Goalkeepers handling the ball twice

This week of UEFA Champions League surely offered many interesting situations to analyze - among others in Stadio Giuseppe Meazza involving AC Milan, Celtic Glasgow and German referee Wolfgang Stark's team.

In the 16th minute of play, AC Milan goalkeeper Abbiati touched the ball with his hand twice in a row without an opponent touching the ball in between:

The Laws of the Game clearly state that "an indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, commits any of the following four offences:
• controls the ball with his hands for more than six seconds before releasing it from his possession
• touches the ball again with his hands after he has released it from his possession and before it has touched another player
• touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately kicked to him by a team-mate
• touches the ball with his hands after he has received it directly from a throw-in taken by a team-mate"

Wolfgang Stark therefore correctly applied this quite technical law and, what was even better, he calmly and clearly explained his decision to the players. Fourth Official Christoph Bornhorst did so, too, explaining it to the Italian coach, while Balotelli was enlightened by AAR1 Marco Fritz. Stark even tried to warn Abbiati before he touched the ball for the second time - but without success.

I don't know whether you have comparable situations having happened in other matches in mind, but basically this surely does not happen in 1 or 1000 matches.

Now We Ignore More

Are you used to losing all your faith into UEFA refereeing and parts of their referee committee? Yes? Then the following won't be anything new to you. No? Then be prepared, chain yourself to your chair to avoid that you will fall from it.

In Tuesday's UEFA Champions League match between Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen, the Slovenian referee team headed by Damir Skomina had a decisive blackout in the first goal scored by the English side.

Assistant Referee 1 Matej Žunič obviously failed to detect two offside positions in this situation. The first one, by Patrice Evra, was surely hard to see and could be ignored considering the "benefit of the doubt". Evra then passed the ball into the penalty area and found his team-mate Wayne Rooney, who scored with a volley. Rooney was clearly onside, no doubt. But what about the ManU forward Valencia having stood on the goalline and having clearly been closer to the goalline than the 2nd last defender? 

In the context of Law 11 on offside, the following definitions apply.

• "interfering with play" means playing or touching the ball passed or touched by a team-mate

This does not apply for ManU forward Valencia. He did not play or touch the ball.

• "interfering with an opponent" means preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or challenging an opponent for the ball

This does apply for ManU forward Valencia. He clearly prevented his opponent - in this case goalkeeper Leno - from being able to play the ball by challenging his opponent for the ball. Challenging an opponent for the ball requires physical interference (forward Valencia obviously touched goalkeeper Leno) and requires a playing distance of maximum 1 or 1,5 metres. Well, no doubt that this was by far less than a metre.

Here we can already stop going through the offside law. This goal was clearly scored from an active offside position. Practically, it is not only Žunič' mistake, but also Damir Skomina's and specially AAR1 Slavko Vinčić's error. It was not only a clear offside position - it was an obvious foul by Valencia on Leno in the goalkeeper's "territory area", i.e. the 5m-box. Slavko Vinčić looked somewhere else, probably he controlled Rooney, the player who received the ball. Well, Skomina had to do so, too, so that sharing responsibility certainly did not work properly in this situation. A quite clear error, isn't it? For sure, this was an error of perception that is human and can happen. So I stress it's not my intention to blame the officials for that too much.

Now the story starts: Pierluigi Collina and parts of his fealty have de facto ruled the decision to allow this goal as correct.

But why? There are several possible reasons.

1. It might be that Mr Collina has not understood the offside law. Well, that would be embarrassing. He indeed should have read my post from 30 June 2013.

2. Mr Collina has not understood that people exist who want to understand referees' decisions, who want to have an honest committee that analyzes mistakes in a clear and understandable manner putting positive pressure on their officials to learn from them and to improve in future. By the way, clubs and players do expect that as well.

3. Elite referee teams savour more protection than other referees.

4. Someone in the committee believes he has to protect his protégé.

5. We are facing a World Cup. We are currently being in the hot phase of the qualification for 2014 FIFA World Cup - and this does not only count for national teams, but for the referees as well. In fact there are more European referees who would deserve a participation in this tournament than available places allowed by FIFA. Every 7.9 means a minus on the referee's and assistant referee's palmarès, that's pretty clear.

