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 Elizondo chosen to referee final
 Elizondo shows a disbelieving Rooney the red card. BERLIN, Germany -- Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo, the man who sent off Wayne Rooney last Saturday, will be in charge of Sunday's World Cup between France and Italy, in Berlin, FIFA announced on Thursday. Elizondo also refereed the opening match of the finals, Germany's 4-2 victory over Costa Rica in Munich on June 9. Elizondo dismissed Rooney for stamping on a Portuguese opponent in the quarterfinal, which Portugal won in a penalty shootout. The 42-year-old physical education teacher has been a professional referee since 1994 and his first international was a game between Ecuador and Colombia in October 1996. He lists playing golf and writing poems as his main hobbies. Dario Garcia and Rodolfo Otero, also of Argentina, will be Elizondo's assistants for the match at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, FIFA general secretary Urs Linsi said Thursday. "We've had lots of American, South American and Latin American referees and we've been treated well," said Giancarlo Abete, the chief of Italy's World Cup delegation. "We've shown a lot of respect for the referee's decisions and those of the disciplinary committee." Japan's Toru Kamikawa will handle Saturday's third-place match between Germany and Portugal in Stuttgart. Yoshikazu Hiroshima of Japan and Kim Dae-young of South Korea will run the lines. Good choiceFIFA vice president Lennart Johansson said Elizondo was a good choice, and he backed the official's decision to send Rooney off against Portugal. Johansson said he was not convinced when he saw the incident live, but after watching TV replays, thought Elizondo made the correct decision. "I saw his first match and it was good -- the less I notice referees, the better a job they're doing," he said. Johansson said the referees' committee had long considered Elizondo a prospect for the final. "I have full respect for the referees' committee -- if they give a referee the opening match and then pick him again for the final, then he and they are doing a good job." 
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