Surprise! Not really. As I predicted, the Dutchman and the German will take the Champions League and Europa League finals. Bjorn Kuipers, a supermarket owner from the Netherlands, will manage the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Lisbon, Portugal on May 24. Read more about Kuipers appointment on UEFA.com. Dr. Felix Brych, who is from Germany
Read moreI get a report every day that tells me what people are searching for when they land on Play the Advantage. Between that report and my inbox, I have a pretty good idea of the burning questions people are dying to get answered. In the spirit of service that permeates everything I do, I’m starting a new feature to answer said burning questions. So,
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Daniele Orsato (above) will referee the Coppa Italia (TIM Cup) final between Fiorentina and Napoli, Saturday May 3. His assistants will be Elenito di Liberatore (who assisted Nicola Rizzoli in the Champions League this past week) and Andrea Padovan. Paolo Valeri and Daniele Doveri are added officials, with Davide Massa as fourth official. Even the Pope gets into the Coppa Italia action,
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I always love it when Phil Dowd (above) referees Spurs. Lots of potato jokes amongst my crowd. “Is it just me or does Phil Dowd look like a potato with a pack of cards?” “Don’t be silly! Potatoes have eyes.“ (I actually think Phil Dowd is terribly sexy in a weird way. Which I know I probably shouldn’t admit.) Anyhoo… Aside
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I am not a referee. But many of my friends and new readerfriends (a word I totally just made up) are referees, so it’s meant that I’ve started watching refs with a different eye than I did when I first became an officiating fangirl, way back when. (Which basically went something like: “Oh, he’s cute. I’m a fan.”) Take Mark Clattenburg’s Europa
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Add yet another feather of refereeing oddness to the Honey Badger’s cap. Italy’s Nicola Rizzoli gave Diego Costa a deserved penalty kick in Atletico Madrid’s Champions League semifinal clash with Chelsea, after Samuel Eto’o clumsily chopped him down in the box. But Costa went all “princess and the pea”, bizarrely claiming the ball wasn’t sitting right and continuing to spin
Read moreWe now know who will referee the semifinals for the Champions League and Europa League. So, it’s time to make our predictions for the finals. Champions League: Bjorn Kuipers, Netherlands Bjorn Kuipers (above, left) is easily considered one of the top referees in the world, and will represent The Netherlands at the World Cup finals in Brazil. He was in contention
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So, it’s no World Cup, but a Europa League semifinal is a pretty good consolation prize for England’s Mark Clattenburg (above). Clatts has had a truly outstanding year, both internationally and in Premier League, where he’s successfully taken charge of numerous big games. It is just a shame that he did not get this tournament final, and makes the fact
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It’s official: Chelsea get the Honey Badger. Italy’s Nicola Rizzoli, who officiated the 2013 Champions League final, will referee the Chelsea v Atletico Madrid semifinal at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, April 30. This is bad news for Chelsea’s manager, Jose Mourinho, and his band of thugs. Rizzoli is known as heavy-handed with the cards, even internationally, and he has no
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Pedro Proenca of Portugal will referee the Champions League final game between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid on Tuesday, April 29. Proenca is the most boring international referee around. And that’s good. You don’t get very far with a “pedro proenca controversy” google search because there’s just not much. He is a very consistent, deliberate referee who is very calm
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