2006 FIFA World Cup officials

Match officials for the 2006 FIFA World Cup were nominated by the six confederations to FIFA, who, after a series of tests in Frankfurt/Neu-Isenburg in March 2006, selected 23 referees and a support and development group of a further 5, ^[1] from a shortlist of 44. ^[2]

Kyros Vassaras of Greece and Manuel Mejuto of Spain were selected to be on the panel, but the assistants who were to make up their teams were not deemed to have reached the required standards, and so they were replaced by Roberto Rosetti and Luis Medina. ^[1] Jamaican referee Peter Prendergast was selected for the tournament panel, but suffered a knee injury and was removed from the list without replacement. ^[3] Massimo De Santis of Italy was also on the panel of 23 referees, but after he was implicated in the Serie A match-fixing allegations, he was withdrawn by the Italian Football Federation and not replaced. ^[4]

The 21 referees, along with their assistants and the support group, are based in Neu-Isenburg for the duration of the tournament. FIFA announces the referees selected for each fixture three days in advance of the match. ^[1]

Horacio Elizondo was chosen to officiate the final match, which took place in Berlin on July 9.

Refereeing teams

Below are the details of the 21 groups of match officials in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. ^[1] For assistants, a flag is only shown if his nationality varies from that of the referee with whom he is grouped.

Most teams (consisting of a referee and two assistants) are drawn from the same nation, and all are made up of officials from the same confederation. In the first round of the tournament, officials other than from UEFA member associations only operate in groups that do not include a representative of their confederation.

Mexico is the only country with 2 referees on the panel.

For the first time at a World Cup, match officials will be equipped with microphones and earpieces so they can communicate better with each other during each game. ^[5] Furthermore this World Cup sees the introduction of a fifth official who can be called upon to replace an injured assistant referee. The fourth official would replace the referee..

Referee	Assistants	Matches	Red cards	Yellow cards
Essam Abd El Fatah	D. Dante M. Ndoye	Group F:   Australia vs.   Japan	0	7
Carlos Amarilla	A. Andino M. Bernal	Group E:   United States vs   Czech Republic Group G:   Togo vs    Switzerland Group H:   Tunisia vs   Ukraine	1	18
Benito Archundia	J. Ramirez H. Vergara	Group F:   Brazil vs   Croatia Group G:   France vs   South Korea Group E:   Czech Republic vs   Italy Round 2:    Switzerland vs   Ukraine Semifinal:   Germany vs   Italy	1	14
Massimo Busacca	F. Buragina M. Arnet	Group H:   Spain vs   Ukraine Group B:   Sweden vs   England Round 2:   Argentina vs   Mexico	1	11
Coffi Codjia	C. Ntagungira A. Aderodjou	Group A:   Ecuador vs   Costa Rica Group H:   Spain vs   Saudi Arabia	0	10
Frank De Bleeckere	P. Hermans W. Vromans	Group C:   Argentina vs   Ivory Coast Group F:   Croatia vs   Japan Round 2:   England vs   Ecuador Quarterfinal:   Italy vs   Ukraine	0	19
Horacio Elizondo	D. Garcia R. Otero	Group A:   Germany vs   Costa Rica Group E:   Czech Republic vs   Ghana Group G:   South Korea vs    Switzerland Quarterfinal:   England vs   Portugal Final:   Italy vs   France	3	24
Valentin Ivanov	N. Golubev E. Volnin	Group G:   France vs    Switzerland Group A:   Ecuador vs   Germany Round 2:   Portugal vs   Netherlands	4	26
Toru Kamikawa	Y. Hiroshima Kim Dae Young	Group A:   Poland vs   Ecuador Group B:   England vs   Trinidad and Tobago Third Place play-off:   Germany vs   Portugal	0	14
Jorge Larrionda	W. Rial P. Fandino	Group D:   Angola vs   Portugal Group E:   Italy vs   United States Group G:   Togo vs   France Semifinal:   Portugal vs   France	3	15
Shamsul Maidin	P. Permpanich E. Ghuloum	Group B:   Trinidad and Tobago vs   Sweden Group D:   Mexico vs   Angola Group A:   Costa Rica vs   Poland	2	20
Luis Medina Cantalejo	V. Giraldez P. Medina	Group A:   Germany vs   Poland Group C:   Netherlands vs   Argentina Round 2:   Italy vs   Australia Quarterfinal:   Brazil vs   France	2	25
Markus Merk	C. Schraer J.-H. Salver	Group C:   Serbia and Montenegro vs   Netherlands Group F:   Brazil vs   Australia Group E:   Ghana vs   United States	0	16
Ľuboš Micheľ	R. Slysko M. Balko	Group B:   Sweden vs   Paraguay Group D:   Portugal vs   Mexico Round 2:   Brazil vs   Ghana Quarterfinal:   Germany vs   Argentina	3	32
Graham Poll	P. Sharp G. Turner	Group G:   South Korea vs   Togo Group H:   Saudi Arabia vs   Ukraine Group F:   Croatia vs   Australia	4	20
Eric Poulat	L. Dagorne V. Texier	Group D:   Portugal vs   Iran Group F:   Japan vs   Brazil	0	9
Marco Rodríguez	J. Camargo L. Leal	Group B:   England vs   Paraguay Group C:   Ivory Coast vs   Serbia and Montenegro	2	12
Roberto Rosetti	C. Copelli A. Stagnoli	Group D:   Mexico vs   Iran Group C:   Argentina vs   Serbia and Montenegro Group B:   Paraguay vs   Trinidad and Tobago Round 2:   Spain vs   France	1	15
Oscar Ruiz	F. Tamayo J. Navia	Group C:   Netherlands vs   Ivory Coast	0	7
Mark Shield	N. Gibson B. Wilson	Group H:   Tunisia vs   Saudi Arabia Group D:   Iran vs   Angola	0	10
Carlos Simon	A. Tavares E. Corona	Group E:   Italy vs   Ghana Group H:   Spain vs   Tunisia Round 2:   Germany vs   Sweden	1	18

