AR Yegros asked Messi for a photo at half-time of World Cup qualifier

Football officials are meant to be impartial, but an assistant referee from Paraguay could not resist showing off what a big Lionel Messi fan he was on Tuesday night.

Nicolas Yegros was working the line for Argentina's World Cup qualifier against Chile and, at half-time, he approached the Barcelona star and asked him to pose for a photograph with him. A rather bemused Messi granted Yegros his request as the Paraguayan smiled giddily beside his football idol. But why would Yegros risk the wrath of FIFA with such a brazenly unprofessional act? Well, according to the South American media, it was his last official match in charge and, therefore, he did not care about any fines or punishment from FIFA. He also got to watch Messi score as he helped Argentina to a 2-1 away win which gave the visitors a three-point lead in the standings of South American World Cup qualifying campaign. Messi and Gonzalo Higuain struck within minutes of each other half an hour into the match, with Chile pulling one back through substitute Felipe Gutierrez in added time at the end of the game. The Paraguayan assistant referee did not understand why all the fuss regarding this picture. “I wanted a photo with Messi for my son because he is his fan and I had this opportunity. I hope that the Chilean fans will not be angry with me for what I did. The referees are part of the environment of football and I do not see why it has to be a problem”, said Yegros. 

Source: Yahoo Sports

Webb wants World Cup swansong at Maracana

Howard Webb wants to end his World Cup refereeing career on a high at the 2014 tournament in Brazil. He was in charge of the controversial 2010 World Cup final in South Africa, when he showed a record 15 cards, but that has not put him off taking charge of matches in another tournament. Brazil would be the last chance for the 41-year-old Yorkshire official to go to another World Cup - the FIFA age limit is 45 - and he admits he would love the opportunity to referee a game at Rio de Janeiro’s famous Maracana stadium.

Webb said: “The World Cup is where you want to be. A World Cup in Brazil will be pretty special and if you are performing in high-level sport in whatever capacity you want to be at the big events. It would be my last World Cup, it was wonderful to do the final in 2010 but I would like to be involved in 2014 as well. I went to Brazil last year and took charge of the Masters beach football final on the Copacabana which whetted my appetite. We had a look around the Maracana and that is one of the great cathedrals of world football. I have been lucky enough to go to all the major ones in Europe so to get to one of the greatest venues in football would be really something.” Howard Webb is on the FIFA list of 52 referees who will be whittled down to around 30 for the tournament. Mark Clattenburg is the only other English referee on the list plus another 16 officials from Europe, and around 10 slots are expected to go to Europeans. Webb added: “I am under no illusions about the quality of the competition, including Mark. I'm lucky that I have been involved in seven tournaments in my career, including the World Cup and two European Championships which have been the major ones. I have enjoyed those experiences and I have until I am 45 to try to achieve them again.” Webb admits there is little or no chance of him being chosen to referee the World Cup final again. He said: “I would say it is extremely unlikely bearing in mind there are something like two million referees around the world and there have only been 19 of them who have refereed World Cup finals. I would just love to be involved in any game there.” He has also been involved with FIFA this year promoting their campaign for better practices to deal with players suffering heart attacks. He was the man in charge when Fabrice Muamba collapsed in March and last week he presented a defibrillator donated by Rotherham company Martek Medical to local school Oakwood. Webb said: “I understand there cannot be a defibrillator at every location but the more there are the better, particularly at communal pitches where there are lots of games taking place.”

Source: Daily Mail

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – UEFA

16 October 2012
Spain – France
Referee: Felix Brych (GER, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Mark Borsch (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Stefan Lupp (GER)
Fourth Official: Felix Zwayer (GER)

Romania – Netherlands
Referee: Craig Thomson (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Alasdair Ross (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: Derek Rose (SCO)
Fourth Official: John Beaton (SCO)

Germany – Sweden
Referee: Pedro Proenca (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Jose Trigo (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Bertino Miranda (POR)
Fourth Official: Duarte Gomes (POR)

Poland – England
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Elenito Di Liberatore (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Gianluca Cariolato (ITA)
Fourth Official: Mauro Bergonzi (ITA)

