Match officials remaining in Qatar for the remaining four matches of the World Cup have been decided as England vs France referee Wilton Sampaio stays in the tournament. The Brazilian was heavily criticised after the Three Lions crashed out on Saturday night, with Gary Neville and Harry Maguire both stating their frustration.
Sampaio failed to award a free-kick for a foul on Bukayo Saka in the build-up to Aurelien Tchouameni's opener, whilst the Arsenal star was kicked and disrupted for the rest of the game without much punishment. Sampaio won't be going home just yet, though, after the list of officials was revealed ahead of the semi-finals.
Premier League referees Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor have also learnt their fate, with the former travelling back to England and the latter awaiting bigger things in the final week of matches.
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Elsewhere, Lionel Messi's criticism of Antonio Mateu Lahoz may have had an impact on the Spaniard's chances, as he was also left without further assignments.
Messi slammed the official after he issued 16 cards in Netherlands' penalties loss to Argentina. The Paris Saint-Germain forward said: "I don't want to talk about the referee because they sanction you. But people saw what happened. We were afraid before the match because we knew how he was and I think FIFA has to review this. You can't put a referee like him for these matches."
England fans may well be frustrated that Lahoz, widely regarded as one of UEFA's best referees, was punished whereas Sampaio wasn't, especially after Maguire's fury. Speaking after the game, the Manchester United defender said: "Big decisions went against us, a lot of decisions went against us, should I say. I think the referee’s decision-making throughout the game was really poor. We always stand here and as players we get criticised.
"So it would be nice to see if he comes out and says whether he’s had a good game or not. Because there were so many decisions in that first half where they made five, six early fouls. I think H [Harry Kane] was outside the box but it was a clear foul.
"He didn’t in the second half, Bukayo’s is a clear foul leading up to their first goal. Big moments, big decisions, you expect to get some right but unfortunately tonight we didn’t get any."
Neville doubled down on that view, adding, "The referee had a nightmare game, an absolute joke of a referee.
"I’m not saying that was all down to England’s defeat because that’s making excuses; he was just a bad referee, rank bad."
Argentina vs Croatia will be officiated by Daniele Orsato and France vs Morocco is under the control of Cesar Ramos. No decisions have been made over the final or third place play-off, but Taylor will remain in contention. The remaining list of referees is:
Anthony Taylor (England)
Daniele Orsato (Italy)
Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (Qatar)
Muhammad Abdulla Hassan Muhammad (UAE)
Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)
Cesar Ramos (Mexico)
Ismail Elfath (USA)
Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Wilton Sampaio (Brazil)
Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela)
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