World Cup call-ups for European referees
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Article summary
Nine trios of officials and one support duo will represent Europe at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, following their appointments by the FIFA Referees Committee.
Article body
Nine referee trios and one support duo from Europe are among the refereeing team that has been appointed for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil this summer.
The European representatives are among 25 referee trios and eight support duos representing 43 different countries at the tournament, which takes place from 12 June to 13 July. They were appointed by the FIFA Referees Committee, chaired by Jim Boyce, at its meeting in Zurich on Tuesday.
Europe's referee trios (referee and two assistant referees):
Felix Brych, Mark Borsch, Stefan Lupp (Germany)
Cüneyt Çakır, Bahattin Duran, Tarık Ongun (Turkey)
Jonas Eriksson, Mathias Klasenius, Daniel Wärnmark (Sweden)
Björn Kuipers, Sander van Roekel, Erwin Zeinstra (Netherlands)
Milorad Mažić, Milovan Ristić, Dalibor Djurdjević (Serbia)
Pedro Proença, Bertino Miranda, José Trigo (Portugal)
Nicola Rizzoli, Renato Faverani, Andrea Stefani (Italy)
Carlos Velasco Carballo, Roberto Alonso Fernández, Juan Carlos Yuste (Spain)
Howard Webb, Michael Mullarkey, Darren Cann (England)
Svein Moen and Kim Haglund (Norway) are the European support duo.
The appointments come after a preparation process lasting over two years, which initially involved 52 trios of referees from all over the world. "The referees selected for the World Cup in Brazil have been chosen based especially on their personality and their quality in football understanding by being able to read the game and the teams' tactical approaches towards each game," said FIFA after announcing the appointments.
The world footballing body said that between now and the final tournament, the selected group of match officials will participate in three seminars in February, March/April, and ten days before the World Cup kick-off in Brazil.
"The selected referees and assistant referees will be followed and monitored regularly during this period," said FIFA, "and FIFA is ready to give them all the support they need so that they can prepare for this important World Cup in the best possible manner."
European referees, including those named for the World Cup in Brazil, will also be preparing for the second half of the UEFA season when they gather in Lisbon next month for the traditional UEFA winter courses.
The full team of FIFA World Cup referees can be found in the Related Items column on FIFA.com alongside FIFA's media release.
