CHICAGO (Sunday, June 9, 2002) - U.S. Soccer referee Brian Hall earned quality reviews for his work in the middle of the Italy-Ecuador match on June 3, and has been named by FIFA as the referee for the Nigeria-England on June 12 in Osaka. Hall served as the fourth official for the highly anticipated England-Argentina match on June 7, which England won 1-0. The match against Nigeria is crucial to England, who are in position to qualify for the second round with a draw or a win against the African team.

Working with Hall in Osaka will be assistant referees Hector Vergara (Canada) and Evzen Amler (Czech Republic) and fourth official Toru Kamikawa (Japan). Vergara served as an assistant in the Italy - Ecaudor match that Hall worked earlier in this tournament.

FIFA only announced four more referee assignments today, with an announcement regarding the remainder of the first round officials scheduled to take place on Monday.  Each of the 36 referees in the World Cup were assigned one match as a referee and one as a fourth official.  The referees are evaluated after each game, and then FIFA assigns more matches to select referees. Hall is one of the first four referees to be assigned to a second game this tournament, with eight more first-round matches still to be assigned.

Hall, who is the first U.S.-born official ever selected to referee the world’s greatest sporting event, has been a Major League Soccer referee since the league’s inception in 1996. As a FIFA Referee, he has traveled to 27 different countries to apply his trade.