Edgardo Codesal Méndez (; born 2 June 1951 in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

) is a

Uruguayan Uruguayans () are people identified with the country of Uruguay, through citizenship or descent. Uruguay is home to people of different ethnic origins. As a result, many Uruguayans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizen ...

-born Mexican

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

, who refereed the 1990 World Cup final between

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, held in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Career

His grandfather was from Argentina, and his father, José Maria Codesal, was a referee in the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the 1966 FI ...

. As a child he remembered his father refereeing. Edgardo was passionate about football, played in childhood Baby Football teams in the area and in his teens he played as

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for the Club Atlético Cerro of

. He began his career as a referee in

in 1976. By 1977 he had his debut match in the

Primera División Uruguaya Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air Primera Air Scandinavia Aktieselskab, A/S, was a Denmark, Danish airline owned by Primera Travel Group. It provided scheduled and charter passenger services from Northern Europe to mo ...

refereeing Cerro vs

Huracán Huracán (; ; , "one legged"), often referred to as ''U Kʼux Kaj'', the "Heart of Sky", is a Kʼicheʼ Maya god of wind, storm, fire and one of the creator deities who participated in all three attempts at creating humanity. He also caused th ...

. In 1980, he traveled to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

where he had contact with the

Mexican Football Federation The Mexican Football Federation (), abbreviated as FMF is the official governing body of football in Mexico. It administers the men's and women's national teams with all its youth teams, the national teams of futsal and beach soccer, Liga MX wit ...

. He advanced in his refereeing, starting to referee international matches and finals in

. Codesal represented

, as a

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

referee in the 1990 World Cup. Among his international posts, Codesal was CONCACAF's director of referees, head of refereeing for the FIFA Women's World Cup USA 1999, and member of the refereeing committee for the FIFA World U-20 Championship in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

, the Confederations Cup in

and the FIFA World U-17 Championship in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. In 2016 he was attacked during a match as a spectator while serving as head of the FMF referees’ commission. The culprit -

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

owner Fidel Kuri was banned for attending matches for 12 months and was fined 146,080 Mexican pesos.

1990 World Cup

FIFA observers rated Codesal 8.5 for his refereeing performance at the 1990 World Cup. Codesal had refereed the

vs USA match in the first round (group A), won by Italy 1–0. He refereed the quarter-final between

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, awarding three penalties - one to Cameroon and two to England. England won 3–2 to move into the semi-finals. Codesal was credited with keeping control of a potentially difficult match over a period of 120 minutes.

Final

Codesal was appointed for the World Cup Final, which featured

and

. In the 83rd minute, Codesal awarded West Germany a penalty kick for a foul by Roberto Sensini against Rudi Völler. Andreas Brehme converted the penalty kick to give West Germany their third World Cup title. Codesal became the first referee to send off a player in a final match of a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

, by showing the red card to Argentines Monzón and Dezotti. Monzón was given a direct red after a tackle on

Jürgen Klinsmann Jürgen Klinsmann (; born 30 July 1964) is a German professional Association football, football manager and former player. He played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, AS Monaco FC, Monaco, Tottenham Hot ...

. Dezotti was sent off near the end for a tussle with

Jürgen Kohler Jürgen Kohler (born 6 October 1965) is a German former professional footballer and manager, who played as a centre-back. He is currently the U17 manager of Bonner SC. Playing career Club Kohler enjoyed a lengthy career at the highest level with ...

. During the final Codesal booked Diego Maradona for dissent. Codesal retired from refereeing at the top level shortly after the 1990 World Cup.

References

External links

Brehme recognises there was no foul
(Spanish)
/ Edgardo Codesal Méndez {{DEFAULTSORT:Codesal, Edgardo Uruguayan football referees Mexican football referees Uruguayan emigrants to Mexico 1990 FIFA World Cup referees Olympic football referees Sportspeople from Montevideo Place of birth missing (living people) Living people 1951 births