Silviu Petrescu (born October 6, 1968) is a Canadian professional

soccer 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 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 ...

.Petrescu bio page
''worldreferee.com'', July 6, 2007. Retrieved November 30, 2012. "Silviu Petrescu Bio" He officiates matches in the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; ) is a professional Association football, soccer league in Canada and the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The league comprises eight teams, from five of provinces and territories of ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

and the

United Soccer League The United Soccer League (USL) is an organizer of various professional and amateur soccer leagues in the United States league system. It currently organizes its Championship, League One, and League Two for men, its Super League and W Leag ...

, and is a member of the

Professional Referee Organization Professional Referee Organization (PRO) is the organization responsible for managing the referee and assistant referee program in professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada, working alongside the United States Soccer Federatio ...

. He was a

FIFA listed The FIFA International Referees List is an annual publication of the global list of FIFA international referees in the football-variants controlled by FIFA association football (outdoor football), futsal and beach soccer Beach soccer, also k ...

referee until 2013 and officiated matches at the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games, officially the XIV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santo Domingo 2003, were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the Games was made in the mid-1990 ...

and the

2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated the Czech Republic in the title game by the scor ...

. He has officiated several tournament finals at the domestic level, including the 2003

Jubilee Trophy The Jubilee Trophy () is the trophy presented to Canada's women's amateur soccer champions as part of Canada Soccer's annual National Championships. The women's competition was inaugurated in 1982. As part of the same National Championships, th ...

, the 2006 CIS Men's Soccer Championship, the 2012 MLS Cup, one leg at each of the

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2017 Canadian Championship The 2017 Canadian Championship was a soccer tournament hosted and organized by the Canadian Soccer Association. It was the tenth edition of the annual Canadian Championship. The 2017 edition saw the introduction of a rule that required three pl ...

finals, and the single match 2020 Canadian Championship Final.

Career

Petrescu was born and raised in

Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...

, Romania, where he played soccer with local side Metrom Brașov. He began working as a referee in 1986, and would officiate matches in

Divizia B The Liga 2, most commonly spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 football season. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariu ...

before emigrating to Canada in 1995. Early in his career he officiated in the Canadian Professional Soccer League, where in 1999 he was named the CPSL Referee of the Year. As a

Canadian Soccer Association The Canadian Soccer Association (; branded as Canada Soccer) is the governing body for soccer in Canada. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, the federation is a full member of FIFA and governs Canadian soccer at the international, professional, a ...

referee, he became FIFA listed in 2002 and has been officiating in

since 2006. He has also officiated in

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 ...

tournaments along with other national and international tournaments and fixtures, from friendlies to World Cup qualifying matches. When the

was held that summer in Canada, he was selected to be one of the tournament's officials. In November 2012, Major League Soccer named Petrescu the MLS Referee of the Year, the first Canadian to win the title. Soon after it was announced that he would serve as the head referee for the

MLS Cup 2012 MLS Cup 2012, the 17th edition of Major League Soccer's championship match, was a rematch between the Houston Dynamo and the Los Angeles Galaxy to decide the champion of the 2012 season. The soccer match was played at the Home Depot Center i ...

final.Petrescu's prepared for "biggest moment"
''proreferees.com'', November 24, 2012. Retrieved November 30, 2012. "Petrescu's prepared for biggest moment" In November 2013, Petrescu officiated his final international match, a friendly between

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

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 ...

played at

BMO Field BMO Field is an outdoor stadium located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Constructed on the former Exhibition Stadium site and first opened in 2007, it is the home field of Toronto FC of Major League Soccer (MLS) and Toronto Ar ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, due to a rule preventing referees over the age of 45 from remaining FIFA Listed. Petrescu retired from professional soccer in 2022.

Personal life

Silviu Petrescu's father, who was also a FIFA referee, encouraged him to become a referee rather than a professional player. He had previously played in the premier Romanian division for three years while stationed in the army.Petrescu Did you know? page
''worldreferee.com'', July 6, 2007. Retrieved November 30, 2012. "Silviu Petrescu Did you know?" Petrescu lives in

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, 1815 battle where Napoleon's French army was defeated by Anglo-allied and Prussian forces * Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Australia * Waterloo, New South Wale ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, where he also works as a taxi driver, partly because it gives him the flexibility to work around his refereeing schedule.Video of Petrescu's working lives
''One of Us'', August 16, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2012. "Silviu Petrescu – FIFA referee and local taxi driver."

Honours

* MLS Referee of the Year:

* Ray Morgan Memorial Award: 2013

Card statistics

References

External links

* *
archive
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petrescu, Silviu 1968 births Living people Canadian soccer referees Romanian football referees Romanian men's footballers Soccer people from Ontario Sportspeople from Brașov Sportspeople from Waterloo, Ontario Romanian emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Major League Soccer referees North American Soccer League (2011–2017) referees CONCACAF Champions Cup referees Canadian taxi drivers Romanian taxi drivers Men's association football players not categorized by position 20th-century Romanian sportsmen