Italy – Denmark
Referee: Damir Skomina (SVN)
Assistant Referee 1: Matej Zunic (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Bojan Ul (SVN)
Fourth Official: Slavko Vincic (SVN)

Hungary – Turkey
Referee: Daniele Orsato (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Mauro Tonolini (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Lorenzo Manganelli (ITA)
Fourth Official: Paolo Mazzoleni (ITA)

Israel – Luxembourg
Referee: Harald Lechner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Alain Hoxha (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Richard Huebler (AUT)
Fourth Official: Gerhard Grobelnik (AUT)

Iceland – Switzerland
Referee: Alan Kelly (IRL)
Assistant Referee 1: Damien MacGraith (IRL)
Assistant Referee 2: Marc Douglas (IRL)
Fourth Official: Padraigh Sutton (IRL)

Faroe Islands – Ireland
Referee: Lorenc Jemini (ALB)
Assistant Referee 1: Ermal Barushi (ALB)
Assistant Referee 2: Gezim Koka (ALB)
Fourth Official: Enea Jorgji (ALB)

Andorra – Estonia
Referee: Dimitar Meckarovski (MKD)
Assistant Referee 1: Dusko Milosevski (MKD)
Assistant Referee 2: Igor Sirilov (MKD)
Fourth Official: Goran Spirkoski (MKD)

Croatia – Wales
Referee: Alexandru Tudor (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Cristian Nica (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Aurel Onita (ROU)
Fourth Official: Radu Petrescu (ROU)

Russia – Azerbaijan
Referee: Aleksandar Stavrev (MKD)
Assistant Referee 1: Marjan Kirovski (MKD)
Assistant Referee 2: Dejan Kostadinov (MKD)
Fourth Official: Jovan Kaludjerovic (MNE)

Belarus – Georgia
Referee: Robert Schorgenhofer (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Roland Brandner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Klaus Strasser (AUT)
Fourth Official: Markus Hameter (AUT)

Czech Republic – Bulgaria
Referee: Vladislav Bezborodov (RUS)
Assistant Referee 1: Nikolay Golubev (RUS)
Assistant Referee 2: Viacheslav Semenov (RUS)
Fourth Official: Alexey Eskov (RUS)

Cyprus – Norway
Referee: Pawel Gil (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Piotr Sadczuk (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcin Borkowski (POL)
Fourth Official: Robert Malek (POL)

Latvia – Liechtenstein
Referee: Istvan Kovacs (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Zoltan Szekely (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Miklos Nagy (ROU)
Fourth Official: Ovidiu Hategan (ROU)

Bosnia – Lithuania
Referee: Miroslav Zelinka (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Ondrej Pelikan (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Patrik Filipek (CZE)
Fourth Official: Radek Prihoda (CZE)

Macedonia – Serbia
Referee: Bas Nijhuis (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Angelo Boonman (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Rob Van de Ven (NED)
Fourth Official: Serdar Gozubuyuk (NED)

Slovakia – Greece
Referee: William Collum (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Martin Cryans (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: George Drummond (SCO)
Fourth Official: Euan Norris (SCO)

San Marino – Moldova
Referee: Marios Panayi (CYP)
Assistant Referee 1: Athinodoros Ioannou (CYP)
Assistant Referee 2: Stelios Nikita (CYP)
Fourth Official: Ioannis Anastasiou (CYP)

Austria – Kazakhstan
Referee: Jakob Kehlet (DEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Lars Hummelgaard (DEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Jacob Bille (DEN)
Fourth Official: Michael Tykgaard (DEN)

Belgium – Scotland
Referee: Tom Harald Hagen (NOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Dag Roger Nebben (NOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Magnus Lundberg (NOR)
Fourth Official: Espen Berntsen (NOR)

Albania – Slovenia
Referee: Martin Hansson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 1: Magnus Sjoblom (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Per Brogevik (SWE)
Fourth Official: Michael Lerjeus (SWE)

Portugal – N. Ireland
Referee: Thorsten Kinhofer (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Detlef Scheppe (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Guido Kleve (GER)
Fourth Official: Marco Fritz (GER)