Support officials

Five teams of officials were named to be on standby in the case of injury to any of the officials nominated for a match. None of them were called upon, however, and from the quarter-finals onwards, referees from among the 12 retained for the latter stages of the tournament were given standby appointments to matches.

Referee	Assistant
Khalil Al Ghamdi	H. Al Kadri F. Rabati
Carlos Chandia	C. Julio R. Gonzalez
Jerome Damon	E. Molefe J. Yeboah
Mohamed Guezzaz	B. Djezzar J. Endeng Zogo
Kevin Stott	C. Strickland G. Barkey

Final Match Officials

On Wednesday 28 June, one day after the Second Round matches were completed and two days before the quarter-finals, the FIFA announced the 12 referees that were retained for the remaining matches. ^[6] This is the standard process, meant to ensure only the best referees are in charge of the final few games. The twelve are:

• Toru Kamikawa (Japan)
• Coffi Codjia (Benin)
• Benito Archundia (Mexico)
• Horacio Elizondo (Argentina)
• Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay)
• Mark Shield (Australia)
• Massimo Busacca (Switzerland)
• Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)
• Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)
• Markus Merk (Germany)
• Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia)
• Roberto Rosetti (Italy) ^[7]

See also

• 2006 FIFA World Cup disciplinary record
• 2010 FIFA World Cup officials

External links

• Referee Ratings for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Archived 2006-07-05 at the Wayback Machine

References

1. "23 referees from 21 countries". Archived from the original on 2006-06-30. Retrieved 2006-06-19.
2. "2006 FIFA World Cup Germany List of Candidate Referees" (PDF). 2005-10-28. Archived from the original (PDF format) on 2006-05-07. Retrieved 2006-06-19.
3. "Referee Peter Prendergast out of 2006 FIFA World Cup". 2006-05-29. Archived from the original on 27 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-05-21.
4. Notes from a round table event with the FIFA President
5. "World-Referees happy clampdown on fouls has worked". 2006-06-16. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
6. "Ref Poll sent home from World Cup". BBC News. 2006-06-28. Archived from the original on 26 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-28.
7. "ESPN". Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2006-06-28.