The big game this week is undoubtedly Juventus v. Inter on Sunday. Gianluca Rocchi, Italy’s second highest rated ref behind Nicola Rizzoli, will take the helm for that one. Speaking of Rizzoli (above), the band’s back together for Atalanta v. Napoli, with Renato Faverani and Andrea Stefani – his favored assistants and World Cup team – joining him on Sunday.
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A couple of caveats to today’s edition of ‘Red Card or Not?’ First, I’m a Tottenham supporter. Second, I’m an Andre Marriner supporter. So, these two sides of my particular coin clash badly when reviewing Marriner’s red card to Danny Rose against Manchester City at White Hart Lane. The setup: Rose, who was playing brilliantly to this point, slid across
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According to this exclusive in Daily Mail, the big kahunas of football were so aghast at Mike Jones’ horrendous day at Newcastle that they’re just throwing money at refereeing now. The highlights of the story: The amount of money spent on refs is due to nearly triple, to somewhere around 1 million pounds annually The goal is to both raise current
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The last time France did not have a referee in the World Cup was somewhere around 1357. Or 1974. Whatever. It’s been a while. But unfortunately, Stephane Lannoy gets that ignominious “honour”. Let’s get it out of the way right now: Lannoy is a good referee. Granted, his performance at the 2010 World Cup was hardly stellar. In the Ivory
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Ever wonder what (if any) thought goes into the Premier League referee appointments week in and week out? While it’s something of a trade secret, I’ve managed to dig up an old list that seems to still be relevant. While these may not be the only criteria PGMOL use, this list seems pretty comprehensive. The referee’s current form – We saw
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The big game this week is Manchester City v. Chelsea. Mike Dean will officiate that one. He’s near the top of the charts on yellow cards, and only Andre Marriner and Martin Atkinson have handed out more red cards. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles these two teams of prima donnas footballers. Elsewhere, Phil Dowd is managing the Anti-Mark
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In addition to all the usual appointment news and fun stuff, we had a couple of big stories this week on Play the Advantage. The Wall Street Journal published an article about FIFA’s referee selection process and how it basically screwed at least one referee over, but I had a slightly different perspective… In what may be a regular feature,
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Here are the officials for this weekend’s TIM Cup second round of returns. Saturday LAZIO – JUVENTUS MASSA BARBIRATI – MARZALONI IV: DI LIBERATORE ADD1: BERGONZI ADD2: GERVASONI NAPOLI – CHIEVO IRRATI STALLONE – GHIANDAI IV: PETRELLA ADD1: GIACOMELLI ADD2: LA PENNA Sunday CAGLIARI – MILAN DOVERI DE PINTO – SCHENONE IV: GRILLI ADD1: RIZZOLI ADD2: DI BELLO FIORENTINA –
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Just for a bit of fun, here’s a cute video compilation that proves that refs have always done dumb things. Some dumber than others. (I’m looking at you, Graham Poll…)
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First of all, how cool is it to see a feature article about World Cup referees on Wall Street Journal? Really cool, I would say. The piece, by Gabriele Marcotti and published on January 19, is titled: Fine Line for World Cup Referees Byzantine Selection Process Will Leave Top Talent Missing in Brazil I think you can get a pretty
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 