Benito Archundia

Benito Armando Archundia Téllez (born March 21, 1966) is a Mexican is a football referee. He is known in Mexico as "Armando Archundia", but appears as "Benito Archundia" in FIFA records.

He has been a professional referee since 1985 and has had his FIFA referee permission since 1993. His first fixture as an international referee was the 1994 match between USA and Greece.

He is regarded as one of the top referees in the world, having officiated in five matches during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, including one of the semi-finals. He was also the referee in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship final match between São Paulo FC and Liverpool FC.

Besides being a referee, Archundia is a lawyer and economist.

World Cup 2006

Archundia made his first World Cup appearance in the 2006 FIFA World Cup and refereed a total of five matches, equaling the most number of matches by an individual referee (along with Argentina's Horacio Elizondo). His final game was the semi-final between Germany and Italy, and he was widely praised for an excellent job in controlling the match [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060706/ai_n16516431 Football: Archundia refreshingly goes with the flow (The Independent) 2006.07.06] ] . In general he was the most lenient referee at the 2006 World Cup, giving out an average of only 3 cards per game (the lowest of any referee at the competition) [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5103896.stm Switzerland v. Ukraine (BBC Sport)] ] .

Controversies

Archundia has officiated two matches involving the Canada national soccer team where he made controversial decisions during the final minutes.

The first controversy occurred during a World Cup qualifier between Canada and Honduras played in Edmonton on September 4, 2004. With Canada leading 1-0 in the 86th minute, Canada defender Mark Watson appeared to trip David Suazo in the penalty area. Archundia awarded a penalty kick which Amado Guevara converted to tie the score. Replays show that Mark Watson did not actually make contact with David Suazo on the play. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2004/09/05/can-hon040904.html Canada settles for draw after controversial calls (CBC Sports) 2004.09.06] ] One minute later, Olivier Occean appeared to score a second goal for Canada, but Archundia whistled the play dead after calling a foul against Occean for a dangerous high kick. Following the decision, manager Frank Yallop and several Canada players argued that the foul call was erroneous. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2004/09/05/can-hon040904.html Canada settles for draw after controversial calls (CBC Sports) 2004.09.06] ] The Canadians felt aggrieved following the draw, believing that they should have been entitled to a victory.

A second controversy involving Archundia occurred during the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup semi-final between the United States and Canada played in Chicago on June 21, 2007. With the United States leading 2-1 in stoppage time, Atiba Hutchinson appeared to score for Canada to tie the game in the dying seconds, but Archundia whistled the play dead for offside. Replays appear to show Hutchinson in an onside position at the time of Patrice Bernier's pass, and that he received the ball only after it was played by American defender Oguchi Onyewu. [ [http://www.tsn.ca/soccer/news_story/?id=211510&hubname=soccer Offside call denies Canada Gold Cup Final (TSN) 2007.06.22] ] Moments later, Archundia called time while the Canadian players and staff argued the call.

Another controversy soon followed in the Copa América 2007 during the group stage match between Peru and Venezuela. In the 62nd minute of the match, with Venezuela leading 1-0 and Peru playing down a man since the 14th minute, Peruvian forward Paolo Guerrero centers the ball just in front of the Venezuelan goal inside the goal area. Peruvian captain Claudio Pizarro and Venezuelan defender Hector Gonzalez raced to the ball. Pizarro appeared to have great opportunity to tap the ball past a sole defender on the goal line, however Gonzalez slid and swept the ball away, but not before taking Pizarro off his feet. Archundia refused to award the penalty and decided to play on, to the dismay of the commentators and several fans, who felt he missed the call. [ [http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=1208881 Venezuela bajó de la nube a Perú (Univision-in Spanish) 2007.06.30] ]

References

External links

* [http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/ref/37556_ARCHUNDIA_Benito.html FIFA profile]