O'Leary set to use GLT

Goal Line Technology is set to be unveiled at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan with New Zealand's leading referee, Peter O’Leary, in line to benefit from it. Project agreements between FIFA and the GLT providers Hawk-Eye Innovations and Fraunhofer IIS (GoalRef) were signed this week, paving the way for the final stages of implementation to be completed.

O'Leary is making his fifth visit to the FIFA Club World Cup after appearances in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 which is testament to his longevity on the world stage having officiated at eight FIFA events in total including U-17 and U-20 World Cups, and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa where he was a fourth official. The Whangarei-based school teacher was the man in the middle for Uruguay's win over United Arab Emirates at the 2012 London Olympic Games. "I love football and I love refereeing and I'll keep doing it until I'm asked to stop. It's an honour and a privilege to be appointed to any FIFA tournament, and I’m thankful I've been able to go to a few," said O'Leary. He was among 52 people hailing from 46 different countries vying for a place among the list of officials for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and was selected to take part in the initial referee workshop in Zurich this September. The FIFA Club World Cup is the first event since that workshop with O'Leary, Mark Rule and Fiji's Ravinesh Kumar completing the Oceania trio at the event, with their immediate goal to get an opportunity to officiate on the pitch. "I always try and walk before I can run, and take it one game at a time. We do our best for that one game and maybe we can get another one," said O’Leary. Modern technology plays a big part in O'Leary's preparation with the internet getting a workout before his departure to any appointment. "I'm always trying to improve and look at trends that are happening in the game and reflect on what is happening overseas. It's a big part of our preparation now; we're more prepared in what we can expect". O'Leary supplements his learning by speaking to his peers on arrival in the venues on the teams he will officiate. "Speaking with referees from other confederations is extremely useful. I've had occasions where they will share a trend that is happening overseas to look out for. It used to take a year before it got down to Oceania but that timeframe is getting shorter and shorter." GLT is now just two steps away in Yokohama, where the magnetic field based system of GoalRef will be used. In Toyota, Hawk-Eye will install its camera-based technology. The next core phase in the pre-competition process is the installation tests which will be conducted once again by the Swiss independent test institute EMPA (the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology). The Local Organising Committee and the two stadium owners facilitated inspection site visits by both GLT companies in September. The final installation test aims to establish the perfect functionality of the system by certifying that the technology performs to the same level once installed in a given stadium, as it did during the system test. Only once the systems pass the installation test, will FIFA give the 'green light' for the respective systems to be used in the eight matches of the competition, featuring the club champion from each of FIFA's six confederations, and the domestic J-League champion. The final, intrinsic element in the implementation of GLT system is a pre-match check by the match-officials. The match officials are obliged to check the functionality of the GLT system by means of specific tests in both goals, ensuring the system is fully functioning before the first whistle blows. Crucially, the referee will continue, in line with Law 5 of the Laws of the Game, to have full autonomy in making any final decision during the match, using GLT as an additional aid, something that O'Leary supports. "I think anything that is going to help the referee is a good thing, as long it doesn't intrude on the flow of the game," said O'Leary.

Source: NZF

Copa Sudamericana 2012 – Finals

First Leg, 5 December 2012
Atletico Tigre – Sao Paulo FC
Referee: Antonio Arias (PAR, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Rodney Aquino (PAR)
Assistant Referee 2: Dario Gaona (PAR)
Fourth Official: Enrique Caceres (PAR)
Referee Observer: Juan Loustau (ARG)

Second Leg, 12 December 2012
Sao Paulo FC – Atletico Tigre
Referee: Enrique Osses (CHI)
Assistant Referee 1: Francisco Mondria (CHI)
Assistant Referee 2: Carlos Astroza (CHI)
Fourth Official: Julio Bascunan (CHI)
Referee Observer: Aristeu Tavares (BRA)

AFC Referee of the Year 2012: Nishimura (JPN)

Top Japanese official Yuichi Nishimura has ended Ravshan Irmatov's dominance of the AFC Referee of the Year award after claiming the individual accolade ahead of the four-time winner from Uzbekistan and Iran's Alireza Faghani.

