Milorad Mažić

Milorad Mažić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милорад Мажић; born 23 March 1973) is a Serbian international referee.

He became a FIFA referee in 2009. His motto is: "You can't please everyone".^[1] He has been selected as a referee for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Career

Serbian SuperLiga

During summer 2009 Mažić was selected to referee SuperLiga matches for the upcoming 2009-10 season as the league expanded from 12 to 16 teams. Before commencing his duties in the Serbian league that fall, Mažić got his first experience in European club competition, refereeing the return leg of the Europa League first qualifying phase tie between the home team Llanelli and visiting Motherwell.

In total, Mažić refereed 12 league matches that season in Serbia's top flight. During the same season in October 2009 he refereed his first international match — a 2010 World Cup qualifier between Finland and Wales in Helsinki. The same season also saw him referee a Romanian Liga I match between FC Politehnica Timișoara and Dinamo București on 23 November 2009.

On 17 November 2012, Mažić refereed his first league Eternal derby between Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan.^[2]

2014 World Cup

Germany vs. Portugal

Mažić refereed the Germany vs. Portugal group stage match in Salvador da Bahia.

In the 11th minute of the contest, he awarded a penalty shot to Germany as João Pereira held back advancing Mario Götze in the Portuguese penalty area and yellow carded Pereira for the foul. Portuguese players surrounded Mažić in protest, including a very agitated Pepe.^[3][4] The commentator reaction to the penalty call ranged.^[5] The Daily Telegraph's Mark Ogden labeled it "another example of questionable refereeing at this World Cup as contact appeared slight, certainly not enough to force Götze, who made the most of the challenge, off his fit".^[6] Paul Wilson of The Guardian felt "most referees at the tournament would have awarded the penalty, adding that "while it could be argued Pereira did not literally pull Götze, he was clearly using his arms to impede the German's progress".^[7] On the other hand, Ian Ladyman of the Daily Mail generally agreed with the call, saying "perhaps Götze was leaning in to Pereira a little as the two men tussled in the area, but the Portuguese defender did seem to have a grip of his opponent".^[8] The Globe and Mail’s Cathal Kelly considered the decision "correct",^[3] while former referee Graham Poll agreed with Mažić's penalty call but felt he also should have sent Pereira off instead of only showing him a yellow card, arguing the foul was "a clear denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity".^[9]

In the 37th minute with Germany now up 2-0, Mažić had another important decision to make in the aftermath of an action by Pepe while trying to retain possession when his flailing arm connected with Thomas Müller's face. As Müller sat on the ground, Pepe who considered Müller to have embellished the contact^[10] leaned down and headbutted the German, which resulted in a straight red card from Mažić. The situation turned out to be the match's biggest talking point^[11][12] with observer reaction generally centered around the condemnation of Pepe's actions^{[3][13][14][15]} as well as to a lesser extent discussion whether Müller overemphasized the initial contact.^[9][10][16]

In his post-match comments, Portugal's head coach Paulo Bento said Mažić showed "bias" on both occasions, adding: "I am not saying it was only the referee's fault. We also made mistakes but the circumstances of what happened in the first half made the rest of the game difficult for us... The sending-off was forced on the player. I don't know if it was because of Pepe's reputation. It depends what sort of a reputation you think Pepe has".^[7]

Argentina vs. Iran

In the next game Mažić refereed the Argentina vs. Iran group stage match in Belo Horizonte.^[17]

In addition to sparking a furious response from the Iranian players^[18] who rushed and bumped the referee,^[19] Mažić's non-call on the Argentina defender Pablo Zabaleta's penalty area challenge on Iran's Ashkan Dejagah in the 55th minute produced a post-match discussion on whether a foul had been committed. Iranian print media, including the Jam-e-jam, Quds, and Iran daily newspapers, lambasted the referee over his decision not to award a penalty shot, citing him as the reason Argentina won the match,^[20] Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey of Pravda.ru declared Mažić "either biased or incompetent" before proclaiming his 55th minute decision "a disgusting comment on the quality of referees chosen to manage the games of the FIFA World Cup",^[21] Metro wrote that despite Zabaleta getting his toe to the ball when tackling Dejagah, "replays showed Iran should've been awarded a spot-kick",^[18] Daily Mail’s Matt Lawton^[22] and SB Nation's Kevin McCauley^[23] felt Dejagah had a "strong claim for a penalty", while the Guardian's Barney Ronay^[24] and AP's Karl Ritter^[25] wrote in their reports that television replays suggest Zabaleta had gotten a touch on the ball first before bringing down Dejagah and therefore didn't foul the Iranian.

Iran's coach Carlos Queiroz questioned the 55th minute non-call in his post-match comments: "It should have been a penalty and red card. There's no excuse. There's nothing that can explain (why) this Serbian referee (did) not give the penalty. How can this guy sleep tonight, or for the rest of his life? With all respect, I would like to have the opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with him. Why did he do that to us?".^[25] Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella supported Mažić's non-call, feeling that Zabaleta got the ball first in his challenge.^[26][25]

Two days after the match, the Iranian Football Federation filed an official complaint to FIFA over Mažić's refereeing. Signed by the federation's general-secretary Mehdi Mohammad Nabi, among other things it read: "Unfortunately the referee’s mistake altered the outcome of the game and helped the Argentine side edge past us".^[27]

References