Ref Ramos selected to officiate France-Morocco semifinal

Mexico continues to be repped at the World Cup by referee César Ramos as the Culiacán native was appointed to officiate the France-Morocco semifinal on Wednesday.

The assignment is the fourth for Ramos in Qatar and his seventh World Cup game overall, second most among Mexican referees all time.

Ramos called three games at Russia 2018 (Poland-Colombia and Brazil-Switzerland in the group stage and Uruguay-Portugal in the Round of 16, a match that provided the image that went around the world of Cristiano Ronaldo screaming in the face of the non-plussed referee).

In Qatar, the Liga MX official was in charge of two group-stage matches – Denmark vs Tunisia (0-0) and Belgium vs Morocco (0-2) – as well as the Round of 16 match between Portugal and South Korea. The Lusitanos routed the Tigers of Asia 6-1 so Ronaldo had no issues with ref Ramos this time.

A few Mexican publications speculated on whether on not Ramos still has a chance to be selected to officiate the 2022 final, though that is unlikely. If he were to get that honor, he would be only the second Mexican official to call a World Cup final after Edgar Codesal’s controversial turn in the middle of the pitch during the 1990 final. Codesal whistled a questionable penalty that denied Diego Maradona and Argentina back-to-back World Cup titles.

Here’s how Wikipedia describes it:

"Six minutes from full time, Codesal incurred the wrath of the Argentinians after awarding West Germany a questionable penalty kick for Roberto Sensini’s sliding tackle on Völler. Regular penalty taker Matthäus had been forced to replace his boots during the match and did not feel comfortable in the new ones, so Andreas Brehme took his place and converted the spot kick with a low right footed shot to the goalkeeper’s right."

Ramos will become the fourth Mexican to referee a World Cup semifinal, following in the footsteps of Antonio R. Márquez (1986 – Argentina 2, Belgium 0), Armando Archundia (2006 – Germany 0, Italy 2, a game that went into extra time) and Marco Antonio Rodríguez (2014 – Brazil 1, Germany 7)

At 38 years old, Ramos is still young enough to get invited to the 2026 World Cup and, if so, he would become the second Mexican to officiate at three different Cups. The aforementioned Rodríguez took part in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

As it is, Ramos is tied for second all-time among Mexican referees in total World Cup games. The France-Morocco match will be his seventh, the same number of games Rodríguez called.

Archundia – currently the president of the Liga MX Referees Committee – is the current record-holder as he reffed eight World Cup games in 2006 and 2010. Archundia also holds the record for most games at a single World Cup (5), a mark that Ramos could equal should he get the unexpected appointment for the final.