FIFA's referee committee again opt out of appointing a non-UEFA team of officials to the only all-UEFA last 16 tie (ITA v POL). Given there were 8 ties & 6 referees who hadn't had a 2nd game in the qualifying rounds you'd have thought ITA v POL would go to one of OMA, URU or SEN. But it went to ESP! The other 5 referees got ties in line with "policy": COL v NZ = OMA, URU v ECU = ENG, UKR v PAN = URU, SEN v NIG = ITA & JAP v KOR = SEN. Which left the final 2 last 16 ties: FRA v USA & ARG v MAL. No surprises should FIFA prefer their usual fall-back options of BRA & MEX. What's the betting that ITA's QF will see another UEFA appointment?