Rubén Marcos Selmán Albornoz (25 July 1963 – 10 February 2020) was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

referee from

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

Refereeing career

Selman was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, and started refereeing in his twenties at games featured in the minor Chilean divisions. In the 1990s he started in the

Primera División de Chile Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

. In 1998, he received his

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

badge and appeared in

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

tournaments. He officiated matches in the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

Copa Mercosur The Copa Mercosur (, , "Mercosur Cup") was a Association football, football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by the traditional top clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. The competition was created by CONMEBOL to generate ...

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

, international friendlies and South American World Cup qualifiers. During his career the directors of

Colo-Colo Colo-Colo (), officially Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano, it competes in the Chilean Primera División, from which the club has never been ...

were adamant in processing a formal complaint with the domestic club organization Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Chile. The directors felt that the institution was being persecuted by Selman after a series of ejections. This followed after player

Jorge Valdivia Jorge Luis Valdivia Toro (, born 19 October 1983) is a Chilean national and former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Product of Colo-Colo youth ranks, Valdivia had an impressing loan spell at Universidad de Concep ...

stated that Selman threatened with throwing him out of the game, which he eventually did. According to Selman, Valdivia was red carded after receiving two consecutive yellow cards. The first for a foul and the second after Valdivia ran up to a television camera. Valdivia had gone up to the camera and declared that Selman had threatened him with expulsion. Ruben Selman's final match was in the home leg of the Chilean club championship game between

and

Palestino The term ''Palestino'' is the Spanish word for "Palestinian". The word "''Palestino''" is used in Cuba as a disparaging nickname for illegal migrants within the country. The nickname is used as a rhetorical device, that compares illegal migrants ...

. He ended his profession by red carding two Palestino players and ejecting Palestino's manager from the match.

Media career

In 2014 he performed as a football commentator for the TV program ''Fox Sports Radio'' from Fox Sports Chile. Previously he had worked for Canal del Fútbol (CDF). He also performed as a

show business Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produce ...

commentator for the TV program ''Secreto a voces'' (Open secret) from Mega.

Political career

In 2016, Selman was a candidate to

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

for Quinta Normal as a

Independent Democratic Union The Independent Democratic Union (''Unión Demócrata Independiente'', UDI) is a conservative and right-wing political party in Chile, founded in 1983. Its founder was the lawyer, politician, law professor and senator Jaime Guzmán, a civilian a ...

representative.

References

1963 births 2020 deaths Sportspeople from Santiago, Chile Chilean football referees Copa América referees Chilean people of English descent Chilean association football commentators Canal del Fútbol color commentators Chilean sportsperson-politicians 21st-century Chilean politicians Independent Democratic Union politicians {{Chile-footy-bio-stub