Choose the reason you like most, please.

At any rate, I have lost every faith into the current management.

UEFA Coaching Videos on AARs - Part 1

Thanks to Mr José Garcia-Aranda, there is access to the videos that were very likely used as coaching material at the recent UEFA referee seminar held in Nyon. 

The 16 match situations, that have been uploaded at Garcia's website and basically focus on decisions and teamwork in terms of the Additional Assistant Referee programme during the last UEFA club competition season, will be analyzed during the next days, split in three different posts.

Situation 1: Montpellier HSC - Arsenal FC 
(Officials involved: Referee Carlos Velasco Carballo, AR Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez, AAR Carlos Del Cerro Grande, Spain)

Montpellier's #10 was entering the penalty area and was challenged by Arsenal's #5, who clearly tackled #10's left calf in an unfair manner. This contact is enough for classifying this challenge as a foul, even though #10 surely exaggerated the contact by jumping out of the penalty area. The contact was happening inside the penalty area though.
That's a decision which surely benefits from the presence of an additional assistant referee, indicated by the delayed whistle (consultation within the referee team). Carlos Del Cerro Grande was just positioned at the level of the penalty area line and was thus able to assess this situation properly. The referee himself could have faced some trouble in this context if he had had to make this decision on his own. In this particular situation, more eyes indeed see more. Just a remark on the assistant referee, Juan Yuste Jiménez: since the launch of the AAR programme, assistant referees have to stay at the 16m-line during penalty kicks and have to stay on line with the 2nd last defender when entering the penalty area during / after the penalty kick's execution. Yuste Jiménez surely forgot this because of routine (00:21 - 00:23). He recognized his faulty positioning and quickly adjusted it.

Conclusion: Correct decision - Penalty kick

Situation 2: Borussia Dortmund - Real Madrid  

(Officials involved: Referee Viktor Kassai, AAR Mihály Fabián, Hungary)

Real's defender #14 was challenging Dortmund forward #11 in the penalty area close to referee Kassai's AAR2 Fabián. With a bit delay, Kassai pointed to the corner and thus evaluated the duel as fair. Both officials obviously believed that #14 had only played the ball and had furthermore touched it last. Both was not the case. The replay (also strengthened by a manually deployed slow-motion) clearly shows that #14 fouled Dortmund #11 having caused latter to lose soil contact and to go to the ground, touching the ball and manoeuvring it towards the goal line. The Additional Assistant Referee actually had a perfect angle on this situation and should have assessed it accordingly. The responsibility for this crucial mistake was probably shifted on Fabián's shoulders.

Conclusion: Crucial mistake - Missed penalty kick

Situation 3: Chelsea FC - Juventus Turin

(Officials involved: Referee Pedro Proença, AAR João Capela, Portugal)

Juventus defender #15 was in a 1v1 duel against Chelsea forward #17 in the penalty area. Both sprinted towards the goal line, while the defender was in an inferior position. He touched the shoulder and back of his opponent twice and pushed him a bit in a quite "customary" way. The forward then decided to fall. In fact the descent came too late and was at the borderline to a dive. Pedro Proença very quickly waived play-on, which seems to have been a good decision due to the contacts existing before. Deciding on simulation would have been controversial. It is unclear whether the decision was made upon consultation with AAR1 Capela (depending on how both officials splitted the penalty area in terms of their areas of responsibility at the pre-match-briefing), perhaps he was just there to confirm that it was no foul. At any rate, correct decision!

Conclusion: Correct decision - no penalty kick

Situation 4: Juventus Turin - Shakhtar Donetsk

(Officials involved: Referee Bas Nijhuis, AAR Ed Janssen, Netherlands)

The ball was played at the far-right and passed into the penalty area. Shakhtar forward #10 strived for the ball but was held and pulled to the ground by Juventus defender #26. The incident was missed by both referee Nijhuis and specially AAR Janssen. The likelihood of the striker of getting in control over the ball and - in this case - even of scoring a goal was very high. Therefore the referee should have awarded a penalty kick in favour of Shakhtar and should have issued a red card against #26 for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. Watching the video carefully with regard to where the officials probably looked at during this occasion, it gets quite obvious that Nijhuis followed the ball for a long time and failed to visually control the duel in the box. He had to do that. That's why it is basically the AAR's mistake, who actually seemed to follow this duel. Shifting responsibility principally worked in this moment, the problem was and is that the outcome, i.e. the decision by AAR2, was wrong.

