the world at the moment.
Two men tipped to take charge of the final, Graham Poll of England and Germany's Markus Merk, have made uncharacteristic mistakes in Germany.
Poll was guilty of the now infamous three-yellow-card trick when a man once thought unflappable suddenly lost the plot in the highly charged first-round match between Australia and Croatia.
When Josip Simunic committed his first foul he was booked, but when the Croatian should have been sent off for a second infraction, Poll noted down the Australian number three, Craig Moore, instead.
That meant that Simunic was finally only dismissed in stoppage time.
It was a terrible howler for a World Cup referee and Andreas Werz, a spokesman for the referees' committee, had little comfort for the Englishman.
"Under normal circumstances, he would not take charge of any other matches at this World Cup," Werz said.
German official Markus Merk impressed when he took charge of the Euro 2004 final between Greece and Portugal.
But his stock dropped at the World Cup after the US criticized his officiating in their tournament-ending 2-1 defeat to Ghana.
US coach Bruce Arena said Ghana's match-winning penalty in first-half stoppage time should never have been given.
When US defender Oguchi Onyewu appeared to cleanly win a header against Ghana forward Razak Pimpong, Merk adjudged there was a push and Stephen Appiah converted the spot kick which sent the Africans into the last 16.
"That was a big call. That was a key part of the game. We have control of the game and we go in behind by a goal," Arena said. "That's tough. It's a tough one to deal with."
Of course Arena was the coach of the losing side, the usual source of gripes about the referees.
Russian referee Valentin Ivanov showed so many cards in the full-blooded Netherlands v Portugal second-round game that he broke the World Cup record with four sendings-off.
Losing coach Marco van Basten criticized Ivanov's performance, but so did FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who said the refereeing itself "deserves a yellow card."
"The referee's actions harmed what could have been an excellent football match," Blatter said.
Argentinian referee Horacio Elizondo was in charge for the opening game of the tournament and tradition dictates that the same man will not do both that game and the final.
So one name appears to be rising to the top of the list -- Lubos Michel of Slovakia.
He has a solid CV, with three matches at the 2002 World Cup, five at Euro 2004 as well as two first-round games in this World Cup and the Brazil v Ghana second-round match yesterday.
And unlike another contender, Carlos Simon of Brazil, there is no danger of Michel's country reaching the final -- under FIFA rules the referee cannot be from the same nation as either of the finalists.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS