Referees designated for the playoff

This morning FIFA confirmed the match referees who will be in charge of the CONCACAF/CONMEBOL playoff. 

Alberto Undiano Mallenco, who is from Spain, will direct the first leg.  He was the match referee for the 2007 U-20 World Cup final, the most recent Real Madrid-Barcelona match, and a number of UEFA Champions League matches.  He was also the referee for the 2009 U-20 World Cup semifinal between Brazil and Costa Rica, a match that featured ten yellow cards!  He has a reputation for showing a lot of cards, so both teams will have to be careful.

The referee for the second match will be Massimo Bussaca from Switzerland.  He has been a FIFA referee since 1999 and has worked the 2006 World Cup finals, the 2007 UEFA Cup final, a Euro 2008 semifinal, and last season's UEFA Champions League final.  Bussaca has not been a stranger to controversy, from answering the call of nature during a league match in Qatar in mid-September to flipping off fans in a Swiss Cup match a week later.  I can only imagine what he'll do in Montevideo.

The complete referee list is below:

Costa Rica - Uruguay:

Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (ESP)
Assistant #1: Fermín Martínez Ibanez (ESP)
Assistant #2: Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez (ESP)
Fourth Official: Carlos Clos Gómez (ESP)
Referee Inspector: Michal Listkiewicz (POL)
Match Commissioner: Pierino Lardi (SUI)

Uruguay - Costa Rica:

Referee: Massimo Busacca (SUI)
Assistant #1: Matthias Arnet (SUI)
Assistant #2: Manuel Navarro (SUI)
Fourth Official: Carlo Bertolini (SUI)
Referee Inspector: Peter Mikkelsen (DEN)
Match Commissioner: Dusan Maravic (SRB)

Comments

[Jose]

Wow, FIFA have gotten the best referees in the game. I only knew the names of like 5 referees, and these were 2 of those 5!