PRO officials set for another busy month of international assignments
With the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup qualification tournament concluding on Tuesday night and the 16th edition of the competition kicking off on Saturday – not to mention the women’s 2020 Olympic Games football tournament starting on July 21, and the men’s a day later – the second half of the year is shaping up to be just as busy for PRO referees as the first.
Already this year, PRO officials have been involved with games at the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup, 2020 Concacaf Olympic Qualifying, 2021 SheBelieves Cup and 2021 Concacaf Nations League Finals, while also making history during 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying.
Jennifer Garner, Brooke Mayo, Kathryn Nesbitt, and Tori Penso broke new ground in March when they were among the first women to be selected to officiate men’s World Cup Qualifiers in the Concacaf region, and they were joined by Chantal Boudreau, Danielle Chesky and Katja Koroleva for further qualifying games in June.
This last week saw 11 PRO officials in action during the preliminary rounds of the Gold Cup in Miami and PRO will be represented at the Gold Cup by 18 officials, with six selected to work the Olympics in Tokyo.
Howard Webb, general manager of PRO, said: “We are always very proud of our officials when they receive international assignments, and we would like to congratulate all who have been selected for these two very prestigious tournaments. It is recognition of a number of factors, not least their talent, hard work and commitment to their profession and we wish them all every success.
“International call ups present opportunities domestically and in the absence of the referees at the Gold Cup and Olympic Games, there will be officials who will relish the challenge of testing themselves at a higher level. I would like to thank all of our support staff for their efforts to prepare the group for moments like this. We are all honored to see the increasing recognition our officials are receiving on the global stage.”
Gold Cup
Referees (4):
Ismail Elfath, Drew Fischer, Jair Marrufo and Armando Villarreal.
Assistant Referees (6):
Frank Anderson, Kyle Atkins, Micheal Barwegen, Logan Brown, Kathryn Nesbitt and Corey Parker.
Video Assistant Referees (5):
Allen Chapman, Tim Ford, Dave Gantar, Edvin Jurisevic and Chris Penso.
In addition, Pierre-Luc Lauziere, Nima Saghafi and Rubiel Vazquez, who are part of Concacaf’s Targeted Advanced Referee Program, will work with the group to help prepare them for future tournaments.
Olympic Games
Referees (1):
Ismail Elfath
Assistant Referees (3):
Kyle Atkins, Chantal Boudreau and Corey Parker
Video Assistant Referees (2):
Edvin Jurisevic and Chris Penso
Read more: 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup assignments