Finals (Matches 51-52)

 
All roads led to Rome for Argentina, West Germany and the officials team headed by Edgardo Codesal

Report for the final can be accessed here.

The third place playoff and final of World Cup 1990.

Edgardo Enrique Codesal Méndez from Mexico 'defeated' his competitors and was appointed by FIFA to control the fourteenth World Cup final. The thirty-nine year old Mexican had previously handled the group stage match Italy vs. United States and quarterfinal Cameroon vs. England, amongst other appointments both as linesman and reserve referee across the tournament. Codesal, a gynaecologist by profession, stated that he would immediately retire as a match official after the final. 

He would be joined by the officials used as specialist linesmen from Europe (Michał Listkiewicz from Poland) and South America (Armando Pérez Hoyos from Colombia) in exactly that role. The European frontrunners would also have roles on the finals weekend - young Dane Peter Mikkelsen was 'fourth official' for the final, while France's Joël Quiniou would take charge of the third place playoff. Quiniou would be joined by Swiss and North African teammates in the bronze final. 

Full appointments, as announced by FIFA on Friday 6th July, below (all times local, CEST):


Third Place Playoff

Match 51 - Saturday 7th July, Bari (2000)
Italy vs. England 
Referee: Joël Quiniou (FRA)
Linesman 1: Kurt Röthlisberger (SUI)
Linesman 2: Mohamed Hansal (ALG)
Reserve: Neji Jouini (TUN)


Final

Match 52 - Sunday 8th July, Rome (2000)
Argentina vs. West Germany 
Referee: Edgardo Codesal (MEX)
Linesman 1: Michał Listkiewicz (POL)
Linesman 2: Armando Pérez Hoyos (COL)
Reserve: Peter Mikkelsen (DEN)

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And that was that. The tournament where old refereeing caught up with modern football - with many memories made along the way, the beautiful game (and its officials) would never be the same again. Thanks to everyone (special mentions to Mohamed R. and usaref) who commented and read along, I hope you enjoyed this look back at Italia '90! To see us out then, a montage of the tournament's great moments. 

Comments

  1. Mikael WMay 30, 2022 at 1:05 PM

    We will, of course, delve deep into the final itself - but first, the third place playoff.

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  2. Mikael WMay 30, 2022 at 1:05 PM

    Match 51 - Italy vs. England, Joël Quiniou
    (https://vk.com/video400374426_456239327)

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    1. Mikael WMay 30, 2022 at 1:05 PM

      (1/3)

      The third-place playoff was played in very good spirit. “God Save the Queen” was applauded by the locals, both teams received + celebrated their commemorative medals together (an important moment: Heysel was only five years previous), and the match was the easiest to referee of all fifty-two at Italia ’90. But the officiating of the ‘bronze final’ was a very hot topic, owing to a number of controversial and/or wrongly solved incidents. Let’s take a look:

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    2. Mikael WMay 30, 2022 at 1:08 PM

      (2/3)

      -- KMI Analysis --

      (10min:
      https://vk.com/video400374426_456239327?t=2m30s)

      - The weirdest thing about this weird scene is that I didn’t spot one Italy player who appealed for a penalty, and even the English commentator doubted his own perception and said that he must have been wrong in spotting a handball. Mark Wright obviously detects Roberto Baggio’s prior palming of the ball - unlike the officials (given position on the FoP, that’s understandable) - and is irritated by it, so decides to craftily push the ball himself whilst inside the penalty area. Somehow, everyone (ref included) misses it, and Wright gets away with conceding what is actually a crystal-clear penalty kick. A very strange scene in general, but to be honest a mistake of CME-level gravity.

      (71min:
      https://vk.com/video400374426_456239327?t=8m35s)

      - Two things to adjudicate on here. Firstly, was the Baggio-Shilton collision worthy of a penalty? From our modern lens, definitely yes. In 1990, a bit less so. Baggio’s touch goes through to Schillaci like a pass, and then that makes it much easier to accept it as a mere coming-together (look at how Baggio just gets straight back up). You can see that Quiniou, like Shilton, was taken by surprise as well by the whole scene.

      I’d like to come to linesman Mohamed Hansal’s defence here with regards the missed offside. For sure he was wrong, and the replay shows that actually it is very blatant, but I’d be firm in temporing just how bad of an erring this was by the Algerian to clear the goal. The situation is both a reverse crossover and a rare goalkeeper-out scenario. Not one England player appeals. The English commentator even states, after replay(!), that no flag was “probably right”. And Ayroldi’s twenty years later (where it was similarly missed by all players). Unlike Ayroldi, Hansal’s preparation for his flag work at this tournament was merely to run five lines in his domestic competition. Absolutely, the Algerian was wrong, but we shouldn’t crucify him too much for this error IMO.

