Byron Aldemar Moreno Ruales (born November 23, 1969) is an Ecuadorian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 titl ...

who served in the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

as an International Referee from 1996 to 2003.

Refereeing career

During the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Moreno refereed the round of 16 match between

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and co-hosts

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

on June 18. Following Italy's elimination from the tournament after a 2–1 extra-time loss, Moreno's performance was criticized for several decisions: he awarded South Korea a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

in the first half, and later disallowed a possible golden goal by

Damiano Tommasi Damiano Tommasi (; born 17 May 1974) is an Italian former Association football, footballer and current Mayor of Verona. A Midfielder#Defensive midfielder, defensive midfielder during his footballing years, after a decade at A.S. Roma, Roma – ...

for offside, as well as showing a second yellow card to

Francesco Totti Francesco Totti (; born 27 September 1976) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played solely for A.S. Roma, Roma and the Italy national football team, Italy national team. He is often referred to as ''Er Bim ...

for an arguable dive in South Korea's penalty area in extra-time while he was 37 meters away from the play. In September 2002, while seeking election to the

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

City Council, Moreno was suspended for twenty matches and investigated by Ecuadorian football authorities. This came after he made timekeeping errors in a match he officiated between

Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito Liga Deportiva Universitaria (), often referred to as Liga de Quito, LDU, is an Ecuadorian professional football club based in Quito. They play in the Serie A, the highest level of the Ecuadorian professional football league. They play their ho ...

and

Barcelona Sporting Club Barcelona Sporting Club () is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil, known best for its professional football team. Internationally known as Barcelona de Ecuador, in Ecuador it is simply referred as Barcelona, El Idolo (BSC) or Barce. T ...

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

also investigated him due to controversies "...in Japan, Italy and South America over the past few months". In May 2003, in his third game back from his suspension, Moreno was again suspended, for one match, after he sent off three players from visiting

Deportivo Quito Sociedad Deportivo Quito is an Ecuadorian non-professional club football club based in Quito. For most of its existence, it competed in Serie A, the highest level of the Ecuadorian professional football league. And currently competes in the Seg ...

in a 1–1 draw at

Deportivo Cuenca Club Deportivo Cuenca is an Ecuadorian football club based in Cuenca. They currently play in the Serie A, the top-flight football league in the country, and is one of two clubs from Cuenca to have played in the top-flight (the other being LDU ...

. He retired the following month, blaming low performance marks for his retirement.

Legal trouble

Moreno was arrested on September 21, 2010 at

John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Ne ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

while trying to smuggle in six kilograms (over thirteen pounds) of

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

, which was hidden in his underwear. In January 2011, he pleaded guilty to the charges in a New York courthouse, facing a possible ten years in prison.''Ex-Referee Byron Moreno Pleads Guilty To Heroin Smuggling''
/ref> On September 23, 2011, Moreno was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison on the heroin smuggling charges. He was released from prison 26 months later and returned to Ecuador.

References

External links

(archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:Moreno, Byron Ecuadorian football referees Ecuadorian drug traffickers FIFA World Cup referees Sports controversies 1969 births Living people Copa América referees People from Quito 2002 FIFA World Cup referees People convicted of drug offenses