World Cup: Red card referees will have charge of first U.S. and Mexico games

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In keeping with FIFA’s bizarre policy of assigning referees from obscure countries to officiate high-profile matches, Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan has been chosen to referee Friday’s World Cup opening match between South Africa and Mexico at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg.

Irmatov, 32, was named the best referee in Asia in 2008 and 2009 and officiated at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada as well as at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2003, 2007 and 2009. An instructor at a soccer school in Tashkent, he has been a FIFA referee since 2003.

Serbia defender Nemanja Vidic will have good reason to remember Irmatov, who ejected him during Manchester United’s victory over Liga de Quito of Ecuador in the final of the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. Irmatov was one of 16 referees assigned to first-round matches. Saturday’s game between the United States and England in Rustenburg will be refereed by Carlos Simon of Brazil. The 44-year-old officiated at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups and controversially tossed Sweden’s Teddy Lucic out of a 2006 second-round game against Germany and then grinned while showing Lucic the red card.

Lucic’s foul on Germany striker Miroslav Klose was nothing more than a shirt-tug, but German players surrounded Simon, holding up imaginary cards, and the referee seemingly capitulated. The second yellow card meant expulsion for Lucic, and Germany ended up advancing to the quarterfinals and eventually finished third. In three games in 2006, Simon issued 17 cards, or almost six per game. It would be wise, in other words, if U.S. and English players did their homework on Simon before Saturday’s match in Rustenburg.

-- Grahame L. Jones reporting from Johannesburg