Jorge Baliño
Argentine football referee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jorge Ignacio Baliño (born 8 October 1979[2]) is an Argentine association football referee, who officiates in the Argentine Primera División and was a FIFA-listed international referee between 2015 and 2018. Since 2022, he is a FIFA-listed VAR official.[3][4]
Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina
|
Baliño in 2009 | |||
| Full name | Jorge Ignacio Baliño | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
8 October 1979 Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina | ||
| Domestic | |||
| Years | League | Role | |
| Argentine Primera División (since 2007)[1] | Referee | ||
| International | |||
| Years | League | Role | |
| 2015–2018 | FIFA listed | Referee | |
Baliño was the VAR official at the 2023 Copa Sudamericana final.[5]
Career
Baliño was born in Tandil, Buenos Aires Province, and first worked as a firefighter in Chillar, a town near Tandil.[2][5] He made his debut in the Primera División of the Tandil Football League on 25 May 2001.[1]
After officiating for a few seasons in the lower division, Baliño made his debut as a referee in the Primera División of Argentine football in June 2007, at a match between Argentinos Juniors and Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata.[1] In April 2019, Baliño, joined by several referees and assistant referees of the lower divisions of Argentine football, resigned from the body of Argentine referees, in protest of the leadership of the union's president, Guillermo Marconi.[6]
In July 2022, during a Primera División match between Barracas Central and Club Atlético Patronato, Baliño became involved in a controversy, when he wrongly disallowed two goals against Patronato at the request of VAR and gave an inexistent penalty kick for Barracas.[7]
International appearances
In mid-January 2017, CONMEBOL announced the referees for the 2017 South American U-17 Championship, which was held in Chile.[8] It was Baliño's first international tournament, who said in an interview with Argentine Football Association website, that he thought it was the right time for him to break into international officiating.[9]
He oversaw the second round of Group A, in the match between Chile and Colombia. During the course of the match, Baliño showed two yellow cards and awarded a penalty kick for Colombia in the 90th minute, which Chilean goalkeeper Borqués Hernández saved moments later.[10]
Baliño serves as a VAR official at the 2025 Copa Libertadores,[11] and was chosen as the AVAR official for the final match between Palmeiras and Flemengo on 29 November.[12]
Statistics as a referee
| Tournaments | Constester | Years | Matches |  |
Average |
 |
Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Primera División de Argentina |
AFA–SAF |
2007– | 237 | 1145 | 4.83 | 96 | 0.40 |
| Primera B Nacional |
AFA |
2006–2015 | 182 | 891 | 4.89 | 105 | 0.57 |
| Copa Argentina |
AFA |
2011– | 29 | 115 | 3.96 | 11 | 0.37 |
| Relegation |
AFA |
2008 | 1 | 5 | 5.00 | 3 | 3.00 |
 Copa Conmebol Libertadores |
Conmebol |
2016–2018 | 1 | 3 | 3.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Copa Conmebol Sudamericana |
Conmebol |
2010– | 3 | 13 | 4.33 | 0 | 0.00 |
 South American U-17 Football Championship |
Conmebol |
2017 | 4 | 16 | 4.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Friendlies | FIFA | 2017 | 1 | 4 | 4.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Totals | 2006– | 458 | 2192 | 4.78 | 215 | 0.46 | |
| Matches as referee are correct as of 21 March 2023 | |||||||
Source: worldfootball.net[13]