Conclusion: Crucial mistake - Missed penalty kick (+DOGSO)

Situation 5: Ajax Amsterdam - Borussia Dortmund

(Officials involved: Referee Pedro Proença, AR Bertino Miranda, AAR João Capela, Portugal)

You don't see it too often that a referee on this level changes his mind by 180° after having taken a decision. In this situation, it did happen. Dortmund forward #10 received the ball in the box and performed an exemplary dive by jumping into his opponent's sliding tackle (Ajax #4) with a pirouette. Of course there was an inevitable contact, but none that should have been penalized. 

Referee Proença whistled and pointed to the spot. Assistant Referee Miranda did not move towards the goalline and his whole body language suggested that he perhaps did not consider it as a foul. AAR Capela moved towards the goal, maybe indicating "penalty kick!". Proença seemed to have eye-contact with Capela and clearly talked into his micro asking for confirmation...and then changed his mind: dive, YC to the offender (#10). A correct decision. But it is opaque how he came to this perception. It depends on what was said via micro. Maybe Capela corrected him. Maybe Miranda corrected him or confirmed Capela's correction. In principle, wrongly taken crucial decisions stay crucial mistakes even if they are overruled by a team-mate. If the Portuguese team were clever, they surely explained this confusing situation with communication problems in the noisy atmosphere in Amsterdam ArenA (Capela saying "No Penalty, No Penalty!" and Proença understanding "Penalty! Penalty" due to the noise).

Conclusion: Correct decision - No penalty kick (Dive) - However, it is possible that the decision was evaluated as a crucial mistake by the referee observer, depending on the responsibility and circumstances of each official)

How do you evaluate these situations?

UEFA briefs Assistant Referees in terms of Offside Law Amendments

UEFA's summer gathering for Europe's top male and female referees has primed match officials for their assignments in the coming season. This year special attention was also given at the course to the leading assistant referees as they will be ruling on new stipulations on offside which have been introduced to the Laws of the Game. 

In the spring football's lawmakers, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), approved a clarification of the wording of Law 11 (Offside, Interpretation of the Laws of the Game). The IFAB agreed that the wording in force was not precise enough, regarding "interfering with an opponent/gaining an advantage". Consequently, European assistant referees received intensive training at the UEFA summer course in Nyon to familiarise themselves with the new provisions.

In the 2013/14 Laws of the Game, Law 11 stipulates that, "A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by:

– interfering with play or
– interfering with an opponent or
– gaining an advantage by being in that position."

In the context of Law 11 on offside, the following definitions (changes in bold) now apply to the above:

• "interfering with an opponent" means preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or challenging an opponent for the ball
• "gaining an advantage by being in that position" means playing a ball
i. that rebounds or is deflected to him off the goalpost, crossbar or an opponent having been in an offside position
ii. that rebounds, is deflected or is played to him from a deliberate save by an opponent having been in an offside position

In addition, from this season: "A player in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent, who deliberately plays the ball (except from a deliberate save), is not considered to have gained an advantage."

UEFA's chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina was on hand in Nyon to ensure that the training sessions featuring the assistant referees were carried out in line with the new provisions, and explained the amendments to UEFA.com.

"Last March, IFAB changed the instruction and guidelines of Law 11 concerning what is meant as interfering with an opponent, and what is meant as gaining an advantage from being in an offside position," he said.

"This course [was] very focused on offside, as it's important to have the assistant referees attuned to the new interpretation and to the new text of Law 11. Offside is such an important thing that it deserves to be carefully dealt with.

