Carlos Eugenio Simon, the Brazilian referee who has been a figure of hate in his homeland, will take charge of England’s World Cup opener against USA on Saturday.
Simon was suspended for the final month of last year’s Brazilian championship after a series of controversial errors during club games.
At the time, the president of Palmeiras, Luiz Gonzago Belluzzo, described him as “a crook, a scoundrel and a shameless bastard”, adding, “If I met him in the street, I would slap him. He should be driven out of football.”
And the controversy doesn’t end there – it has emerged that a year previously, Brazilian club Flamengo sent a DVD profiling his mistakes to Fifa, urging the governing body to drop Simon from the World Cup list “for the sake of good order and for the good of the gameâ€.
However, Simon – a former journalist and trade unionist, according to one bastion of credibility – remains one of South America’s most experienced officials.
This tournament will be his third World Cup finals. He took charge of three games at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, including the hosts’ second round victory over Sweden.
