2006 FIFA World Cup officials

 

Match officials for the 2006 FIFA World Cup were nominated by the six confederations to FIFA, who, after a series of tests in Frankfurt/Neu-Isenburg in March 2006, selected 23 referees and a support and development group of a further 5,^[1] from a shortlist of 44.^[2]

Kyros Vassaras of Greece and Manuel Mejuto of Spain were selected to be on the panel, but the assistants who were to make up their teams were not deemed to have reached the required standards, and so they were replaced by Roberto Rosetti and Luis Medina.^[1] Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast was selected for the tournament panel, but suffered a knee injury and was removed from the list without replacement.^[3] Massimo De Santis of Italy was also on the panel of 23 referees, but after he was implicated in the Serie A match-fixing allegations, he was withdrawn by the Italian Football Federation and not replaced.^[4]

The 21 referees, along with their assistants and the support group, are based in Neu-Isenburg for the duration of the tournament. FIFA announces the referees selected for each fixture three days in advance of the match.^[1]

Horacio Elizondo was chosen to officiate the final match, which took place in Berlin on July 9.

Refereeing teams

Below are the details of the 21 groups of match officials in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.^[1] For assistants, a flag is only shown if his nationality varies from that of the referee with whom he is grouped.

Most teams (consisting of a referee and two assistants) are drawn from the same nation, and all are made up of officials from the same confederation. In the first round of the tournament, officials other than from UEFA member associations only operate in groups that do not include a representative of their confederation.

Mexico is the only country with 2 referees on the panel.

For the first time at a World Cup, match officials will be equipped with microphones and earpieces so they can communicate better with each other during each game.^[5] Furthermore this World Cup sees the introduction of a fifth official who can be called upon to replace an injured assistant referee. The fourth official would replace the referee..

Referee	Assistants	Matches	Red cards	Yellow cards
Essam Abd El Fatah	D. Dante M. Ndoye	Group F:  Australia vs.  Japan	0	7
Carlos Amarilla	A. Andino M. Bernal	Group E:  USA vs  Czech Republic Group G:  Togo vs  Switzerland Group H:  Tunisia vs  Ukraine	1	18
Benito Archundia	J. Ramirez H. Vergara	Group F:  Brazil vs  Croatia Group G:  France vs  Korea Republic Group E:  Czech Republic vs  Italy Round 2:  Switzerland vs  Ukraine Semifinal:  Germany vs  Italy	1	14
Massimo Busacca	F. Buragina M. Arnet	Group H:  Spain vs  Ukraine Group B:  Sweden vs  England Round 2:  Argentina vs  Mexico	1	11
Coffi Codjia	C. Ntagungira A. Aderodjou	Group A:  Ecuador vs  Costa Rica Group H:  Spain vs  Saudi Arabia	0	10
Frank De Bleeckere	P. Hermans W. Vromans	Group C:  Argentina vs  Côte d'Ivoire Group F:  Croatia vs  Japan Round 2:  England vs  Ecuador Quarterfinal:  Italy vs  Ukraine	0	19
Horacio Elizondo	D. Garcia R. Otero	Group A:  Germany vs  Costa Rica Group E:  Czech Republic vs  Ghana Group G:  Korea Republic vs  Switzerland Quarterfinal:  England vs  Portugal Final:  Italy vs  France	3	24
Valentin Ivanov	N. Golubev E. Volnin	Group G:  France vs  Switzerland Group A:  Ecuador vs  Germany Round 2:  Portugal vs  Netherlands	4	26
Toru Kamikawa	Y. Hiroshima Kim Dae Young	Group A:  Poland vs  Ecuador Group B:  England vs  Trinidad and Tobago Third Place play-off:  Germany vs  Portugal	0	14
Jorge Larrionda	W. Rial P. Fandino	Group D:  Angola vs  Portugal Group E:  Italy vs  USA Group G:  Togo vs  France Semifinal:  Portugal vs  France	3	15
Shamsul Maidin	P. Permpanich E. Ghuloum	Group B:  Trinidad and Tobago vs  Sweden Group D:  Mexico vs  Angola Group A:  Costa Rica vs  Poland	2	20
Luis Medina Cantalejo	V. Giraldez P. Medina	Group A:  Germany vs  Poland Group C:  Netherlands vs  Argentina Round 2:  Italy vs  Australia Quarterfinal:  Brazil vs  France	2	25
Markus Merk	C. Schraer J.-H. Salver	Group C:  Serbia and Montenegro vs  Netherlands Group F:  Brazil vs  Australia Group E:  Ghana vs  USA	0	16
Ľuboš Micheľ	R. Slysko M. Balko	Group B:  Sweden vs  Paraguay Group D:  Portugal vs  Mexico Round 2:  Brazil vs  Ghana Quarterfinal:  Germany vs  Argentina	3	32
Graham Poll	P. Sharp G. Turner	Group G:  Korea Republic vs  Togo Group H:  Saudi Arabia vs  Ukraine Group F:  Croatia vs  Australia	4	20
Eric Poulat	L. Dagorne V. Texier	Group D:  Portugal vs  Iran Group F:  Japan vs  Brazil	0	9
Marco Rodríguez	J. Camargo L. Leal	Group B:  England vs  Paraguay Group C:  Côte d'Ivoire vs  Serbia and Montenegro	2	12
Roberto Rosetti	C. Copelli A. Stagnoli	Group D:  Mexico vs  Iran Group C:  Argentina vs  Serbia and Montenegro Group B:  Paraguay vs  Trinidad and Tobago Round 2:  Spain vs  France	1	15
Oscar Ruiz	F. Tamayo J. Navia	Group C:  Netherlands vs  Côte d'Ivoire	0	7
Mark Shield	N. Gibson B. Wilson	Group H:  Tunisia vs  Saudi Arabia Group D:  Iran vs  Angola	0	10
Carlos Simon	A. Tavares E. Corona	Group E:  Italy vs  Ghana Group H:  Spain vs  Tunisia Round 2:  Germany vs  Sweden	1	18

