• facts and statistics

    World Cup referee facts and statistics

    Referees in this World Cup are mild to the players according to the card stats. They’ve given 101 yellows and 9 reds after 29 matches. Remarkable is the low average of yellow cards (3.5 per match), especcially when you compare it with the average of 4.8 cards per match at the World Cup in Germany in 2006. I’ve tried to find some interesting referee facts (with the help of Fifa statistics). First the World Cup 2010 referee facts: Tallest referee Wolfgang Stark (Germany) with 191 cm Shortest referee Joel Aguilar (El Salvador) and Benito Archundia (Mexico), both 170 cm Average height 181,3 cm Longest international career Benito Archundia since 1993…

  • guest blog,  world cup

    Golden medal for the referees at the World Cup

    Unlike goalies and the Jabulani ball, the referees are going unnoticed at the World Cup. Written by Valdir Bicudo, a befriended Brazilian journalist and referee commentator at Parana Online. It’s his round-up after the first round at this World Cup. In an interview with Fifa spokesman Nicolaz Maingot last Tuesday, when he traveled between Pretoria and Johannesburg, told that the performance of referees and assistants in the early matches of World Cup in South Africa were highly impressive. According to Maingot, Fifa, the entity that handles the football on the planet, has done efforts as never showed before to improve arbitration at the World Cup. For example the implementation of…

  • Interviews,  world cup

    World Cup referees are important for New Zealand

    Two head referees from the same country at the same World Cup tournament is quite unique. This year there are three countries which provide more than one refereeing team: Uruguay (Larrionda and Vazquez), Mexico (Archundia and Rodriguez) and New Zealand (Hester and O’Leary). The situation for the latter country is a more exceptional. There was never a referee from the New Zealand leading a match. Michael Hester from Auckland (NZ) had the premiere in last week’s World Cup match between South Korea and Greece. The Dutch Referee blog contacted Ken Wallace, the New Zealand Football Referee Development Officer. In this interview he talks about about refereeing in New Zealand and…

  • referee announcement,  world cup

    World Cup referees announced for first matches

    Fifa confirmed that Ravshan Irmatov will be the referee of the opening at the World Cup between South Africa and Mexico. Referee Pozo from Chile is injured and has been replaced. See the revised list below: Match Referee (Country) South Africa – Mexico Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan) Uruguay – France Yuichi Nishimura (Japan) Argentina – Nigeria Wolfgang Stark (Germany) Korea – Greece Michael Hester (New Zealand) England – USA Carlos Simon (Brazil) Algeria – Slovenia Carlos Alberto Batres (Chile) *See Update 2 below Germany – Australia Marco Rodriguez (Mexico) Serbia – Ghana Hector Baldassi (Argentina) Netherlands – Denmark Stephane Lannoy (France) Japan – Cameroon Olegario Benquerenca (Portugal) Italy – Paraguay Benito…