Edgardo Codesal Méndez (; born 2 June 1951 in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay) is a Uruguayan-

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

football (soccer)

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 controlled the final match of the

1990 World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being M ...

held in Italy.

Career

His grandfather was from Argentina, and his father,

José Maria Codesal José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

, was a referee in the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

. As a child he remembered his father refereeing. Edgardo was passionate about football, played in childhood

Baby Football An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

teams in the area and in his teens he played as goalkeeper for the

Club Atlético Cerro Club Atlético Cerro, usually known simply as Cerro, is a Uruguayan professional association football, football club based in Montevideo that currently plays in the Uruguayan Segunda División. Founded in 1922, the club plays its home games at Est ...

. He began his career as a referee in Uruguay in 1976. By 1977 he had his debut match in the

Primera División Uruguaya 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 ...

refereeing Cerro vs

Huracán Huracan (; es, Huracán; myn, Hunraqan, "one legged"), often referred to as ''U Kʼux Kaj'', the "Heart of Sky", is a Kʼicheʼ people, Kʼicheʼ Maya mythology, Maya god of wind, storm, fire and one of the creator deities who participated in ...

. In 1980, he traveled to Mexico where he had contact with the Mexican Football Federation. He advanced in his refereeing, starting to referee international matches and finals in Mexico. Codesal represented Mexico, as a CONCACAF referee in the 1990 World Cup. Among his international posts, Codesal was CONCACAF's director of referees, head of refereeing for the FIFA Women's World Cup USA 1999, and member of the refereeing committee for the FIFA World U-20 Championship in Nigeria, the Confederations Cup in Mexico and the FIFA World U-17 Championship in New Zealand. In 2016 he was attacked during a match as a spectator while serving as head of the FMF referees’ commission. The culprit - Veracruz owner Fidel Kuri was banned for attending matches for 12 months and was fined 146,080 Mexican pesos.

1990 World Cup

FIFA observers rated Codesal 8.5 for his refereeing performance at the 1990 World Cup. Codesal had refereed the Italy vs

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

match in the first round (group A), won by Italy 1-0. He refereed the quarter-final between England vs Cameroon, awarding three penalties - one to Cameroon and two to England. England won 3-2 to move into the semi-finals. Codesal was credited with keeping control of a potentially difficult match over a period of 120 minutes.

Final

Codesal was appointed for the World Cup Final, which featured Argentina and West Germany. In the 83rd minute, Codesal awarded West Germany a penalty kick for a foul by Roberto Sensini against Rudi Völler. Andreas Brehme converted the penalty kick to give West Germany their third World Cup title. Codesal became the first referee to send off a player in a final match of a FIFA World Cup, by showing the red card to Argentines Monzón and Dezotti. Monzón was given a direct red after a tackle on Jürgen Klinsmann. Dezotti was sent off near the end for a tussle with Jürgen Kohler. During the final Codesal booked Diego Maradona for dissent. Codesal retired from refereeing at the top level shortly after the 1990 World Cup.

References

External links

Brehme recognises there was no foul
(Spanish)
/ Edgardo Codesal Méndez {{DEFAULTSORT:Codesal, Edgardo Uruguayan football referees Mexican football referees Uruguayan emigrants to Mexico 1990 FIFA World Cup referees FIFA World Cup referees Olympic football referees Sportspeople from Montevideo Place of birth missing (living people) Living people 1951 births