The Italians are basically entering their second week of play after the international break. As I’ve mentioned before, the addition of added referees on the goal lines means the center referees “rotate” more than you see in England, so World Cup Final referee Nicola Rizzoli (above) will only feature as an add at Lazio this week. There is an interesting article
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The second day of knockout stage action is a good one if you are a female fan of the referees. Two lookers up: Pedro Proenca of Portugal and Ben Williams of Australia. I must say, I’m pleasantly surprised to see Williams. I thought he did really well in his last outing, with great fitness and foul detection and a good red
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FIFA aren’t screwing around with the first knockout stage games. They’re pulling out the big guns: Howard Webb of England and Bjorn Kuipers of Netherlands (both shown above). Brazil v. Chile will need a strong hand, and they have it in Webb, who was stellar in his last appearance. Kuipers has impressed in this tournament, as well. Also, we get some pretty, pretty boys
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Marco Rodriguez of Mexico and his love of hair product (see above) will open the proceedings on Tuesday with Italy v. Urugay. Mark Geiger of the US is his fourth official. Djamel Haimoudi of Algeria has been invited back for Costa Rica v. England, who have only their pride to play for now. Portugal’s generally excellent (and quite dreamy) Pedro Proenca has
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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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We have our first repeat referee of the tournament, and it’s a bit of a delightful surprise: Mark Geiger of USA. As I mentioned earlier, Geiger really impressed in his inaugural performance between Colombia and Greece (above) and I expected to see him again. But not quite so soon, and in quite so big of a game. Spain v. Chile
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Hard to believe we’re almost at the end of yet another Serie A season. Here are this upcoming weekend’s referees. Italy’s World Cup team – Nicola Rizzoli, Andrea Stefani and Renato Faverani (all pictured above) – are together in Florence. It looks like Stefani is finally shaking off the injury he’s been carrying for a while, just in time for Brazil.
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Serie A is still trailing Premier League by a week or two, but all of the fun has been sucked out of it by Juventus (ain’t that always the way). Anti-climax aside, there are still a couple of interesting matches this weekend, including Inter v. Lazio, featuring Davide Massa (above) and, of course, the always-lively Roma v. Juventus, handled by
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Here are the updated referee appointments for the last matchweek of the season, played on Sunday, May 11. Howard Webb’s got the band back together again – i.e., World Cup team Mike Mullarkey and Darren Cann (above, with Webb, center) – for Hull v. Everton. Mark Clattenburg will be refereeing in the Championship on Monday, so will only be a
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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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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 