Valentin Valentinovich Ivanov (; born 4 July 1961) is a Russian former international football referee and player. The son of two Olympic champions of

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

, Valentin Ivanov and Lidiya Ivanova, he lives in Moscow where he works as a physical education teacher. As a player, he reached the final of the

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (),, , , (Moldovan Cyrillic: Купа УРСС), , , . was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournam ...

in 1983. He speaks

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and English and became an international referee on 1 January 1997. The first international game he refereed was

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

–

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in 1999. Before his qualification he served as an

assistant 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 ...

and officiated 3 games in the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

. He refereed the

2003 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup football tournament was the sixth FIFA Confederations Cup, held in France in June 2003. France retained the title they had won in 2001, but the tournament was overshadowed by the death of Cameroon player Marc-Vivi ...

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

, and

2005 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship was the 15th edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It took place in the Netherlands between 10 June and 2 July 2005. Venues Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 2005 FIFA Worl ...

. In 2005, he officiated the World Cup qualifiers between

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and

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 ...

, and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. 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 The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

semifinal match between

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in 2005–06 season. In

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

, he officiated in 3 games, issuing 15 yellows and 1 red.

2006 World Cup

The

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

was Ivanov's last major international tournament, as he reached the mandatory retirement age of 45 for FIFA referees on 4 July. In a second-round match between

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, Ivanov issued 16 yellow cards and four red cards. The 16 cautions had matched the World Cup record set in

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

by Spanish referee

Antonio López Nieto Antonio Jesús López Nieto (born 25 January 1958 in Málaga, Andalusia) is a former Spanish football referee, who officiated at one FIFA World Cup and during the UEFA Champions League. In 1995, López accused representatives of Dynamo Kyiv of a ...

until the

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

quarterfinal match between The Netherlands and Argentina, when Spanish referee

Antonio Mateu Lahoz Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz (; born 12 March 1977) is a Spanish retired association football referee who refereed La Liga matches from 2008 until 2023. He is also a former international referee with experience in several editions of the FIFA ...

surpassed the record with 18 yellow cards. The four dismissals (all on the respective players' second yellow cards) set a new World Cup record.

Costinha Francisco José Rodrigues da Costa (born 1 December 1974), known as Costinha (), is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He was also a manager. Best known for his tackling and positioning, as well ...

and

Deco Anderson Luís de Souza (born 27 August 1977), also known as Deco (), is a Brazilian-born Portuguese former professional footballer who primarily played as an attacking or central midfielder. Born and raised in Brazil, he acquired Portuguese ...

were sent off for Portugal, while it was

Khalid Boulahrouz Khalid Boulahrouz (; born 28 December 1981) is a Dutch former professional association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender. Nicknamed "The Human cannibalism, Cannibal" for his ability to "eat up" the op ...

and

Giovanni van Bronckhorst Giovanni Christiaan "Gio" van Bronckhorst (born 5 February 1975) is a Dutch Association football, football manager and former player who last managed Süper Lig club Beşiktaş J.K., Beşiktaş. Originally a midfielder, he moved to left-back lat ...

for the Dutch. 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 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 ...

president

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

later suggested that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance during the match, jokingly saying that Ivanov looked "like a walking yellow card" due to his yellow jersey. Sepp Blatter regretted these words and promised to officially apologise, although he never did so.

Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder (; 3 March 1933 – 17 August 2015), often called "MV", was the Vice President of the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Prior to his UEFA career, Mayer-Vorfelder was a politician of the Christian Democrat ...

, the president of the

German Football Association The German Football Association ( ; DFB ) is the governing body of Association football, football, futsal, and beach soccer in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and ...

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.Alt URL
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References

External links

*
Interview
with the newspaper

Izvestiya ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, r=Izvestiya, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, ''Izvestia'', which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of ...

, 27 June 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivanov, Valentin 1961 births Living people Footballers from Moscow Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards Russian football referees 2006 FIFA World Cup referees Soviet men's footballers FC Torpedo Moscow players PFC Dynamo Stavropol players UEFA Euro 2004 referees FC Dynamo Bryansk players UEFA Champions League referees UEFA Europa League referees