Marco Antonio Rodríguez

Career

An international referee since 2000, Rodríguez has been selected for three FIFA World Cups. In the 2006 tournament in Germany, he refereed the England vs Paraguay match and the Côte d'Ivoire vs Serbia and Montenegro match, where he sent off Cyril Domoraud and Albert Nađ. In the 2010 tournament in South Africa, Rodríguez was match referee for the first group match between Australia and Germany, where he gave a straight red card to Australian striker Tim Cahill. He also sent off Chile's Marco Estrada during the group stage encounter between Chile and Spain.

He was selected for the 2014 tournament in Brazil, in which he took charge of 3 games including the semifinal between Germany and Brazil, after which he announced his retirement. He refereed Uruguay verse Italy during the group stage. The game would finish 1–0 to Uruguay as they qualified for the knockout stage and eliminated Italy.

In Mexico, Rodríguez developed a reputation of not being afraid to show many yellow and red cards. He was suspended for 5 games by the Mexican Federation after an incident during the Apertura 2011 final between Tigres and Santos Laguna when he showed 2 yellow cards at the same time to Héctor Mancilla and Carlos Adrián Morales respectively which is against the laws of the game since referees are only allowed to bring only one yellow and red card to the game. During the 2014 Copa Libertadores game between Atlético Nacional and Nacional, he gave the quickest red card in the history of the competition when he sent off Alejandro Bernal from Atlético Nacional after 27 seconds into the game for a harsh tackle.

Personal life

He had the nickname "Chiquidrácula" in reference to his resemblance to a Mexican TV character of child Count Dracula, portrayed by Carlos Espejel. More recently he asked to not be called "Chiquidrácula", but rather "Chiquimarco" instead in reference to his Christian faith.

A former sports professor, he now serves as a Protestant priest outside of his activity as a referee.