Nishimura's quality shone through when he was entrusted with the potentially explosive second-leg of the 2012 AFC Champions League semi-final between arch-Jeddah rivals Al Ahli and Al Ittihad in what was his third appointment in this year's edition of Asia's premier club competition. In another highlight of 2012 Nishimura was also involved in the Olympic Games, with the 40-year-old officiating the group stage fixtures between Brazil and Belarus and hosts Great Britain and Uruguay, while the two-time J.League Referee of the Year also took charge of two matches in the final round of Asian qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup as well as a Round 3 qualifier for the London Games. "Personally I am emotional and thank AFC for recognizing the hard work we put on in the field. Refereeing is one of the toughest jobs but I love it and fully committed to it," said Nishimura after receiving the AFC Referee of the Year award from Dato' Worawi Makudi, Chairman of the AFC Referees Committee. "This award is dedicated to all the referees working in Asia who put their heart into officiating this beautiful game of football. Asian referees are top class and it's not only just a few of us as there are several referees who are on top of their game in. In fact, in football we are behind Europe and may be other continents but not in refereeing. It's nice to finally win this trophy but believe me I really respect Ravshan Irmatov who is one of the best referees in the world. But I repeat again there is a huge pool of fantastic referees in Asia". (Source: AFC)

AFC Referee of the Year 2012

1. Yuichi Nishimura (JPN, photo)
2. Ravshan Irmatov (UZB)
3. Alireza Faghani (IRN)

AFC Assistant Referee of the Year 2012

1. Abdukhamidullo Rasulov (UZB)
2. Bakhadyr Kochkarov (KGZ)
3. Matthew Cream (AUS)

AFC Women's Referee of the Year 2012
1. Sachiko Yamagishi (JPN)
2. Ri Hyang Ok (PRK)
3. Qin Liang (CHN)

AFC Women's Assistant Referee of the Year 2012
1. Kim Kyoung Min (KOR)
2. Widiya Shamsuri (MAS)
3. Cui Yongmei (CHN)

Silvera abandons competition for World Cup 2014

Uruguayan referee Roberto Silvera will not repeat the fitness test and will be replaced on the list of prospective referees for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Silvera failed the official fitness test held by FIFA in Switzerland and was given the opportunity to repeat the tests next month in Paraguay, along with Diego Abal (Argentina) and Wilson Seneme (Brazil). In spite of being offered a second chance, the Uruguayan referee said that he will not run the tests and will submit instead a medical certificate as suffering from physical discomfort, which allows him to train and referee matches, but prevents him from having maximum physical performance during stringent FIFA tests.

Ruben Meneses, a member of the Uruguayan Referees Committee, said “the project for the 2014 World Cup demands referees to be in the same physical condition as the athletes, something that is very difficult to develop in Uruguay because the referees are not professionals. The only South American countries where referees are professionals are Argentina and Brazil, while 80% of the referees who did run the test in Europe were professional. The current test requirements exceed those for the last World Cup in regards to the 40-metre sprints: World Cup candidates are expected to get 5.8 s. When Larrionda went to South Africa in 2010, the requirement was 5.9 s.” Meneses said that Silvera’s removal from the pre-selected list for the World Cup will not impact his appointments for local or continental competitions. For Silvera, it was the second time when he was left out of a World Cup for not having passed the fitness test. The same thing happened in 2007, when he travelled along with his assistants Mauricio Espinosa and Miguel Nievas to participate at the U-17 World Cup in Korea. Before the tournament, reached after passing the test in Montevideo, Silvera underwent physical examinations required by FIFA and failed the test measuring the aerobic intensity. For that reason, Silvera was sent back to Uruguay.

Roberto Silvera became a FIFA referee in 2003 and refereed Copa Libertadores matches, the Copa Sudamericana final in 2006, Recopa Sudamericana, Copa America 2011 and CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers. Since 2006, the Uruguayan sports writers choose the best referee of the season and Silvera was always in the shadow of Larrionda. When Larrionda retired in 2011, Silvera finished second after Dario Ubriaco.

Besides Roberto Silvera (41), two other Uruguayan referees have been invited to run the fitness test on 13 December 2012 in Paraguay: Dario Ubriaco (40) and Martin Vazquez (43), who will compete for Silvera's spot on the list of prospective referees. Diego Abal (Argentina, 41) and Wilson Seneme (Brazil, 42) will also have two “reserves” ready to replace them in case they will fail again the tests: Nestor Pitana (37) and Patricio Loustau (37), respectively Leandro Vuaden (37) and Sandro Ricci (38).

Source : El Observador

GLT agreements signed for FIFA Club World Cup 2012

The use of Goal Line Technology (GLT) at the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2012, between 6 to 16 December 2012, is just two steps away after the project agreements between FIFA and the GLT providers Hawk-Eye Innovations and Fraunhofer IIS (GoalRef) were signed today.

The FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2012 will be played in the stadiums of Yokohama - where the magnetic field based system of GoalRef will be used - and in Toyota, where Hawk-Eye will install its camera-based technology. The next core phase in the pre-competition process is the installation tests which will be conducted once again by the Swiss independent test institute EMPA (the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology).The Local Organising Committee (LOC), and the two stadium owners facilitated inspection site visits by both GLT companies in September. The final installation test aims to establish the perfect functionality of the system by certifying that the technology performs to the same level once installed in a given stadium, as it did during the system test. Only once the systems pass the installation test, will FIFA give the ‘green light’ for the respective systems to be used in the eight matches of the competition, featuring the club champion from each of FIFA’s six confederations, and the domestic J-League champion. The final, intrinsic element in the implementation of GLT system is a pre-match check by the match-officials. The match officials are obliged to check the functionality of the GLT system by means of specific tests in both goals, ensuring the system is fully functioning before the first whistle blows. Crucially, the referee will continue, in line with Law 5 of the Laws of the Game, to have full autonomy in making any final decision during the match, using GLT as an additional aid.

Source: FIFA

Copa Sudmericana 2012 – Semi-finals (Second Leg)

28 November 2012
Sao Paulo – Universidad Catolica
Referee: Juan Soto (VEN, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Jorge Urrego (VEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Carlos Lopez (VEN)
Fourth Official: Marlon Escalante (VEN)
Referee Observer: Salvio Fagundes (BRA)

29 November 2012
Millonarios – Tigre
Referee: Dario Ubriaco (URU)
Assistant Referee 1: Mauricio Espinosa (URU)
Assistant Referee 2: Miguel Nievas (URU)
Fourth Official: Daniel Fedorczuk (URU)
Referee Observer: Oscar Ruiz (COL)

Referee conversations to be recorded

Referees chief Michael Riley has confirmed Premier League plans to record all match officials' conversations during games in the wake of the Mark Clattenburg incident. The Football Association announced referee Clattenburg will not face disciplinary action over a complaint of the use of inappropriate language directed towards Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel. The FA decided there is "no case to answer" over an allegation the referee said "shut up you monkey" to Mikel during Chelsea's 3-2 defeat to Manchester United.

The episode has led to plans for private recordings of conversations between officials. Michael Riley, general manager of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), said: "It is PGMOL's considered view that Mark is completely exonerated of the allegation and he will return to active duty shortly without any stain on his character or reputation. The verbal and visual facts do not support any of the allegations made against him. They make it clear that Mark did not use any inappropriate language towards any Chelsea player. Regrettably, Mark has had to endure four weeks that have brought massive disruption to his professional and personal life through no fault of his own. We are all relieved that this is now behind him and that he can return to doing something that he loves. To reduce the risk of an episode of this nature being repeated, PGMOL will introduce recording of the referees' communication system on a private basis."

Chelsea have been criticised for the way they handled their complaint against Mark Clattenburg by Alan Leighton, the national secretary of the referees' union Prospect. In an interview with BBC Radio Five Live, Leighton also claimed that Chelsea's behaviour could deter other dissuade players from reporting instances of racial abuse in the future. "We think this is the wrong way to go about combating racism, and in fact what Chelsea have done could put people off making legitimate claims when they have been subjected to racial abuse," Leighton said. “It's been terrible for him, he's been through a living hell. He's had the press camped on his lawn. He's had to live with walking down the street and people either pointing at him or him thinking people are thinking, 'Oh, that's the racist referee'. Everybody always remembers an allegation but not everybody always remembers the outcome." Chelsea have so far made no apology to Clattenburg for his ordeal, and noted in their statement earlier this week that the Football Association felt the complaint had been made in good faith. Leighton believes Clattenburg wants to avoid a legal battle such a scenario and put the matter behind him. "If Chelsea want to make an apology, pay compensation and get Mark to sign an agreement saying he won't take legal action, I'm sure we can do that." Meanwhile, Leighton hopes it is not too long before Clattenburg takes charge of another Chelsea game. "I think if there was too long a delay in refereeing Chelsea then I think the issue gets dragged out again,'' he said. "The key issue for Mark is getting back to refereeing and getting back to normal, and that means refereeing Chelsea as soon as he possibly can."

Source: ESPN