Esfandiar "Esse" Baharmast (born March 11, 1954) is a retired

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian-

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 ...

best known for supervising two matches during the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

held in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Career

At that tournament, he was briefly vilified for giving a late penalty to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

in the dying minutes of their first-round game with

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, only to be vindicated the following day when a Swedish TV station released previously unseen TV footage from a new camera angle indisputably showing that he made the right call; Norway striker

Tore André Flo Tore André Flo (born 15 June 1973) is a Norwegian former professional football striker and coach who is the manager of 1. divisjon club Sogndal. He was capped 76 times, scoring 23 goals for Norway, and represented his country in 1998 FIFA Wor ...

did indeed have his jersey pulled by Brazil defender

Júnior Baiano Raimundo Ferreira Ramos Júnior (born 14 March 1970), known as Júnior or Júnior Baiano as he comes from the state of Bahia, is a former Brazilian professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Club career Born in Feira de Santana, Jú ...

. The call was later selected by ''Referee Magazine'' as one of the "Best 18 Calls of All Time.""Referee Lists Best Calls in Officiating History"
''Referee Press Release, 14 February 2007. He continued his involvement in refereeing by becoming the Director of Officials for US Soccer in August 1998. He also officiated the first MLS match on April 6, 1996 between San Jose Clash &

D.C. United D.C. United is a professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

. He has been a member of CONCACAF Referees' Committee since 2003 and a FIFA Instructor. As a FIFA instructor, he has been involved in numerous tournaments, such as FIFA U-17 World Cup in Finland (2003), FIFA U-20 World Cups in Netherlands (2005) and Canada (2007), FIFA World Cup in Germany (2006) and Beijing Olympic Games in China (2008). He is currently working for FIFA as a technical instructor in the Referee Assistance Program (FIFA RAP) and dealt with the instruction and preparation of the referees for the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

in South Africa. He is also the current Colorado director of referees.

References

External links

Profile

1954 births American soccer referees FIFA World Cup referees 1998 FIFA World Cup referees American people of Iranian descent Sportspeople of Iranian descent Iranian football referees Living people Copa América referees Place of birth missing (living people) CONCACAF Gold Cup referees Olympic football referees Major League Soccer referees National Soccer Hall of Fame members {{US-footy-bio-stub

Career

See also

References

External links