Support officials

Five teams of officials were named to be on standby in the case of injury to any of the officials nominated for a match. None of them were called upon, however, and from the quarter-finals onwards, referees from among the 12 retained for the latter stages of the tournament were given standby appointments to matches.

Referee	Assistant
Khalil Al Ghamdi	H. Al Kadri F. Rabati
Carlos Chandia	C. Julio R. Gonzalez
Jerome Damon	E. Molefe J. Yeboah
Mohamed Guezzaz	B. Djezzar J. Endeng Zogo
Kevin Stott	C. Strickland G. Barkey

Final Match Officials

On Wednesday 28th of June, one day after the Second Round matches were completed and two days before the Quarterfinals, the FIFA announced the 12 referees that were retained for the remaining matches. ^[6] This is the standard process, meant to ensure only the best referees are in charge of the final few games. The twelve are:

• Toru Kamikawa (Japan)
• Coffi Codjia (Benin)
• Benito Archundia (Mexico)
• Horacio Elizondo (Argentina)
• Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay)
• Mark Shield (Australia)
• Massimo Busacca (Switzerland)
• Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)
• Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)
• Markus Merk (Germany)
• Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia)
• Roberto Rosetti (Italy)[1]

It is notable that the referees remaining had a lower average number of cards given per match (5.21) than the referee pool as a whole (5.82). Nine of the ten referees with the lowest number of cards per match were chosen to stay. This was met with criticism, however, as the referees could also be politically chosen. FIFA wanted to ensure that at least 1 referee from each continent within the final shortlist.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• 2006 FIFA World Cup disciplinary record

External links

• Referee Ratings for the 2006 FIFA World Cup

References

2006 FIFA World Cup stages
Group A Group B Group C Group D Group E Group F Group G Group H Knockout stage Final
2006 FIFA World Cup general information
Qualification Seeding Squads Schedule Discipline Officials Controversies Broadcasting Sponsorship Miscellany
2006 FIFA World Cup finalists
Champions: Italy  Runners-up: France  Third place: Germany  Fourth place: Portugal  Eliminated in Quarter-finals: Argentina | Brazil | England | Ukraine | Eliminated in Round of 16: Australia | Ecuador | Ghana | Mexico | Netherlands | Spain | Sweden | Switzerland Eliminated in Group Stage: Angola | Costa Rica | Côte d'Ivoire | Croatia | Czech Republic | Iran | Japan | Korea Republic | Paraguay | Poland | Saudi Arabia | Serbia & Montenegro | Togo | Trinidad and Tobago | Tunisia | United States

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