BEWARE, REF’S CALLED BJORN!
THE referee for England’s quarter-final against Sweden will be Bjorn Kuipers. Fear not, though, the Swedish name will not lead to Abba penalties nor favouritism towards England’s opponents. Kuipers is a highly respected Dutch referee who is also being tipped for the final and is expected to be a marked upgrade on American Mark Geiger’s efforts in the ill-tempered Colombia tie. Kuipers did, however, take charge of England’s opening World Cup defeat against Italy in Manaus four years ago. He was praised for his performance as Russia knocked out Spain, getting two penalty decisions right, and he showed a total of five yellow cards in the group games between Egypt and Uruguay and Brazil versus Costa Rica.