A 42-year-old Biology secondary school teacher, Peter O’Leary, will officiate the crunch match of Nigeria and Bosnia Herzegovina on Saturday.
It is the first time that the man from New Zealand will taste action at the Brazil 2014 World Cup.
O’Leary worked as a fourth official at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and he holds a number of appearance records in FIFA competitions.
O’Leary has accumulated the most participations (five between 2007 and 2012) and refereed the most matches (five) in the FIFA Club World Cup.
He has also taken part in four editions of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (from 2007 to 2013).
The other Group F match involving Argentina and Iran will be overseen by Milorad Mazic from Serbia, who also refereed Germany’s victory against Portugal.
Mazic is 41 years old and has previously officiated at high-profile youth tournaments such as the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2013.
During the 2014 World Cup preliminary competition, he was in charge of five matches, including Romania-Greece in the play-offs.
After the historic decision he took with the support of Goal Line Technology during France’s victory over Honduras, Sandro Ricci will officiate the Germany versus Ghana match.
Ricci is 39 years old and comes from Brasília, the capital of the host country, Brazil.
In 2013, he covered four matches at the FIFA U-20 World Cup as well as two at the FIFA Club World Cup, where his path also crossed that of a German team as he was the referee for the final between Bayern Munich and Raja Casablanca.
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