The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process along with hosts Germany for the finals tournament. It was the second time that Germany staged the competition and the first as a unified country along with the former East Germany with Leipzig as a host city, and the 10th time that the tournament was held in Europe.
Anders Frisk is a Swedish insurance agent by trade and a former football referee. Frisk chose to go into early retirement from refereeing due to pressure from death threats made against him and his family. He is fluent in several languages including his native Swedish, English and German.
Kim Milton Nielsen is a Danish former international football referee. An IT manager by trade, Nielsen is noted for his impressive height of 1.96 m, making him taller than most players. Nielsen began refereeing at 15 years of age, as he wanted to know the Laws of Football. A decade later, he began taking charge of Danish top-flight games, and he was awarded his FIFA international badge in 1988 when he was still in his late 20s.
Terje Hauge is a former Norwegian football referee from the club Olsvik IL.
Ľuboš Micheľ is a retired Slovak football referee.
Graham Poll is an English former football referee in the Premier League. With 26 years of experience, he was one of the most prominent referees in English football, often taking charge of the highest-profile games. His final domestic game in a career spanning 1,544 matches was the Championship play-off final on 28 May 2007 between Derby County and West Bromwich Albion.
Howard Melton Webb MBE is an English former professional football referee who officiated primarily in the Premier League from 2003 to 2014, as well as for FIFA as a FIFA international referee from 2005 to 2014.
Martin Atkinson is an English referee coach and retired professional football referee who officiated primarily in the Premier League. He is a member of the West Riding County Football Association.
Jorge Luis Larrionda Pietrafesa is a retired FIFA football referee from Uruguay who has officiated at international matches since 1998. He officiated at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, where he took charge of four matches, including a semifinal between Portugal and France. He is known as a strict referee who shows a high number of cards.
Massimo Busacca is a Swiss former football referee, who is FIFA Director of Refereeing, overseeing the protection of football’s core values and the continuous improvement of the game through the development of match officials and referee coaches. He lives in Monte Carasso, Ticino, Switzerland, near Bellinzona.
Stefano Farina was an Italian association football referee.
Craig Alexander Thomson is a Scottish former football referee, who was a match official between 1988 and 2019. Thomson originates from Paisley, Renfrewshire.
Viktor Kassai is a Hungarian football official and a former referee who is the current head of refereeing department of the Bulgarian Football Union. He participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and refereed the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final. He has been a full international referee for FIFA since 2003. He retired as a referee on 30 December 2019.
Serge Gumienny is a former Belgian football referee. He frequently operates in the Belgian First Division, Belgian Second Division and Belgian Cup. Occasionally he referees a matches in the Dutch Eredivisie, the UEFA Intertoto Cup, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Champions League. He also has whistled matches overseas and frequently operates as fourth official in the games refereed by Frank De Bleeckere. On 25 December 2008, he was promoted to the European A-category. He has whistled 250 games in the Belgian first division.
Alexandru Dan Tudor is a retired Romanian football referee. He refereed his first match in the Romanian First Division on 15 May 1999, when he officiated a match between Universitatea Craiova and Universitatea Cluj. He was a FIFA-listed referee from 2001 to 2016, and refereed his first UEFA Champions League qualifying match on 31 July 2002. He took charge of a UEFA Cup first round match between Celta de Vigo and Odense Boldklub two months later, but it was not until 4 November 2008 that he refereed his first Champions League group stage match, when he officiated a match between Barcelona and Basel. He refereed his last official match in the Romanian First Division on 14 December 2018, when he officiated a thrilling game between Concordia Chiajna and FC Politehnica Iași, 3-6. Nicknamed Brad Pitt thanks to his looks, Tudor holds the record for the most games officiated in Liga 1, with over 380 matches under his badge.
Pedro Proença Oliveira Alves García is a retired Portuguese football referee.
Cüneyt Çakır is a Turkish former football referee. He is best known for refereeing the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final between Juventus and Barcelona. He was FIFA listed since 2006 and a member of the UEFA Elite since 2010 until his retirement. He is currently serving as head of the Refereeing Department of the Georgian Football Federation.
Alexandra "Saša" Ihringová is a Slovak-born football referee, based in Shropshire, who officiates in the role of assistant referee in the Football League.
Björn Kuipers is a former Dutch football referee. He has been a FIFA listed referee from 2006 to 2021 and an UEFA Elite group referee from 2009 to 2021. He was assisted during international matches by Sander van Roekel and Erwin Zeinstra. A supermarket owner by occupation, Kuipers has officiated at two World Cups and three European Championship tournaments. It was announced on 29 July 2021 that Kuipers would be retiring from refereeing, officiating his final match between Ajax and PSV on 7 August in the 2021 Johan Cruyff Shield.
The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup final was a football match to determine the winners of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. The match was held at the Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 June 2013 and was contested by the winners of the semi-finals, Brazil and Spain. Brazil defeated Spain 3–0 with goals from Fred and Neymar, thus breaking Spain's record of 29 competitive games without a defeat.
