Diego Abal and Wilson Seneme will savour their final moments

CONMEBOL has appointed the referees for next week's Copa Sudamericana finals that will be played between Universidad de Chile (CHI) and LDU Quito (ECU).

Even though it equates a certain, small surprise, the Argentine Diego Abal - who has also come under the focus of FIFA because of the big boys' retirements before FIFA WC 2014 (Baldassi and Pezzotta) - will be in charge of the first leg of this final of the South American competition which can certainly be compared to UEFA Europa League in Europe. Abal, a 39-year-old teacher, has firstly attracted our attention during the FIFA U17 WC 2011 in Mexico where he oversaw two matches and where his small amount of matches was certainly not due to bad perfomances but because of the fact that he had to share the Ecuadorian assistant referees with Omar Ponce after the two Argentines Castany and Esquivel had failed the fitness tests. This time, two amazing assistant referees will assist him, WC 2010 assistant referee Hernán Maidana and one of the biggest AR-talents in South America, Diego Bonfa, have been nominated as well while Néstor Pitana will function as Fourth Official.

The probably most outstanding newcomer the CONMEBOL zone had to offer in this season will referee the second leg: Wilson Seneme from Brazil. According to Carlos' calculations, who has made a 2011 list of referees for CONMEBOL, Seneme will be the South American no.1 at the end of 2011.

After a superb U20 WC in Colombia, the trio remains completely as Alessandro Rocha de Matos and Emerson Augusto de Carvalho will assist Seneme, another young talent, Leandro Vuaden, has been appointed as Fourth Official.

Having appeared as very calm, but strict referee in the matches we saw from him, this match will certainly be no bigger problem for him; his participation at his nation's World Cup in 2014 seems to be by far not in danger.

Overview:

1st leg, 08/12/2011, 19:00 local time, 01:00 (09/12) CET, Quito
LDU Quito - Universidad de Chile
Referee: Diego Abal (ARG)
Assistant Referees: Hernán Maidana (ARG), Diego Bonfa (ARG)
4th Official: Néstor Pitana (ARG)
Blog-Referee-Observers: Carlos Salcedo (COL) / Niclas Erdmann (GER)

2nd leg, 15/12/2011, 19:00 local time, 01:00 (16/12) CET, Santiago
Universidad de Chile - LDU Quito
Referee: Wilson Luiz Seneme (BRA)
Assistant Referees: Alessandro Rocha de Matos (BRA), Emerson Augusto de Carvalho (BRA)
4th Official: Leandro Vuaden (BRA)
Blog-Referee-Observers: Maicon Oliveira (BRA)


We wish them good luck.