Here are the referee appointments for January 18 and 19 in Serie A. Nothing terribly exciting. Of the Elite referees, Daniele Orsato takes Chievo-Parma, and Gianluca Rocchi (above) will oversee Udinese-Lazio. Fresh off his not-at-all surprising appointment to the World Cup, Nicola Rizzoli will manage Genoa-Inter. One slightly interesting item, Rizzoli has a new assistant referee team this week. World
Read more
How cute is this picture of Howard Webb photobombing his uber-serious (and uber-cold, looks like) refereeing team? You just keep being you, Howard. You just keep being you.
Read more
Now that we know who’s going to the World Cup, here are my initial thoughts on the choices. I’m focusing right now on the Europeans, since I know them best. Felix Brych, Germany Brych has been on the ascendancy in Germany for quite some time. Wolfgang Stark has been the number one in Germany until now, but over the past
Read more
I’ll analyze this list more in the coming days, but a couple of notes: Mark Geiger from the US is in. Go, Mark. Mark Clattenburg from England, despite having had a good year, was passed over for Howard Webb, who refereed the final in 2010. Clatts is only 38, so he’ll have another shot. Europe’s referees are mostly the old
Read more
It’s starting to get a little boring. Apparently, whenever a team starts to go completely lousy, the manager comes out and says something stupid about the referees to try and obfuscate the issue: that his team suck. First, there was good old Brendan “Geographically Correct” Rodgers. Then there was the Great Adam Lallana Affair over at Southampton. Both were smear campaigns
Read more
There’s only one big game this week: Manchester United v. Chelsea. My man Phil Dowd will take charge, and it’s a good thing. These clubs and their managers are a handful, to say the least, and Dowd leads all Premier League referees with 55 yellow cards to date. (Though no red cards. Yet.) Mark Clattenburg has a tough one with
Read more
Mike Jones seems like a nice enough guy. But boy has luck not been on his side lately. First, he got punched in the face accidentally while mediating a “debate”. (Which was totally not funny, and yet totally was. Cause getting punched in the nose is just comedy gold.) But he might have wished someone would punch him in the nose
Read more
Here are the referee appointments for the weekend of January 11 in the Serie A. Of note: None of Serie A’s “big cats” (Rocchi, Rizzoli, Orsato, Tagliavento, etc.) have a match. They’re all serving as additional officials for other teams. On the other hand, the delicious Marco Guida (above) is officiating (Cagliari v. Juventus), so that’s always a treat. ATALANTA –
Read more
It appears that the latest Mark Clattenburg controversy is grinding to an ignominious halt. When last we’d left our intrepid hero, Clattenburg waved off two penalty appeals in Southampton’s loss to Everton at Goodison Park, and Saints lost their shit. The general feeling is that Clattenburg got both calls right. What happened next was when things got really surreal: Clattenburg apparently
Read more
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers won’t fight an FA charge that arose after he made thinly veiled accusations that questioned referee Lee Mason’s impartiality. Rodgers, incensed by Mason’s performance in Liverpool’s Boxing Day clash at Manchester City, suggested that the calls didn’t go the Reds’ way because Mason is from “Greater Manchester.” “Hopefully we don’t have a Greater Manchester referee again
Read more
PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 