"The main things to be considered now with offsides, in assessing the position of a player as interfering with an opponent, [involve] clearly obstructing the line of vision of an opponent and challenging the opponent for the ball. So these are the two criteria to be assessed in order to deem a player who is in an offside position as punishable.

"Gaining an advantage from being in an offside position ... now the assistant referees and the referees should consider the nature of the play of the defender, because if the defender made a deliberate play, the outcome of the play doesn't matter – with the exception of a 'save' – and so being in an offside position and gaining an advantage from being in an offside position is not an offence any more."

Do these changes give referees different things to think about in match situations? "Certainly it's more important now to assess the intention of the player," Collina reflected. "It means the referee and the assistant referees must be very careful in assessing if the player deliberately played the ball or not."

With the offside law becoming increasingly important each year, UEFA has wisely decided to place even greater focus on the men with the flags. "We did something different before EURO 2012, involving specialists in coaching the assistant referees, and the outcome was very positive," Collina explained.

"We had a very successful EURO 2012, with very good decisions taken by assistant referees. We want to continue with this. We decided to involve three former top assistant referees in the preparation of UEFA assistant referees, and 46 of them [attended] this [UEFA] course.

"We are also implementing new tools to give the assistant referees support in their daily preparation. As it would be very difficult for them to be able to train on offside situations away from a match – they would need players to create the offside situations that occur during a match – UEFA has provided them with a web application that enables them to train by simulating the offside situations they could find in matches. The feedback we are receiving from the assistant referees is very positive."

source: UEFA.com

Furthermore, check out a video containing explanations given by Pierluigi Collina and statements issued by EURO 2012 final referee Pedro Proença.

UEFA Europa League - Referee Appointments - I

These 24 referee sextets will initiate the group stage of 2013/2014 UEFA Europa League campaign, among others, featuring Fredy Fautrel, Pawel Gil, Ivan Kružliak, Antonio Mateu Lahoz and Anastassios Sidiropoulos in matches with quite meaningful referee observers.

"Tasos" Sidiropoulos to attend EURO 2012 final stadium

Group A, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Estadio Mestalla, Valencia (ESP)
Valencia CF - Swansea City
Referee: Serge Gumienny (BEL)
Assistant Referee 1: Frank Bleyen (BEL)
Assistant Referee 2: Kristof Meers (BEL)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Luc Wouters (BEL)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Jonathan Lardot (BEL)
Fourth Official: Yves De Neve (BEL)
UEFA Referee Observer: Robert Sedlacek (AUT)
UEFA Delegate: Karl Espen Eriksen (NOR)

Group A, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Arena St. Gallen, St. Gallen (SUI)
FC St. Gallen - Kuban Krasnodar
Referee: Pawel Gil (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Piotr Sadczuk (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcin Borkowski (POL)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Robert Malek (POL)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Pawel Raczkowski (POL)
Fourth Official: Konrad Sapela (POL)
UEFA Referee Observer: Juan Antonio Fernández Marín (ESP)
UEFA Delegate: Tormod Larsen (NOR)

Group B, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb (CRO)
Dinamo Zagreb - Chornomorets Odessa
Referee: Hüseyin Göçek (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Emre Eyisoy (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: Orkun Aktaš (TUR)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Halis Ozkahya (TUR)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Süleyman Abay (TUR)
Fourth Official: Serkan Ok (TUR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Manuel López Fernández (ESP)
UEFA Delegate: David Findlay (SCO)

Group B, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: PSV Stadion, Eindhoven (NED)
PSV Eindhoven - Ludogorets
Referee: Ivan Kružliak (SVK)
Assistant Referee 1: Tomaš Somolani (SVK)
Assistant Referee 2: Tomaš Mokoš (SVK)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Richard Trutz (SVK)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Peter Kralovič (SVK)
Fourth Official: Ondrej Brendza (SVK)
UEFA Referee Observer: Alan Snoddy (NIR)
UEFA Delegate: Jacob Erel (ISR)
Blog Referee Observer: Edward (GRE)

