2010 FIFA World Cup: Referees for the World Cup
Everybody knows who the players for his national team are, and at least the stars for other teams, specially the favourites, but who knows who the referees are? Where do they come from? Who's the assistant?
To clarify this obscure job, that we only notice when the men in stripes screw up, here is a list of the 30 referees who will be in the world cup, and their assistants:
African zone:
Referee: Koman Coulibaly (Mali)
Assistants: Redouane Achik (Morocco) and Inácio Candido (Angola)
Referee: Jerome Damon (South Africa)
Assistants: Celestin Ntagungira (Rwanda) and Enock Molefe (South Africa)
Referee: Eddy Maillet (Seychelles)
Assistants: Evarist Menkouande (Cameroon) and Bechir Hassani (Tunisia)
Asian zone:
Referee: Khalil Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia)
Assistants: Hassan Kamranifar (Iran) and Saleh Al Marzouqi (United Arab Emirates)
Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)
Assistants: Rafael Iliasov (Uzbekistan) and Bahadyr Kochkarov (Kyrgyzstan)
Referee: Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh (Malaysia)
Assistants: Mu Yuxin (China) and Jeffrey Gek Pheng (Singapore)
Referee: Yuichi Nishimura (Japan)
Assistants: Toru Sagara (Japan) and Jeong Hae Sang (Korea Republic)
European zone:
Referee: Olegario Benquerenca (Portugal)
Assistants: Jose Cardinal (Portugal) and Bertino Miranda (Portugal)
Referee: Massimo Bussaca (Switzerland)
Assistants: Matthias Arnet (Switzerland) and Francesco Buragina (Switzerland)
Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)
Assistants: Peter Hermans (Belgium) and Walter Vromans (Belgium)
Referee: Martin Hansson (Sweden)
Assistants: Henrik Andren (Sweden) and Stefan Wittberg (Sweden)
Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)
Assistants: Gabor Eros (Hungary) and Tibor Vamos (Hungary)
Referee: Stephane Lannoy (France)
Assistants: Eric Dansault (France) and Laurent Ugo (France)
Referee: Roberto Rosetti (Italy)
Assistants: Paolo Calcagno (Italy) and Stefano Ayroldi (Italy)
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)
Assistants: Jan-Hendrik Salver (Germany) and Mike Pickel (Germany)
Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)
Assistants: Fermin Martinez (Spain) and Juan Carlos Yuste Jimenez (Spain)
Referee: Howard Webb (England)
Assistants: Darren Cann (England) and Michael Mullarkey (England)
North, Central American, and Caribbean zone:
Referee: Joel Aguilar (El Salvador)
Assistants: William Torres (El Salvador) and Juan Zumba (El Salvador)
Referee: Benito Archundia (Mexico)
Assistants: Hector Vergara (Canada) and Marvin Torrenta (Mexico)
Referee: Carlos Batres (Guatemala)
Assistants: Leonel Leal (Costa Rica) and Carlos Pastrana (Honduras)
Referee: Marco Rodriguez (Mexico)
Assistants: Jose Luis Camargo (Mexico) and Alberto Morin (Mexico)
Oceanic zone:
Referee: Michael Hester (New Zealand)
Assistants: Jan-Hendrik Hintz (New Zealand) and Tevita Makasini (Tonga)
Referee: Peter O'Leary (New Zealand)
Assistants: Brent Best (New Zealand) and Matthew Taro (Solomon Islands)
South American zone:
Referee: Hector Baldassi (Argentina)
Assistants: Ricardo Casas (Argentina) and Hernan Maidana (Argentina)
Referee: Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay)
Assistants: Pablo Fandino (Uruguay) and Mauricio Espinosa (Uruguay)
Referee: Pablo Pozo (Chile)
Assistants: Patricio Basualto (Chile) and Francisco Mondria (Chile)
Referee: Oscar Ruiz (Colombia)
Assistants: Abraham Gonzalez (Colombia) and Humberto Clavijo (Colombia)
Referee: Carlos Simon (Brazil)
Assistants: Altemir Hausmann (Brazil) and Roberto Braatz (Brazil)
Referee: Martin Vazquez (Uruguay)
Assistants: Carlos Pastorino (Uruguay) and Miguel Nievas (Uruguay)
Fun facts:
Since the article since here has been just a list (and the boring type of those), I'm going to give you some fun facts, that may or may not interest you.
Uruguay, New Zealand, and Mexico are the only countries that have more than one referee representing them (not including assistants), with two referees each.
You might notice that all South American and European referees, and some other referees, have assistants from their same country, that's because they are going to the World Cup with the same assistants that they have when they referee a match in their country or in an continental cup (Champions League, Libertadores, etc.).
Carlos Amarilla (Paraguay) and Mohamed Benouza (Argelia) were also selcted for the World Cup, but will not go, as their assistants failed the pre-World Cup fitness test (yes, referees do those).
The layout of referees differs somewhat from the teams that go, as Africa gets only three referees, but five countries (not including host, South Africa) and the Oceanic zone gets two referees, but just one country. I don't know why this is so, but there is some logic in Europe and South America, as they are the zones that bring most of both countries (13+5) and most referees (10+6).
