BERLIN, June 27, 2006 - Who is going to be the man in the middle when the eyes of the globe are on the World Cup final here on July 9? A handful of the leading candidates appear to have ruled themselves out with blunders, blowing the field open. The referees' committee is due to meet on Wednesday to decide who will officiate the quarter-finals. Their choices will give a clear pointer as to who could get the nod for the final. For the 2002 climax in Yokohama, it was an easy decision to make, but with the incomparable Pierluigi Collina now retired, FIFA have a problem. Quite simply, there is no outstanding ref in the world at the moment. Two men tipped to take charge of the final, Graham Poll of England and Germany's Markus Merk, have made uncharacteristic mistakes in Germany. Poll was guilty of the now infamous three-yellow-card trick when a man once thought unflappable suddenly lost the plot in the highly charged first-round match between Australia and Croatia. When Josip Simunic committed his first foul he was booked, but when the Croatian should have been sent off for a second infraction, Poll noted down the Australian number three, Craig Moore, instead. That meant that Simunic was finally only dismissed in stoppage time. It was a terrible howler for a World Cup referee and Andreas Werz, a spokesman for the referees' committee, had little comfort for the Englishman. "Under normal circumstances, he would not take charge of any other matches at this World Cup," Werz said. German official Markus Merk impressed when he took charge of the Euro 2004 final between Greece and Portugal. But his stock dropped at the World Cup after the United States criticised his officiating in their tournament-ending 2-1 defeat to Ghana. US coach Bruce Arena said Ghana's match-winning penalty in first-half stoppage time should never have been given. When American defender Oguchi Onyewu appeared to cleanly win a header against Ghana forward Razak Pimpong, Merk adjudged there was a push and Stephen Appiah converted the spot kick which sent the Africans into the last 16. "That was a big call. That was a key part of the game. We have control of the game and we go in behind by a goal," Arena said. "That's tough. It's a tough one to deal with." Of course Arena was the coach of the losing side, the usual source of gripes about the referees. Russian referee Valentin Ivanov showed so many cards in the full-blooded Netherlands v Portugal second-round game that he broke the World Cup record with four sendings-off. Losing coach Marco van Basten criticised Ivanov's performance, but so did FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who said the refereeing itself "deserves a yellow card". "The referee's actions harmed what could have been an excellent football match," the Swiss said. Argentinian referee Horacio Elizondo was in charge for the opening game of the tournament and tradition dictates that the same man will not do both that game and the final. So one name appears to be rising to the top of the list - Lubos Michel of Slovakia. He has a solid CV, with three matches at the 2002 World Cup, five at Euro 2004 as well as two first-round games in this World Cup and the Brazil v Ghana second-round match on Tuesday. And unlike another contender, Carlos Simon of Brazil, there is no danger of Michel's country reaching the final - under FIFA rules the referee cannot be from the same nation as either of the finalists.
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