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The man in the middle - Referee Admiration/Angst/Appointments thread

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Posted June 17, 2014 21:31 · last edited June 17, 2014 21:33

Big Pete 65 wrote:

otagofan wrote:

The word from referee followers who follow appointments much closer than me is that, based on FIFA's track record on appointments, O'Leary is likely to get a dead rubber game on the final day of a group.

Could well be right - giving so many Fourth Official gigs to Tahitian Hauata suggests they might be keeping O'Leary for bigger things like reffing a game.

Although FIFA gave NZ officials more responsibility earlier on last World Cup when they let NZ ref Mike Hester take charge of the first game in the group for South Korea v Greece last World Cup with O'Leary and Hintz running the lines.

Hauata Fourth Official again Friday: 

GROUP C, Match 22
19 June 2014, 00:00 CET
Estádio das Dunas, Natal
JAPAN - GREECE
Referee: Joel AGUILAR (SLV)
Assistant Referee 1: William TORRES MEJIA (SLV)
Assistant Referee 2: Juan Francisco ZUMBA (SLV)
Fourth Official: Norbert HAUATA (TAH)
Standby Assistant Referee: Marwa RANGE (KEN)

When you consider O'Leary is the better referee by far compared to Hauata, if he was only going to do 4ths, they would have picked O'Leary to do them first rather than the other guy. His turn will come. He is also the only pure neutral there as well so there is a chance he is kept on for that reason (but then they are hardly likely to use him) and I note FIFA broke their own neutrality rules putting the Spaniard Carlos Velasco on the England Uruguay game. Usually they use complete neutrals so this will be interesting.

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Jeff Vader edited June 17, 2014 21:33
Big Pete 65 wrote:
otagofan wrote:

The word from referee followers who follow appointments much closer than me is that, based on FIFA's track record on appointments, O'Leary is likely to get a dead rubber game on the final day of a group.

Could well be right - giving so many Fourth Official gigs to Tahitian Hauata suggests they might be keeping O'Leary for bigger things like reffing a game.

Although FIFA gave NZ officials more responsibility earlier on last World Cup when they let NZ ref Mike Hester take charge of the first game in the group for South Korea v Greece last World Cup with O'Leary and Hintz running the lines.

Hauata Fourth Official again Friday: 

GROUP C, Match 22
19 June 2014, 00:00 CET
Estádio das Dunas, Natal
JAPAN - GREECE
Referee: Joel AGUILAR (SLV)
Assistant Referee 1: William TORRES MEJIA (SLV)
Assistant Referee 2: Juan Francisco ZUMBA (SLV)
Fourth Official: Norbert HAUATA (TAH)
Standby Assistant Referee: Marwa RANGE (KEN)

When you consider O'Leary is the better referee by far compared to Hauata, if he was only going to do 4ths, they would have picked O'Leary to do them first rather than the other guy. His turn will come.