FIFA has appointed thirty teams of three referees from twenty-eight countries to referee the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. One of these thirty teams is from Belgium. This will be Frank De Bleeckere’s third large championship following the 2006 World Cup and UEFA Euro 2008 Championships.

FIFA announced that Frank De Bleeckere had been given the go-ahead for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa along with his assistants, Peter Hermans and Walter Vromans. “A weight’s been lifted from my shoulders,” says the top Belgian referee.

“I’m delighted,” he announced to the Belga press agency. “Because it’s never certain you’re automatically going to be picked just because you were at the last European Championships or World Cup. More than half of my Euro 2008 colleagues won’t be there.”

This will be De Bleeckere’s (43) third large championship as referee. He refereed four World Cup matches in 2006, including the quarter-final between Italy and Ukraine. He went into action three times at the UEFA Euro 2008 Championships, including the semi-finals between Russia and Spain.

Franck De Bleeckere is even being mentioned as one of the favourites to referee the finals. In 2005, he refereed the finals of the Under-17s World Cup in Peru and kept things under control in the finals of the Under-20s World Cup in Egypt last year.

The thirty referees selected are:
UEFA (10): Olegário Bartolo F. Benquerença (POR), Massimo Busacca (SUI), Frank De Bleeckere (BEL), Martin Hansson (SWE), Viktor Kassai (HUN), Stéphane Lannoy (FRA), Roberto Rosetti (ITA), Wolfgang Stark (GER), Alberto Undiano Mallenco (ESP), Howard Melton Webb (ENG)
AFC (4): Khalil Ibrahim Al Ghamdi (KSA), Ravshan Irmatov (UZB), Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh (MAS), Yuichi Nishimura (JPN)
CAF (4): Mohamed Benouza (ALG), Koman Coulibaly (MLI), Jerome Damon (RSA), Eddy Allen Maillet (SEY)
CONCACAF (4): Joel Antonio Aguilar Chicas (SLV), Benito Armando Archundia Téllez (MEX), Carlos Alberto Batres González (GUA), Marco Antonio Rodríguez Moreno (MEX)
CONMEBOL (6): Carlos A. Amarilla Demarqui (PAR), Héctor Walter Baldassi (ARG), Jorge Larrionda (URU), Pablo Antonio Pozo Quinteros (CHI), Óscar Julián Ruiz Acosta (COL), Carlos Simon (BRA)
OFC (2): Michael Hester (NZL), Peter O’Leary (NZL)

Tags: FIFA

Monday 08 February, 2010 18:29 News.