Antonio Mateu Lahoz, Carlos del Cerro Grande and Jess Gil Manzano are the three candidates of the Spanish arbitration for represent Spain in the next World Cup in Qatar 2022 (November December). The three have been these days (January 15-22) in the seminar that FIFA has carried out for the referees of the UEFA Confederation selected for the purpose.
The data is conclusive and reaffirms the good health of Spanish arbitration, considered, in the environment, as the most prepared in Europe and one of the most prepared in the world, reinforced days ago with the recent appointment of Carlos Velasco Carballo as Roberto Rosetti’s right-hand man, ‘capo’ of European arbitration.
No European country had three representatives in this seminar in the Emirates. Of the three (Mateu, Del Cerro and Manzano) only one is supposed to go to the Qatar World Cup. It remains to be seen which one, but, by level, all three could surely be.
In addition to these three main referees, three VAR referees were present at this seminar in Abu Dhabi, of which, in theory, two will be in Qatar. Are Ricardo de Burgos Bengoechea, the Canarian Alejandro Hernndez Hernndez and Juan Martnez Munuera.
Especially noteworthy is the progression of De Burgos Bengoechea, a young referee (35 years old) whose serenity to solve the ‘brown’ of Betis-Sevilla has been highlighted in arbitration circles. Yesterday, without going any further, he was at the Bernabu directing, correctly, Real Madrid-Elche.
In Abu Dhabi, therefore, there was six of the 20 Spanish referees of first division very many. Another fact of the good health of Spanish arbitration.
The only ‘bad’ of the ‘good’
The only negative thing about the presence of the Spaniards at the FIFA seminar is that some of the they have not been able to ‘be’ fully in a month, January, that has been enough turbulent for Spanish football, with the Betis-Sevilla incident; the death threats against Luis Medina Cantalejo or the incident on the outskirts of Anoeta before the Real Sociedad-Atletico match.
Some of the greatest of our arbitration he has not been able to lead so many LaLiga games (one, two… at most, including League and Cup) when they were most needed. A solvable luxury since the seminar barely lasted a week (January 15-22). Now a couple of teams are coming and our internationals won’t return until the Copa del Rey quarterfinals in 10 days.
But this mole is well worth being able to showcase our referees in the European context… and ahead of the World Cup of Qatar 2022. Mateu, Del Cerro or Manzano hope to be ‘the chosen one’.
Discussion about this post