South America (CONMEBOL) - Road to WC 1998

South America (CONMEBOL)
Javier Castrilli   Horacio Elizondo   René Ortubé   Márcio Rezende de Freitas   Antônio Pereira da Silva   Mario Sánchez Yantén   John Toro Rendón    Óscar Ruiz    Byron Moreno   Epifanio González   Ubaldo Aquino   Alberto Tejada Noriega    José Luís da Rosa	ARG (1957) ARG (1963) BOL (1964) BRA (1960) BRA (1957) CHI (1956)  COL (1958) COL (1969) ECU (1969) PAR (1958) PAR (1958) PER (1956) URU (1958)

A famous face from Argentina, a big name from Brazil; in general refs from the bigger nations make it, at the expense of a couple who might have felt aggrieved. 

El Sheriff - Castrilli would attend the World Cup

 

The biggest game in this qualifying zone was the decisive Chile - Peru, played in a noxious atmosphere in Santiago, and handled by the top South American referee, Márcio Rezende de Freitas. The booing of their anthem remains bitter in the Peruvian psyche to this day; they fell to a crucial four-nothing defeat. 

Brazilian Rezende was a sober man, who could go some way to restore the respect with which referees from his country were held in on the world stage. Arnaldo Cézar Coelho, Romualdo Arppi Filho and José Roberto Wright all had Havelange behind them, but more importantly, were all genuinely top class. 

The same could not be said of Brazil's 1994 representative, Renato Marsiglia. Antônio Pereira da Silva was a bit unlucky to be between this Rezende and Carlos Eugênio Simon generation, he even handled an intercontinental playoff in the next cycle, only to lose out to the younger Simon. 

Referees who attended the tournament said that besides Pierluigi Collina, fans were most excited to have their pictures taken with Javier Castrilli from Argentina, noted for his ultra-strict and fearless approach. He was actually pushed quite close in terms of selection by a referee who would become familiar years later - Horacio Elizondo. 

Julio Grondona, Argentine football supremo (who got Pierluigi Pairetto removed in 1994) felt uncomfortable with Elizondo, the trade unionist, and the well-known Castrilli got the call. It was this ill-feeling with Elizondo that precipitated Ángel Sánchez's surprising selection for 2002. Elizondo had to wait until 2006. 

Both John Toro Rendón and Epifanio González survived battles with men who would later attend the World Cup from their nations, Óscar Ruiz and Ubaldo Aquino respectively. Toro Rendón passed the test at Le Tournoi, and Ruiz was saved for later World Cups (as it happened, three - 2002, 2006, 2010). 

Aquino, present for two games in 2002, and E. González were from the politically important nation of Paraguay - Venancio Zárate had CONMEBOL President Nicolás Leoz behind him on the way to the World Cup 1994 final. Again, an early appointment in France for González shows that there was someone pushing him hard. 


With Salvadore Imperatore having only been a reserve for 1994, Chilean Mario Sánchez Yantén was selected this time round. He would hope to be more fortunate than Hernán Silva, who in 1986 had a match too easy to make a good-enough impression, but in 1990 faced a more challenging one, failed the test, and was rejected.  

That more-or-less left one place for which four referees would fight. Ostensibly, René Ortubé from Bolivia was in pole position to take it, having been appointed twice at Confed Cup 1997. Bolivia had a pre-selected linesman in 1994, but despite a decent political background, Ortubé missed out. 

For the first time since 1962 (!), Uruguay did not have a referee at this World Cup. Jorge Nievas got the Copa América 1997 final in his last year as an international ref, so José Luís da Rosa carried Uruguayan hopes. Unfortunately for him, da Rosa couldn't join names like the excellence of Ramón Barreto or Jorge Larrionda (whom Ortubé replaced in 2002), and Uruguay were not even represented by an assistant this time round. 

FIFA essentially then had a choice between Alberto Tejada Noriega, who attended World Cup 1994 handling a couple of matches, or the youngster who really would make a name for himself in 2002, Byron Moreno from Ecuador. 

There was real interest in Moreno, who impressed at Copa América in 1997 and handled the first leg of the Libertadores final the same year. Not attending any prior FIFA tournament was too big of a stumbling block for (the excellent) Moreno, and Tejada won out, taking his place in France. 

Referees:

Javier Castrilli (ARG)

Márcio Rezende de Freitas (BRA)

Mario Sánchez Yantén (CHI)

John Toro Rendón (COL)

Epifanio González (PAR)

Alberto Tejada Noriega (PER)

Assistant Referees:

Claudio Rossi (ARG)

Arnaldo Pinto (BRA)

Jorge Díaz Gálvez (CHI)

Jorge Luis Arango (COL)

Celestino Galván (PAR)