Hyundai A-League Referees Appointed to FIFA Club World Cup

Hyundai A-League Referees, Mark Shield (AUS) and Peter O’Leary (NZ), along with Assistant Referees Nathan Gibson (AUS), Ben Wilson (AUS) and Brent Best (NZ) have received appointments to officiate at the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2007 (7-16 December 2007).

Hyundai A-League Referees, Mark Shield (AUS) and Peter O-Leary (NZ), along with Assistant Referees Nathan Gibson (AUS), Ben Wilson (AUS) and Brent Best (NZ) have received appointments to officiate at the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2007 (7-16 December 2007). These appointments mark the first time that Australian or New Zealand match officials have been selected to participate at the FIFA Club World Cup, the world-s most prestigious club tournament.

This will be Mark Shield-s seventh appointment at a major FIFA tournament having officiated at the past two FIFA World Cups (Japan 2002 & Germany 2006), the FIFA Confederations Cup (2003), FIFA U-20 World Cup (2001) and the FIFA U-17 World Cup (2005 & 1999).

This most recent appointment caps off another impressive year in Mark Shield-s stellar refereeing career having already refereed the AFC Asian Cup 2007 Final and the Hyundai A-League 2007 Grand Final.

For Peter O-Leary, this will be his second appointment at a major FIFA tournament having officiated the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada earlier this year.

In addition to the FIFA Club World Cup appointments, Hyundai A-League Assistant Referees Matthew Cream and Jim Ouliaris have been appointed to officiate in the second leg of the AFC Champions League 2007 Final between the Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan) and Sepahan (Iran) at Saitama Stadium (Japan) on Wednesday 14 November.

For more information about the FIFA Club World Cup please visit www.fifa.com

For more information about the AFC Champions League please visit www.afcchampionsleague.com