Benito Archundia

Benito Armando Archundia Téllez (born March 21, 1966) is a retired Mexican 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.

Archundia is the all-time leader in appearances at the FIFA World Cup, being one of only two referees who have been appointed for 8 matches, the other being Joël Quiniou. He also shares the record for the most matches officiated in a single World Cup (5 in 2006). The only others who have achieved this feat are Horacio Elizondo in 2006, and Ravshan Irmatov in 2010.^[1]

In addition, he has supervised the final of the FIFA Club World Cup twice, in 2005 and 2009.

He originally planned to retire at the end of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but decided to continue for at least another year. He was the referee in the grand opening of the Estadio Omnilife, which featured Guadalajara vs Manchester United.^[2]

In addition to working as a professional referee, Archundia is a lawyer and economist.

World Cup

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. In general he was one of the most respected and proficient referees at the 2006 World Cup, and give out an average of only 3 cards per game (the lowest of any referee at the competition).^[3]

Tournament	Date	Venue	Round	Team 1	Result	Team 2
2006	June 13	Olympiastadion, Berlin	First Round	Brazil	1 – 0	Croatia
2006	June 18	Zentralstadion, Leipzig	First Round	France	1 – 1	South Korea
2006	June 22	FIFA WM Stadion Hamburg, Hamburg	First Round	Czech Republic	0 – 2	Italy
2006	June 26	FIFA WM Stadion Köln, Cologne	Round of 16	Switzerland	0 – 0 (0 – 3 pk)	Ukraine
2006	July 4	FIFA WM Stadion Dortmund, Dortmund	Semi-finals	Germany	0 – 2 (a.e.t.)	Italy

World Cup 2010

His second World Cup appearance was in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and refereed a total of three matches. His final game was the third place play-off between Germany and Uruguay.

Tournament	Date	Venue	Round	Team 1	Result	Team 2
2010	June 14	Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town	First Round	Italy	1 – 1	Paraguay
2010	June 25	Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban	First Round	Portugal	0 – 0	Brazil
2010	July 10	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth	Third place play-off	Uruguay	2 – 3	Germany

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.^[4] 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.^[4] The Canadians felt aggrieved following the draw, believing that they should have been entitled to a victory.

A third 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. The Canadian Press reported that replays 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

During the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup match between Estudiantes de La Plata and FC Barcelona, Archundia was criticised in some Spanish media sources for several decisions felt to have been to the disadvantage of FC Barcelona,^[7] most notably showing a yellow card to Lionel Messi for simulation and failing to award a penalty following a perceived foul by Estudiantes goalkeeper Damián Albil on Xavi Hernandez.

References

1. http://www.planetworldcup.com/STATS/stat_misc.html Planet World Cup - statistics
2. http://www.mediotiempo.com/futbol/mexico/noticias/2010/07/21/armando-archundia-pitara-el-chivas-manchester-y-no-se-retirara Armando Archundia pitará el Chivas-Manchester y no se retirará
3. Switzerland v. Ukraine (BBC Sport)
4. Canada settles for draw after controversial calls (CBC Sports) 2004.09.06
5. CP (2007-06-22). "Offside call denies Canada Gold Cup final". TSN.
6. Venezuela bajó de la nube a Perú (Univision-in Spanish) 2007.06.30
7. Lo mejor y lo peor del Estudiantes-Barça (SPORT - in Spanish) 2009.12.19

External links

• FIFA profile