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Orasio Marselo ElisondoArgentine football referee
Date of Birth: 04.11.1963
Country:  Argentina |
Content:
Introduction
Horacio Marcelo Elizondo, born on November 4, 1963, in the Argentine city of Kilmes, is an Argentine football referee who officiated five matches in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He is the only referee in football history to be entrusted with officiating both the tournament's opening match and the final.
Early Life and Career
Elizondo's first profession was as a physical education teacher at a school. After completing the referee courses offered by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), he became a football referee. He made his debut in the top division of the national championship in 1992 and two years later entered the international arena, officiating a qualifying match for the 1998 World Cup between Ecuador and Colombia.
Elizondo worked in youth and junior World Championships, officiated matches in the Copa America (the South American equivalent of the European Championship) twice, and also officiated at the 2004 Olympics. His regular assistants on the sidelines are Dario Garcia and Rodolfo Otero. In the 2006 World Cup, this refereeing team worked in five games.
2006 FIFA World Cup
During the group stage of the tournament, Elizondo officiated the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica (4:2), Czech Republic and Ghana (0:2), and Switzerland and Korea (2:0). He was later appointed to officiate the quarter-final match between England and Portugal and the final between Italy and France. This made Elizondo the first referee to officiate the first game of a World Cup and the final.
In the quarter-final match between England and Portugal, Elizondo showed a red card to English forward Wayne Rooney. Rooney kicked Ricardo Carvalho in the groin and then forcefully pushed Cristiano Ronaldo who had approached them. For a long time, it remained unclear for which exact offense Rooney was sent off, but in one interview, Elizondo revealed that he expelled the forward from the field for the kick to Carvalho's groin.
In the final, Elizondo became one of the protagonists of the most notable scandal of the 2006 World Cup. Ten minutes before the end of extra time, Zinedine Zidane, after a brief dialogue with Italian Marco Materazzi, headbutted his opponent's chest. Elizondo did not see the moment of the violation as the ball was out of play at that moment, and he was moving with the players from the Italian goal towards the center of the field.
Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon intervened in the situation, ensuring that Elizondo consulted with his assistants. Assistant referee Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain) informed the main referee about Zidane's misconduct, and the Frenchman was sent off. Later, the French side claimed that Cantalejo also saw Zidane's strike and only noticed the incident during the stadium replay (referees are not allowed to use video replays to make decisions). However, a special FIFA commission concluded that the refereeing team acted in accordance with the rules.
After the 2006 World Cup, Horacio Elizondo announced that he would likely end his career as a football referee.
