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Mark Geiger

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Scapegoat

The Resume

    (August 25, 1974- )
    Born in Beachwood, New Jersey
    High school mathematics teacher
    Referee for Major League Soccer (2004- )
    FIFA Referee (2008- )
    Refereed the 2012 Olympics and the CONCACAF Gold Cups (2013; 2015)
    Drew criticism for his officiating the Colombia-England World Cup knock-out match (July 3, 2018)

Why he might be annoying:

    He could be a Matt Lauer impersonator.
    His students' nickname for him was Sheldon (a Big Bang Theory reference).
    The North American Soccer Confederation admitted that he made 'officiating errors' during Panama's infamous loss to Mexico at the 2015 Gold Cup (2015).
    He later admitted to wrongly penalizing a player on the Panamanian team, stating that if he had access to video replay he wouldn't have made the call.
    He was accused of taking a bribe during the knockout stage of the 2018 World Cup, asking for defender Pepe's jersey before officiating in their favor during their match against Morocco (a charge he vehemently denied).
    He was accused of exhibiting pro-England bias against the Colombian National Soccer team (of the 36 fouls called in the game, 23 went against Colombia). England would go on to win on a penalty-kick.
    His officiating job at the Colombia-England match generated a substantial backlash so that Diego Maradona publicly admonished it as 'monumental theft.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He started refereeing at age 13.
    He won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics & Science Teaching (2014).
    He was twice named Major League Soccer's Referee of the Year (2011, 2014).
    He became the first American to referee in the knockout round of a FIFA World Cup (2014).
    FIFA publicly rebuked Maradona's comments (who also said 'a man like that' shouldn't be in charge of 'a game of that magnitude'). He apologized soon afterward.
    He was accused of anti-Colombian bias but had previously described being on the same field with James Rodriguez during the 2014 World Cup as 'spectacular' and 'amazing.'

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 28 Votes: 53.57% Annoying