Group C, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Stadion Salzburg, Salzburg (AUT)
FC Salzburg - IF Elfsborg
Referee: Leontios Trattou (CYP)
Assistant Referee 1: Michael Soteriou (CYP)
Assistant Referee 2: Aristides Christou (CYP)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Marios Panayi (CYP)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Marios Tsangaris (CYP)
Fourth Official: Petros Petrou (CYP)
UEFA Referee Observer: Tony Asumaa (FIN)
UEFA Delegate: Tervel Zlatev (BUL)

Group C, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Stade Maurice Dufrasne, Liege (BEL)
Standard Liège - Esbjerg fB
Referee: Gediminas Mažeika (LTU)
Assistant Referee 1: Vytautas Šimkuš (LTU)
Assistant Referee 2: Vytenis Kazlauskas (LTU)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Sergejus Slyva (LTU)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Jurij Paskovskij (LTU)
Fourth Official: Audrius Jagintavicius (LTU)
UEFA Referee Observer: Oguz Sarvan (TUR)
UEFA Delegate: Roy Cathcart (NIR)

Group D, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Jan Breydelstadion, Bruges (BEL)
Zulte Wagerem - Wigan Athletic
Referee: Marcin Borski (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Rafal Rostkowski (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Sebastian Mucha (POL)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Daniel Stefanski (POL)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Bartosz Frankowski (POL)
Fourth Official: Krzysztof Myrmus (POL)
UEFA Referee Observer: Adrian D. Casha (MLT)
UEFA Delegate: Dusko Grabovac (CRO)

Group D, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Stadion Ljudski vrt, Maribor (SVN)
NK Maribor - Rubin Kazan
Referee: Pol van Boekel (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Angelo Boonman (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Davie Goossens (NED)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Richard Liesveld (NED)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Dennis Higler (NED)
Fourth Official: Bas van Dongen (NED)
UEFA Referee Observer: Ilkka Koho (FIN)
UEFA Delegate: Bujar Kasmi (ALB)

Group E, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence (ITA)
ACF Fiorentina - Paços de Ferreira
Referee: Kevin Blom (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Patrick Langkamp (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Berry Simons (NED)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Danny Makkelie (NED)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Tom van Sichem (NED)
Fourth Official: Charles Schaap (NED)
UEFA Referee Observer: Michael Ross (NIR)
UEFA Delegate: Petr Fousek (CZE)

Group E, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Cluj Arena, Cluj-Napoca (ROU)
CS Pandurii - FC Dnipro
Referee: Sascha Kever (SUI)
Assistant Referee 1: Raffael Zeder (SUI)
Assistant Referee 2: Devis Dettamanti (SUI)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Sascha Amhof (SUI)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Pascal Erlachner (SUI)
Fourth Official: Charles Helbling (SUI)
UEFA Referee Observer: Matteo Trefoloni (ITA)
UEFA Delegate: Velid Imamović (BIH)

Group F, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Commerzbank Arena, Frankfurt/Main (GER)
Eintracht Frankfurt - Girondins Bordeaux
Referee: Andre Marriner (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Stuart Burt (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Simon Long (ENG)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Anthony Taylor (ENG)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Mike Jones (ENG)
Fourth Official: Jake Collin (ENG)
UEFA Referee Observer: Stefan Ormandjiev (BUL)
UEFA Delegate: Paul Krähenbühl (SUI)

Group F, 19 September 2013, 19:00 CET
Stadium: Bloomfield, Tel Aviv (ISR)
Maccabi Tel-Aviv - APOEL
Referee: Carlos Clos Gómez (ESP)
Assistant Referee 1: Javier Aguilar Rodríguez (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez (ESP)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Fernando Teixeira Vitienes (ESP)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: César Muñiz Fernández (ESP)
Fourth Official: Roberto Alonso Fernández (ESP)
UEFA Referee Observer: Jan Wegereef (NED)
UEFA Delegate: Wolfgang Thierrichter (AUT)

Group G, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: NSK Olimpiyskiy, Kyiv (UKR)
Dynamo Kyiv - KRC Genk
Referee: Anastassios Sidiropoulos (GRE)
Assistant Referee 1: Damianos Efthimiadis (GRE)
Assistant Referee 2: Dimitrios Gagas (GRE)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Ilias Spathas (GRE)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Stavros Tritsonis (GRE)
Fourth Official: Christos Akrivos (GRE)
UEFA Referee Observer: Zdravko Jokić (SRB)
UEFA Delegate: Tomas Karpavicius (LTU)
Blog Referee Observer: Niclas (GER)

