Edgardo Codesal Méndez (; born 2 June 1951 in Montevideo,

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

) is a

an- Mexican

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

referee, 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 ...

held in

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 ...

Career

His grandfather was from Argentina, and his father, José Maria Codesal, was a referee in the 1966 FIFA World Cup. As a child he remembered his father refereeing. Edgardo was passionate about football, played in childhood Baby Football teams in the area and in his teens he played as

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for the Club Atlético Cerro of Montevideo. He began his career as a referee in

in 1976. By 1977 he had his debut match in the Primera División Uruguaya refereeing Cerro vs Huracán. In 1980, he traveled to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

where he had contact with the

Mexican Football Federation The Mexican Football Federation (; abbreviated as Femexfut or FMF) is the governing body of association football in Mexico. It adm the Mexico national team, the Liga MX and all affiliated amateur sectors, and controls promoting, organizing, dire ...

. He advanced in his refereeing, starting to referee international matches and finals in

. Codesal represented

, as a

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...

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 Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

, the Confederations Cup in

and the FIFA World U-17 Championship in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In 2016 he was attacked during a match as a spectator while serving as head of the FMF referees’ commission. The culprit -

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

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

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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

match in the first round (group A), won by Italy 1-0. He refereed the quarter-final between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, 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 Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. In the 83rd minute, Codesal awarded West Germany a penalty kick for a foul by

Roberto Sensini Roberto Néstor Sensini (born 12 October 1966) is an Argentine football manager and former player, who played as a centre-back or defensive midfielder. As a player with the Argentina national team, he won both the 1991 and 1993 Copa América, a ...

against

Rudi Völler Rudolf "Rudi" Völler (; born 13 April 1960), nicknamed "''Tante Käthe''" ("Aunt Käthe"), is a German former professional football player and manager who serves as the sporting director for Bayer Leverkusen. A forward, Völler won the FIFA W ...

Andreas Brehme Andreas "Andy" Brehme (; born 9 November 1960) is a German football coach and former football defender. At international level, he is best known for scoring the winning goal for Germany in the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final against Argentina from a ...

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 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 ...

, by showing the red card to Argentines

Monzón Monzón is a small city and municipality in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. Its population was 17,176 as of 2014. It is in the northeast (specifically the Cinca Medio district of the province of Huesca) and adjoins the rivers Cinca an ...

and Dezotti. Monzón was given a direct red after a tackle on

Jürgen Klinsmann Jürgen Klinsmann (, born 30 July 1964) is a German professional football manager and former player. Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur, and Bayern Munich. He ...

. Dezotti was sent off near the end for a tussle with

Jürgen Kohler Jürgen Kohler (born 6 October 1965) is a World Cup-winning German footballer and manager, who played as a centre-back. Since 2018, he has been in charge of the youth team of Viktoria Köln. Playing career Kohler enjoyed a lengthy career at the ...

. 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