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U17 WORLD CUP BLOG - FINAL PART

HOWARD WEBB, DARREN CANN AND MIKE MULLARKEY PROVIDE THEIR LAST UPDATE FROM NIGERIA

We officiated the last Quarter-Final between Nigeria and Korea on Tuesday evening with the hosts winning 3-1 which was surprising because pre-match everybody expected the game to be a really tough one.

We had no yellow or red cards and the match was played in a very fair and sporting manner so everybody is very happy with how smoothly things went and we are really delighted. It was great to be involved in a match that had a fantastic atmosphere inside the stadium with lots of colour and music all around us.

After three and a half weeks at the FIFA U17 World Cup which included;  five venues, lots of internal flights, four matches (and one as 4th official for me) and a few upset tummies our West African adventure is finally over.

Most of the refereeing trios have been released with FIFA keeping just enough to staff the final four matches. We are heading back to London safe in the knowledge that we have given a really good account of ourselves throughout the tournament.

FIFA have said they are very happy with our work and we feel that we are a little closer to our ultimate goal. Having refereed more matches than any other trio and with FIFA having already seen our work at close hand in several tournaments by now we always felt it was likely we would come home after the quarter-final stage.

Our aim when travelling out here was to enjoy a trouble-free tournament and to avoid any banana skins. We've exceeded those aims; we have had a fantastic time and worked really hard on and off the field and delivered four quality performances.

Thanks once again for all the support from home, we really appreciate it.

Howard, Darren and Mike
 

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