Group G, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Arena Thun, Thun (SUI)
FC Thun - Rapid Wien
Referee: Anastassios Kakos (GRE)
Assistant Referee 1: Dimitrios Tatsis (GRE)
Assistant Referee 2: Michael Karsiotis (GRE)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Athanassios Giachos (GRE)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Michael Koukoulakis (GRE)
Fourth Official: Ilias Alexeas (GRE)
UEFA Referee Observer: Valentin Ivanov (RUS)
UEFA Delegate: Dr. Rainer Koch (GER)

Group H, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Badenova Stadion, Freiburg (GER)
SC Freiburg - Slovan Liberec
Referee: Pavel Cristian Balaj (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Sebastian Eugen Gheorghe (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Mihai Ovidiu Artene (ROU)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: István Kovács (ROU)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Ionut Marius Avram (ROU)
Fourth Official: Radu Adrian Ghinguleac (ROU)
UEFA Referee Observer: Kyros Georgiou (CYP)
UEFA Delegate: Antoine Portelli (MLT)

Group H, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Estádio António Coimbra Da Mota, Estoril (POR)
Estoril Praia - Sevilla FC
Referee: Alon Yefet (ISR)
Assistant Referee 1: Shabtai Nahmias (ISR)
Assistant Referee 2: Danny Krasikow (ISR)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Eli Hacmon (ISR)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Daniel Bar Natan (ISR)
Fourth Official: Dan Ucenic (ISR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Leif Sundell (SWE)
UEFA Delegate: Barry Bright (ENG)

Group I, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Estadio Benito Villamarín, Sevilla (ESP)
Betis Sevilla - Olympique Lyon
Referee: Stefan Johannesson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 1: Magnus Sjöblom (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Daniel Gustavsson (SWE)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Martin Strömbergsson (SWE)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Andreas Ekberg (SWE)
Fourth Official: Henrik Andrén (SWE)
UEFA Referee Observer: Erol Ersoy (TUR)
UEFA Delegate: Gijs De Jong (NED)

Group I, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Estádio D. Afonso Henriques, Guimaraes (POR)
Vitória SC - HNK Rijeka
Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (BLR)
Assistant Referee 1: Dzmity Zhuk (BLR)
Assistant Referee 2: Andrei Hetsikau (BLR)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Dzianis Shcharbakou (BLR)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Siarhei Tsynkevich (BLR)
Fourth Official: Aleh Maslianka (BLR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Ioannis Tsachilidis (GRE)
UEFA Delegate: Teuvo Holopainen (FIN)

Group J, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: GSP Arena, Nicosia (CYP)
Apollon - Trabzonspor
Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (ESP)
Assistant Referee 1: Pau Cebrián Devis (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: José Fernández Miranda (ESP)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Javier Estrada Fernández (ESP)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Jesús Gil Manzano (ESP)
Fourth Official: Roberto Díaz Pérez Del Palomar (ESP)
UEFA Referee Observer: Alfredo Trentalange (ITA)
UEFA Delegate: Mark Blackbourne (ENG)
Blog Referee Observer: Chefren (ITA)

Group J, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Stadio Olimpico, Rome (ITA)
Lazio Roma - Legia Warszawa
Referee: Kristinn Jakobsson (ISL)
Assistant Referee 1: Johann Gudmundsson (ISL)
Assistant Referee 2: Gunnar Gunnarsson (ISL)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Thoroddur Hjaltalin (ISL)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Gunnar Jónsson (ISL)
Fourth Official: Sigurdur Thorleifsson (ISL)
UEFA Referee Observer: John Ward (IRL)
UEFA Delegate: Sune Hellströmer (SWE)

