Hungary’s Kassai to referee World Cup play-off

Hungary’s Kassai to referee World Cup play-off

Hungary�s Kassai to referee World Cup play-off Tuesday, 22 September 2009 23:50 ZURICH: Hungarian Viktor Kassai has been appointed to referee the first leg of the play-off between Bahrain and New Zealand for a place in the FIFA World Cup 2010 finals in South Africa.
Kassai, 34 (pictured), is one of the top referees in Europe and is on the short-list of candidates to officiate at the South Africa finals.

He will be assisted by his compatriots Gabor Eros and Tibor Vamos, while Tamas Bognar, also Hungarian, will be the fourth official.

Dane Peter Mikkelsen will be the referee assessor while the match commissioner is Barry Been, of the Netherlands.

The first leg kicks off at the Bahain National Stadium in Manama on October 10 at 6.30pm local time.

Bahrain are hoping to become the fifth Asian team to qualify and join Japan, Korea Republic, DPR Korea and Australia in the FIFA World Cup 2010 finals.

Oceania champions New Zealand are looking for their first World Cup appearance in more than 30 years.

More than 30 years?  Quality maths.

A European ref could work in our favour...

Don't think it makes a lot of difference.

I thought that Was Robbie Williams in his slim days

It does make a difference. Remember the Jordan friendly?

Erm, we reaped quite a few benefits from the sasquatch in Jordan...

What I meant is that I don't think the issue is European/Asian/South American/Whatever. The refs for these games are always gonna come from the top refereeing tier, so it doesn't really matter where they're from.

Unless it's Matthew Breeze.

I think it's good we have one of the top rated officials for the match. Good to see the game being taken seriously.

Good ref - was in charge of Man Utd v Wolfsburg CL match last month
HeySeus2009-10-09 11:38:44

So that was him? I thought so (commentators said he was Hungarian) but wasn't sure if that was him.

Didn't seem to allow a lot of contact in that game, but played good advantage a couple of times. Should do a good job on Sunday morning.

I hope he does a good job. Sounds promising though.

I met the HUngarian president when he came to Wellington 2 weekends ago. Forgot to put in the good word. Doh!

Did pretty good tonight, other than that Paston time-wasting debacle.

it wasn't for time-wasting.

the ref gave a free kick for that incident, but Paston kicked it out his hands thus yellow card.

He never made it very clear that it was a free kick I hadn't seen it either, yellow card was a bit rough (but probably right by FIFA rules)

The only other major reffing error was the offside when Bahrain hit the post, but we blame the linesman not the ref.

Ref had a solid game

I thought he read the game well, and wasn't sucked in by some of the players theatrics. I thought his Linesmen however made a few really accurate calls (Chris Wood) and some questionable ones(guy that had an open goal)

yea, 'that guy'

how did he miss that ?

i honestly think the royal family have him locked in a dungeon now......

One thing I find strange is that the referee stopped Paston AFTER he had taken the kick when it was clear he was going to boot it from his hands, well in front of the mark. Why couldn't he blow the whistle before he kicked it and tell him?

how are we supposed to answer that ?

I have no idea what you mean by that. You can post a reply?

I think he blew the whistle a second or two before Paston kicked it tbh.

You mean after the foul? If it had I didn't hear it and I think Paston would of stopped if it had...

Yeah after the foul, just as he was on the edge of the box. I remember thinking "Eh? Wait! Don't kick it!"

Thought he was good overall. Let a few things go which helped us.

I couldn't see a good replay of that, was it definitely offside?

Bahraini TV directing was a bit sh*t. But not as bad as Dewhurst's commentary.

Ref was OK, tried to keep things going, but frankly was surprised that there wasn't some yellow cards given at the beginning to stop the Bahrain players from faking some of their injuries. There was some genuine injuries on both sides that wasn't attend quick enough later on because the earlier fake ones created doubt in the refs mind.

One linesman was on the money, the other linesman was not. I would have got brassed off if they had scored from those shots. How could they being not being offside? I noticed that the TV replays was not going to show the goal shoot attempts that had suspected offside issues which was to save Bahrains image. I really had never seen our defence all yelling loud for offside as they had in this game and they were very honest calls as well.

The offsides was purposely not shown as a sideline replay. TV directing was up to tricky at times.

Agree that Dewhurst commentary is just getting worse every year.

the problem is that Dewhirst wants to be both the commentator  and the comments man

he rambles a load of bollocks whilst the ball is in play   tigers2009-10-11 16:30:07

Luckily won't have to put up with poor coverage next game.
Commentators might as well have not been there, crowd and game noise was awfully quiet. Offside calls weren't even shown in line and the camera was too far out to make way for their royal seating area.

I agree - I wish he would either shut up or comment on the actual game

We've become used to A-League officials.

On the hole I thought he done a good job, it can't have been esy ignoring all those theatrics,

That was nothing.  You should have seen them when they played Australia.  They will be MUCH worse here than they were at home.

Some of the worst theatrics I think I've ever seen in football. Not quite Rivaldo standards, but pretty dreadful nonetheless.

hopefully we get another ref thats as good. will again have to be a top ref, so imagine he will be.