Here are the Serie A referee appointments for the weekend of March 15 and 16, and Monday March 17. Hellas Verona has surprised everyone this season, and currently sit in 7th place. Their match against 5th place Inter on Saturday will be crucial for European spots next year, and it’ll be officiated by Luca Banti. Banti isn’t one of the
Read more
NOTE: This refers to an appointment in the past. See the sidebar for updated appointments. Alberto Undiano Mallenco has been chosen to referee El Clasico, Real Madrid v. Barcelona, at the Bernabeu on March 23. Despite Carlos Velasco Carballo getting the call up for the World Cup, Undiano Mallenco is definitely the new hotness in Spanish refereeing. In fact, he’s so hot that when
Read more
I’m not sure how I feel about this. To this point, I’ve been thoroughly on the side of the MLS refs, who unionized last year and formed Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA). They’ve been at loggerheads with MLS’s refereeing arm, Professional Referees Organization (PRO), for months finally culminating in PRO locking the referees out two days before the season opener
Read more
There are two really big matches this weekend, and they’re both on Sunday. Mark Clattenburg will come off his Champions League match this week to officiate Liverpool v. Manchester United. The outcome of that game will have a major impact on the standings, so it makes sense that Clatts – who’s been at the top of his game of late
Read more
Tottenham have been successful in their appeal of Younes Kaboul’s three-game suspension following his red card in Saturday’s 4-0 defeat at Chelsea. Referee Michael Oliver had adjudged Kaboul to have tripped Samuel Eto’o in the box, denying him a goalscoring opportunity. However, replays showed that not only was there very little contact, but Eto’o was not in control of the
Read more
The Europa League referees for the Round of 16 first tie are announced, and it’s quite the impressive list. Three of the eight – Cuneyt Cakir of Turkey, Bjorn Kuipers of the Netherlands (above) and Jonas Eriksson of Sweden – will referee in Brazil. Of the remaining, Czech Pavel Kralovec is Elite, and Daniele Orsato of Italy is Elite Development.
Read more
The Champions League referees for the second leg of the Round of 16 have been announced. The rather anti-climactic tie between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayer Leverkusen (PSG leads about a billion to nil on aggregate) will be refereed by Croatia’s top official, Ivan Bebek (above). Stephane Lannoy of France, whose year has included being the first French official in forever
Read more
It’s about damn time. Mark Clattenburg has finally gotten a call up to the Champions League. He’ll take Tuesday’s clash between Atletico Madrid and AC Milan. To me, this makes sense. Clattenburg is by far the best referee in England right now, both from a technical standpoint and a fitness standpoint. Even though he’s been taking match after match, his
Read more
Dear me, Michael Oliver. Dear me. Now, let me say that I watched this game at a local pub with friends. (Why, yes, we were drinking at 9:30am California time. And?) And Tottenham were absolutely wretched in the second half, even before the red card. Jan Vertonghen’s slipping on the pitch then recovering by basically passing the ball to Chelsea’s
Read more
MLS has sought to soothe our fears around their refereeing shenanigans by announcing the replacement referees for this weekend’s opening matches. They need replacements of course, because the current MLS referees – including World Cup referee Mark Geiger – were locked out today by the Professional Referees Organization (PRO), an arm of MLS. But never fear, because these scabs replacements totally know
Read more
PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 