Aussie ref in charge Nov 12

The world body for football based in Zurich, Switzerland announced the names of the officials yesterday. Serving as Shield’s assistants will be his compatriots Mark Gibson and David Wilson with Christopher Breeze as the fourth official.

Referee inspector Carlos Marciel comes from Paraguay; the Match Commissioner is Pertti Alaja of Finland and Nicaragua’s Julio Rocha is the Security Officer.

Meanwhile, FIFA have turned down the request to have the single yellow cards currently being carried by players of the teams wiped out for the crucial play-offs on November 12 and 16.

FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner made the request last week but the FIFA Disciplinary Committee indicated yesterday that there would be no waiver.

However, any player carrying two yellow cards following the play-off will then go into the 2006 World Cup Finals with a clean slate if his country qualifies.    

Marco Villiger, Secretary to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee stated that cards can be cancelled only once in the tournament as has already been the case at the end of the semi-final round of qualification.

He added that cancellation of the cards for the play-offs would endanger the fair play of the relevant matches since all yellow cards issued in these two matches would not lead to any disciplinary consequences.

It was noted that it is the long-standing jurisprudence of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to cancel cautions for the final tournament in order to restore the balance among several teams.

The TT players currently carrying one yellow card and in danger of missing the second leg on November 16 if another one is received on November 12 are Brent Sancho, Densill Theobald, Dwight Yorke, Kenwyne Jones, Chris Birchall, Aurtis Whitley, Avery John, Marvin Andrews, Carlos Edwards and Cyd Gray.

Reports out of Bahrain indicated that their players carrying one yellow include Mohammed Hussain, Sayed Mohammed Adnan, Abdullah Al Marzooqi, Mohammed Hubail, Saleh Farhan, Hussain Baba, Mohammed Salmeen, Rashid Al Dossary, Ahmed Hassan, Daij Nasser and Talal Yousef.

The official list from FIFA will be released later this week.

FIFA also confirmed the Match Officials for November 16 play-off with Bahrain in Manama which will kick off at 7 pm. (Midday TT time).

The officials are Oscar Ruiz Acosta (Referee, Colombia), Eduardo Botero Walker (First Assistant, Colombia), Fernando Tamayo (Second Assistant , Ecuador), Eduardo Lopez (Fourth Official, Colombia), Jim Hansen (Match Commissioner, Denmark) and Adrian Titcombe (Security Officer, Colombia).