Ukraine – Montenegro
Referee: Michael Koukoulakis (GRE)
Assistant Referee 1: Dimitrios Saraidaris (GRE)
Assistant Referee 2: Michail Karsiotis (GRE)
Fourth Official: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (GRE)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – CONMEBOL

16 October 2012
Chile – Argentina
Referee: Antonio Arias (PAR, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Nicolas Yegros (PAR)
Assistant Referee 2: Dario Gaona (PAR)
Fourth Official: Julio Quintana (PAR)

Venezuela – Ecuador
Referee: Nestor Pitana (ARG)
Assistant Referee 1: Hernan Maidana (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Juan Belatti (ARG)
Fourth Official: Federico Beligoy (ARG)

Bolivia – Uruguay
Referee: Victor Rivera (PER)
Assistant Referee 1: Jonny Bossio (PER)
Assistant Referee 2: Raul Lopez (PER)
Fourth Official: Henry Gambetta (PER)

Paraguay – Peru
Referee: Pablo Lunati (ARG)
Assistant Referee 1: Diego Bonfa (ARG)
Assistant Referee 2: Gustavo Rossi (ARG)
Fourth Official: Patricio Loustau (ARG)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – CONCACAF

16 October 2012
Honduras – Canada
Referee: Mauricio Morales (MEX, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Marvin Torrentera (MEX)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcos Quintero (MEX)
Fourth Official: Ricardo Arellano (MEX)

USA – Guatemala
Referee: Roberto Moreno (PAN)
Assistant Referee 1: Daniel Williamson (PAN)
Assistant Referee 2: Keytzel Corrales (NCA)
Fourth Official: Jose Rodriguez (PAN)

Mexico – El Salvador
Referee: Jafeth Perea (PAN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jaime Smith (PAN)
Assistant Referee 2: Gabriel Victoria (PAN)
Fourth Official: Rolando Vidal (PAN)

Jamaica – Antigua & Barbuda
Referee: Walter Quesada (CRC)
Assistant Referee 1: Leonel Leal (CRC)
Assistant Referee 2: Octavio Jara (CRC)
Fourth Official: Hugo Cruz (CRC)

Cuba – Panama
Referee: Stanley Lancaster (GUY)
Assistant Referee 1: Dion Inniss (GUY)
Assistant Referee 2: Egberth Paesch (ARU)
Fourth Official: Rudolph Angela (ARU)

Costa Rica – Guyana
Referee: Hector Rodriguez (HON)
Assistant Referee 1: Melvyn Cruz (HON)
Assistant Referee 2: Christian Ramirez (HON)
Fourth Official: Armando Castro (HON)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – AFC

16 October 2013
Oman – Jordan
Referee: Nawaf Shukralla (BHR, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Yaser Tulefat (BHR)
Assistant Referee 2: Ebrahim Saleh (BHR)
Fourth Official: Salah Abbas (BHR)

Iran – Korea
Referee: Abdul Bashir (SIN)
Assistant Referee 1: Jeffrey Gek (SIN)
Assistant Referee 2: Yew Tang (SIN)
Fourth Official: Muhammad Jahari (SIN)

Qatar – Uzbekistan
Referee: Tan Hai (CHN)
Assistant Referee 1: Mu Yuxin (CHN)
Assistant Referee 2: Su Jige (CHN)
Fourth Official: Ma Ning (CHN)

Iraq – Australia
Referee: Lee Min Hu (KOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Lee Jungmin (KOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Yoon Kwangyeol (KOR)
Fourth Official: Kim Sang Woo (KOR)

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifiers – OFC

16 October 2012
New Zealand – Tahiti

Referee: Gerald Oiaka (SOL, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Tevita Makasini (TGA)
Assistant Referee 2: Jackson Namo (SOL)
Fourth Official: Isidore Asiene-Ambassa (NCL)

New Caledonia – Solomon Islands

Referee: Abdelkader Zitouni (TAH)
Assistant Referee 1: Paul Ahupu (TAH)
Assistant Referee 2: Terry Piri (COK)
Fourth Official: Rakesh Varman (FIJ)