      (85min:
      https://vk.com/video400374426_456239327?t=12m20s)

      - Having closely watched the tournament, this was a partly amusing call. Not because it was wrong - Parker definitely hits Schillaci on the leg, and Quiniou absolutely had his grounds for a penalty. But, after all the (clear) penalties that the Frenchman didn’t give previously (even in this game), it was perhaps the softest appeal of the lot which he did grant as a spot kick! I’d say that this was something like a 35-65 penalty back then. Nowadays, it would be quite different - Parker gets none of the ball, and just kicks Schillaci’s leg. Personally, I am quite strongly pro-penalty. But the arguments that the attacker falls rather of his own accord, tries to get the ball, and then is only awarded the call after appealing, would have been more strongly heard at the time. I’d like to think that this call would have been supported though.

      (+92min:
      https://vk.com/video400374426_456239327?t=14m17s)

      - Well. What we can say in Hansal’s favour: it is the classic situation as an AR where you haven’t taken the ‘screenshot’ of where the receiving player was when the ball was kicked: panic, flag. Also I would say, exactly for that reason, that the number of yards Berti was onside is not exactly proportional to how bad a mistake this was, given that the ball was floating for a long time in the air (Silva Valente’s first in ARGBEL was worse, IMO). In a way, that is all complete conjecture though. An extreme example, but this was a perfect symbol for how poor the level of linesmen had been at Italia ’90, and that very drastic change was needed at the world level. Hansal’s mistake is beyond unacceptable; very, very (very) poor.

      -- ends --

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    3. Mikael WMay 30, 2022 at 1:08 PM

      (3/3)

      Some last reflections then on the ceremonial match:

      Hansal’s big error at the end overshadows everything, but for what it is worth, I liked the way that Quiniou reffed the game overall. It was the same elegant style which brought him to the cusp of the final appointment. I’d give special mention to a successful ultra-liberal use of the advantage clause and a small handful of little management scenes which were really helpful to keeping the game completely free of any ill-spirit.

      There were a few bad fouls in the first fifteen minutes (Ancelotti’s hack down of T. Steven the worst (01:55)), but the game calmed down by itself afterwards. Like with the KMIs (‘key’ being a loose term in a third place playoff), it is all somewhat spirious, but: blowing up for halftime a full forty seconds early (at 44m20s) is still not acceptable in any game. I did smile though :) - the reverse Vautrot!

      Röthlisberger cameoed well here, his only important flag is one we can’t assess (10:10). The final act of a very solid World Cup indeed for the Swiss official.

      Finally, as for Mohamed Hansal - I actually felt a bit sorry for him. FIFA’s treatment of him felt lazy on their part (more appointments as reserve referee (5) than as a linesman (3) prior to this assignment), and just always appointing him as reserve for Italy games was just bizarre. I guess they wanted to make sure that they kept a CAF option completely ‘clean’ for their own (political) benefit, rather than incrimentally test him (as they did for Jouini, reserve here) for progressively higher tasks.

      Such an approach always risks someone being hoisted out of their depth (I’m sure that Hansal with quite competent with the whistle btw), though the end result was surely a much worse mistake than even what FIFA or anyone could have imagined!

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    4. usarefMay 31, 2022 at 3:57 PM

      In what manner would you consider 10' a CME?

      I'm thinking the Baggio handball has to be called. Perhaps even cautioned. So if a penalty was ever given here, that would be the CME. The fact that BOTH infractions were missed makes it comical. And bad. But given the result should have been a defensive DFK and the actual result was simply no whistle and a change of possession to the defence, I don't think we can consider it a CME, right?

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    5. Mikael WJune 4, 2022 at 1:07 PM

      The caveat for me is simply how blatant Wright's handball was!

      And Quiniou (must have) had a free line of sight to assess it. On an 'objective refereeing' level, I can easily understand how Baggio's prior handling was missed (only Röthlisberger had any chance to see it, and from far away), but you are right - a penalty call would be judged a very (very) unfair outcome, and rightly so.

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  3. Mohamed rabieMay 30, 2022 at 8:13 PM

    Thanks Mikael I don't agree with your appointments for the 3 rd place and the final in my opinion not to appoint mikkelsen for the 3 rd place and Quiniou for the final in my opinion codesal for the final is the best choice after his excellent performance in Qf and the two teams in the final helped him to referee the final and Quiniou for the 3 rd place is the best choice

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    Replies
    1. Mikael WMay 31, 2022 at 3:18 PM

      Thanks for posting your choices, Mohamed! I read them gladly :)

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  4. Mohamed rabieMay 30, 2022 at 8:17 PM

    Final : codesal - michal - mauro - kurt / 3 rd place : Quiniou - mikkelsen - jouini - mandi

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  5. Mikael WJune 5, 2022 at 11:10 AM

    Match 52 - Argentina vs. West Germany, Edgardo Codesal
    (https://vk.com/video400374426_456239331)

    An enduring final which needs no introduction.
    My report on how the Italia '90 finale was officiated can be accessed below!

    https://wc90ref.blogspot.com/p/thefinal.html

    ReplyDelete

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