They’re back! In case you didn’t get enough of Dr. Dreamy and Mr. Smooth in the World Cup, the boys are back in town. That’s right, there will be playoffs for Champions League spots across Europe on Tuesday, and some of UEFA’s top referees will be in the middle. Chief amongst them will be The Man Himself, Nicola Rizzoli of
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The big match this week is undoubtedly on Monday, between last year’s first and third place teams, Manchester City and Liverpool. Michael Oliver gets the nod in that match. Oliver (above) is clearly working his way up the ranks. Mark Clattenburg is still England’s undisputed number one, and he’s at Crystal Palace v. West Ham. Martin Atkinson, another top ref, will take Sunderland v. Manchester
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Well, that didn’t take long. Chris Foy dished out the first red card of the Premier League season right at the thirty minute mark of the West Ham v. Tottenham match, when he sent off Kyle Naughton for a handball in the box. The call itself was pretty straightforward: Naughton was swinging his arms above his head, seemed to make
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Well, it’s finally time again! The referees for Matchweek 1 (Saturday, August 16 through Monday, August 18) in the English Premier League have been announced and we’re off to the proverbial races! Mark Clattenburg (above) starts his reign as England’s top referee with two teams who don’t like him: Liverpool and Southampton. (Though, to be fair, it’s not hard to find
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Howard Webb has ended his storied career as a professional referee. This is not unexpected; he’s been setting the stage for this for the last year or so. He dropped hints here or there that he probably wouldn’t be back after the 2014 World Cup, and even went back to his job as a police officer part time starting last
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So, in many ways, MLS has much more in common with American sports like baseball and basketball than they do with European club football. Witness the All-Star Game. Every summer, MLS pulls its best and brightest together for a single game. In other American sports, this game pits the best of the various conferences against each other. Since MLS isn’t
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Mark Clattenburg takes another big step up the ladder on August 12, when he referees the UEFA Super Cup. He’ll be in the middle when the winners of the 2013 Champions League, Real Madrid, take on the winners of the Europa League, Sevilla, in Cardiff, Wales. His preferred team, Simon Beck and Stuart Burt, will be his assistants, and Darren England
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Well, there’s been all of diddly going on since the World Cup in the referee news world (magical world that it is), and that’s been fine by me. 60-odd games in a row – most accompanied by margaritas – and I needed the break. But now that I’ve had a chance to stretch my legs, I’m starting to miss my
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Americans are getting more and more into football (“soccer”) and were pretty supportive of the USMNT, who improbably emerged from the Group of Death to make it to the Round of 16. But what many of them didn’t realize was that the real American hero in this World Cup wasn’t Tim Howard or Julian Green. He was a 39 year old
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You know what? I thought Nicola Rizzoli was great. He took control of this match right from the start and never relinquished it. He was fair, communicated well and gave an air of confidence that you just can’t fake. He owes a lot of his success – in this game in particular – to his outstanding ARs, Renato Faverani and
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 