It’ll be the Dance of the Hard to Pronounce Referees when Champions League action resumes on Tuesday. World Cup referee Milorad Mazic of Serbia will call arguably the biggest game of the day: Atletico Madrid v. Real Madrid. Mazic (above) is a quick tempered and often physical referee who isn’t afraid to mix it up with the players, so it’ll be interesting
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Some big games this week, and some equally big refereeing names to officiate. Because there is so much going on, I’m trying a slightly different format for this post. CSKA Moskva – FC Bayern München Referee: William Collum (SCO) Assistant Referee 1: William Conquer (SCO) Assistant Referee 2: Graham Chambers (SCO) Collum’s actually been called on by UEFA quite a
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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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Today, we saw arguably the best refereeing performance of the World Cup so far … and arguably the worst. Milorad Mazic (SRB), Argentina v. Iran FIFA really loves Mazic (above), that much is clear. I think he’s usually a pretty good referee, but I haven’t been quite so enamoured of him as they are. He was a bit hit or
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Update: Here’s a great new video clip that should put this to bed (thanks to reader Cicero). It’s pretty clear here that Zabaleta touched the ball very cleanly and the ball was out of reach before he ever touched Dejagah. What it was an Iranian corner, which wasn’t given. And to everyone who’s commenting on this, I am glad you’re here. I
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Saturday’s games will feature two repeat referees and one we have only seen as a fourth official: New Zealand’s dreamy Peter O’Leary. Argentina and Iran have Milorad Mazic. The Serb is very well thought-of around FIFA, though I thought his original outing (Germany v. Portugal) was rather hit or miss. One of the best referees I’ve seen in the tournament
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Another great day of games in Brazil. Here are my thoughts on today’s referees: Milorad Mazic (SRB), Germany v. Portugal Mazic (above) is not a big guy, and he hasn’t been an Elite referee for very long, but he pretty much towered over this game. He called an early penalty for Germany after a tug in the box (more evidence
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Well, this was an exciting match, wasn’t it? Milorad Mazic, the Serbian who has taken refereeing by storm the last few years, had complete control over this match from the start, physical pushing players around (mostly Portuguese players) when they got out of hand. But, like it or not, he had a big impact on the game with two calls
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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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For the record, Mark Clattenburg is on fire this year. Just when I said I suspected that there would be no non-World Cup referees in the Champions League quarterfinals, he comes up big for Real Madrid v. Dortmund. It’s a shame, really. Howard Webb’s struggles are well-known, and Clatts is having the year of his life. If the last 6-9 months were
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 