Wolfgang Stark (born 20 November 1969) is a German former football referee who is based in Ergolding. He refereed for DJK Altdorf of the Bavarian Football Association.

Refereeing career

In addition to German domestic competitions, Stark officiated numerous matches in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

and

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

. He was also selected as referee for various international tournaments, including 2008 Olympics,

2010 FIFA 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 ...

, and

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

. In 2007, he refereed five matches at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, including the semi-final between

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and

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 ...

. The match finished as a 3–0 win for Argentina with Stark issuing seven

yellow card Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative conce ...

s (out of nine) and two red cards against Chile. Following the match, the Chilean players were restrained by members of the

Toronto Police The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...

when they approached to meet fans outside the arena, as the police misunderstood the players' original intentions. The misunderstanding led the police to aggressively restrain Chilean players who defended fiercely, causing the use of electricity and pepper gas by the police. Some players were detained for several hours before being released. Stark left the stadium under escort, although he was not involved in the clash. Stark retired from officiating in 2017 because he reached the age limit for German referees, which is 47. His final Bundesliga match officiated was between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Darmstadt 98.

2010 FIFA World Cup

Personal life

Stark lives in Ergolding, is married, and has one child.

References

External links

Profile
at dfb.de
Profile
at worldfootball.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Wolfgang 1969 births Living people German football referees 2010 FIFA World Cup referees UEFA Euro 2012 referees FIFA World Cup referees UEFA Europa League referees