VE has let 2 in but saved about 5 good chances. F
Group F - ARG | BIH | IRN | NGA
Shouldn't even be there. Part timers.
There are plenty of part timers from every confederation at this WC.
Most of the referees and assistants referee regularly in professional leagues though. Even the smaller countries supplying officials like Norway, Panama and Kyrgyzstan (one AFC assistant ref) have pro leagues. The standard of games and refereeing is thus higher than amateur leagues. Officials from the other Confederations also have the chance to referee many more internationals than are played in Oceania, including major World Cup qualifiers, regional championships etc.
Even if few leagues around the world employ full-time refs (EPL, la Liga do) and even in the EPL the assistants are part-time. In Spain assistant refs earn $NZ 86,000 - $NZ 112,000 for twenty games. EPL assistants get $NZ 1200 per match, with no guarantee of matches.
Most refs in the Bundesliga are part-time and hold down day jobs.
Full list of World Cup Match Officials 2014:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/referees...
The OFC match officials are the only ones from countries without professional leagues. O'Leary, Rule and Hintz officiate at a handful of A-League games every season. Hauata from Tahiti has never officiated in a pro league. Otherwise they are only officiating in ASB Premiership, Tahitian league or OFC champions League the rest of the year...
Mark Rule who made the wrong offside call in Bosnia v Nigeria is easily the least experienced of the three OFC officials at the current World Cup in terms of officiating internationals and was called up at the last minute to replace the injured Ravinesh Kumar from Fiji (who has never officiated in a pro league).
My reckoning using Google (the A-League website is no bloody use since it lists no officials) is that Mark Rule's sum total of experience in professional matches last season was four Hyundai A-League matches as assistant referee (one in November, two in December, one in January). Other assistant refs were used in other Phoenix home games such as Ryan Gallagher:
https://www.google.co.nz/webhp?sourceid=chrome-ins...
Fellow OFC assistant at the World Cup, Jan Hendrik Hintz from NZ was assistant in eight matches:
https://www.google.co.nz/webhp?sourceid=chrome-ins...
O'Leary reffed six A-League matches last season:
https://www.google.co.nz/webhp?sourceid=chrome-ins...
Norbert Hauata from Tahiti has previously been senior to Rule and Hintz at FIFA age group tournaments. Hauata was on the referees list at last year's u-17 World Cup in the UAE and reffed two games. Rule was only on the assistant ref's list and was Hauata's assistant in those two games. O'Leary didn't attend:
http://boxscorenews.com/ofc-match-officials-appoin...
O'Leary, Hintz and Kumar were the OFC officials at the u-20 World Cup in Turkey last June- July (O'Leary the ref) and the team did two group games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_FIFA_U-20_World_...
O'Leary's CV is impressive:
O'Leary has extensive experience in reffing internationals in Oceania since 2004; the OFC Champions League; the 2007 and 2009 club World Cups; plus the 2007, 2009, 2013 FIFA u-20 World Cups:
Stoked to see my man Reza of Iran become the first Charlton Athletic player to ever score in the World Cup Finals when he found the net in Iran's 1-3 loss to Bosnia:
http://www.cafc.co.uk/news/article/20140625-reza-m...
Reza Ghoochannejhad scores at the World Cup
Image by: Action Images
"Reza Ghoochannejhad has become the first ever Charlton player to score at a World Cup after netting in Iran's 3-1 defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday..."
After Nigeria was eliminated from the world cup the Nigerian captain personally offered to refund all the expenses of fans that travelled to Brazil.
He said he just needs their bank accounts details and pin numbers to complete the transaction.
He should ask the CIA, they'd know.
He should ask the CIA, they'd know.
Nah, they would confuse it with Angela Merkel's cellphone memory PIN number.....