Accomplished FIFA referee and Craigieburn resident Hakan Anaz will end his career on the highest possible note, following his selection as an assistant referee for the World Cup in Brazil in June-July this year.
Anaz (pictured), who has refereed at the Asian Cup, the London Olympics and the Under-20 World Cup in recent years, will travel to Brazil with head referee Ben Williams, from the ACT, and co-assistant referee Matthew Cream, from South Australia.
For Anaz, 44, it will likely be his last major tournament as FIFA has a mandatory retirement age of 45 for referees.
“I turn 45 in August and this will probably be the final FIFA tournament for me, but it’s a hell of a way to go out, to be honest,” he says.
“Ask any referee in the world and they’ll say the ultimate is to go to the World Cup. Football in Brazil is humungous and larger than life.
“To be going there for the festival of football is a dream come true. I would never have thought this would happen.”
Anaz has been on the FIFA assistant referee panel for a decade and will become the third Victorian to referee at a World Cup, following Chris Bambridge in Mexico in 1986 and Eugene Brazzale in the US in 1994. Match referees are appointed in threes, and Anaz, Williams and Cream already have experience together, having refereed at the London Olympics last year.
“We did Spain versus Morocco, which was a very, very good game,” says Anaz. But he admits the World Cup will be a whole new level.
“I started jumping up and down and screaming when I heard the news,” he says. “My hands were up in the air and it was an absolutely ecstatic moment that I’ll never forget.”
Anaz, Williams and Cream make up one of 25 trios selected for the tournament, and Anaz says they hope to reach the latter stages of the tournament.
“We will probably have two games in the opening round,” he says. “If we do well in those we can get to the round of 16 and if we do really, really well we could get to a semi-final.”
But, much like many of the players who will be taking part in the tournament, Anaz isn’t getting too far ahead.
“But that’s all looking way, way in advance,” he says. “We’re just looking at the first game right now.”
