Valentin Valentinovich Ivanov

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Valentin Valentinovich Ivanov (Валентин Валентинович Иванов, born July 4 1961 in Moscow) is a Russian international football referee. The son of two Olympic champions of 1956, Valentin Ivanov and Lidiya Ivanova, he lives in Moscow where he works as a teacher.

He speaks Russian and English and has been an international referee since January 1 1997. The first international game he refereed was Luxembourg-Poland in 1999. Before his qualification he served as an assistant referee and officiated 3 games in the 1994 World Cup.

He refereed the 2005 U20 World Cup in the Netherlands, the Euro 2004 in Portugal and the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup in France.

In the 2005 - 2006 season, he officiated the World Cup qualifiers between Wales and England, and Sweden and Iceland. Both England and Sweden qualified, and were drawn in the same group in the World Cup proper. He was also selected to referee the UEFA Champions League semifinal match between Villarreal and Arsenal. This match will be remembered for a dubious penalty awarded in the final minute of play, for a 'push' by Gael Clichy of Arsenal, although replays show that there was minimal contact. However, Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann saved Riquelme's penalty, and Arsenal progressed to the final, where they lost 2 - 1 to Barcelona, after being one goal up, and having goalkeeper Lehmann sent off for a foul on Samuel Eto'o.

In Euro 2004, he officiated in 3 games, issuing 15 yellows and 1 red. He ended the tournament as the fourth most-harsh referee, brandishing an average of 5.33 cards a game (Manuel Gonzalez (Spain), Urs Meier (Switzerland), and Lucilio Batista (Portugal) racked up an astonishing 10 cards per game).

2006 World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was Ivanov's last major international tournament, as he reached the mandatory retirement age of 45 for FIFA referees on July 4. In a second-round match between Portugal and the Netherlands, Ivanov issued 16 yellow cards and four red cards. The 16 cautions matched the World Cup record set in 2002 by Spanish referee Antonio López Nieto, while the four dismissals (all on the respective players' second yellow cards) set a new World Cup record. The Netherlands were cautioned seven times, with two players given red cards following the second yellow. Portugal saw 9 yellow cards (World Cup record for one team), and two dismissals following the second yellow as well. FIFA president Sepp Blatter later suggested that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance during the match, although on the day when Ivanov turned 45 he regretted these words and promised to officially apologise.

Before Blatter's apologies, the president of the Russian Football Union Vitaly Mutko said that Blatter's criticism of Ivanov was unfair, stating that "if Ivanov should be given a yellow card for his performance then many other referees at this World Cup deserve a red." Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, the president of the German Football Association also defended Ivanov, saying that Ivanov was just enforcing the rules. He noted that the match did not lack a sense of discretion on the part of the referee, but rather the teams did not follow the rules of the game. He also pointed out that FIFA gave the order to the referees to adhere to the rules firmly as far as tackling, holding jerseys and time wasting are concerned, and that this was made perfectly clear to all the teams. In addition, except for missing a tackle that should have given the game another yellow card, all of Ivanov's judgements followed the FIFA rules to the bone; no one has yet to prove one single undeserved or harsh yellow/red card occured during the game, if anything the teams deserved the cards for their poor sportsmanship.

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