Group K, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Sheriff Stadion, Tiraspol (MDA)
Sheriff Tiraspol - Anji
Referee: Alan Kelly (IRL)
Assistant Referee 1: Dermot Broughton (IRL)
Assistant Referee 2: Wayne McDonnell (IRL)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Neil Doyle (IRL)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Padraigh Sutton (IRL)
Fourth Official: Emmet Dynan (IRL)
UEFA Referee Observer: Asim Khudiyev (AZE)
UEFA Delegate: Crawford Wilson (NIR)

Group K, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: White Hart Lane, London (ENG)
Tottenham - Tromsø
Referee: Libor Kovarik (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Krystof Mencl (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Patrik Filipek (CZE)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Miroslav Zelinka (CZE)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Petr Ardeleanu (CZE)
Fourth Official: Antonin Kordula (CZE)
UEFA Referee Observer: Siegfried Kirschen (GER)
UEFA Delegate: Harry Been (NED)

Group L, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Stadion Toumba, Thessaloniki (GRE)
PAOK - Shakhter Karagandy
Referee: Fredy Fautrel (FRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Cyril Gringore (FRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Laurent Stien (FRA)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Benoît Bastien (FRA)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Wilfried Bien (FRA)
Fourth Official: Guillaume Débart (FRA)
UEFA Referee Observer: Konrad Plautz (AUT)
UEFA Delegate: Jan Damgaard (DEN)

Group L, 19 September 2013, 21:05 CET
Stadium: Kiryat Eliezer, Haifa (ISR)
Maccabi Haifa - AZ Alkmaar
Referee: Robert Schörgenhofer (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Roland Brandner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Matthias Winsauer (AUT)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Harald Lechner (AUT)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Rene Eisner (AUT)
Fourth Official: Alain Hoxha (AUT)
UEFA Referee Observer: Guy Goethals (BEL)
UEFA Delegate: Leonid Kaloshin (RUS)

Champions League - Referee Appointments - Matchday 1 (Wednesday)

These are the eight officiating teams who will take control over next Wednesday's UEFA Champions League Matchday 1 matches.

Group E, 18 September 2013, 20:45 CET
Stadium: Stamford Bridge, London (ENG)
Chelsea FC - FC Basel
Referee: Daniele Orsato (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Andrea Stefani (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Renato Faverani (ITA)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Paolo Silvio Mazzoleni (ITA)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Andrea Gervasoni (ITA)
Fourth Official: Alessandro Giallatini (ITA)
UEFA Referee Observer: Ryszard Wójcik (POL)
UEFA Delegate: Ainar Leppänen (EST)
Blog Referee Observer: Dino (CRO)

Group E, 18 September 2013, 20:45 CET
Stadium: Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen (GER)
FC Schalke 04 - Steaua Bucuresti
Referee: Cüneyt Çakır (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Bahattin Duran (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: Tarik Ongun (TUR)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Barış Şimşek (TUR)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Mete Kalkavan (TUR)
Fourth Official: Çem Satman (TUR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Francesco Bianchi (SUI)
UEFA Delegate: Alan McRae (SCO)
Blog Referee Observer: Chefren (ITA)

Group F, 18 September 2013, 20:45 CET
Stadium: Stadio San Paolo, Napoli (ITA)
SSC Napoli - Borussia Dortmund
Referee: Pedro Proença (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Bertino Miranda (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Tiago Trigo (POR)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: João Capela (POR)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Duarte Gomes (POR)
Fourth Official: Venâncio Raposo Tomé (POR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Manuel Díaz Vega (ESP)
UEFA Delegate: Balázs Makray (HUN)
Blog Referee Observer: Nur H. (ENG)

Group F, 18 September 2013, 20:45 CET
Stadium: Stade Vélodrome, Marseille (FRA)
Olympique Marseille - Arsenal FC
Referee: Olegário Benquerença (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Ricardo Santos (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Rui Barbosa Tavares (POR)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Artur Soares Dias (POR)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Carlos Taborda Xistra (POR)
Fourth Official: João Santos (POR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Uno Tutk (EST)
UEFA Delegate: Christian Schmölzer (AUT)
Blog Referee Observer: Johnny (SRB)

Group G, 18 September 2013, 20:45 CET
Stadium: Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Wien (AUT)
Austria Wien - FC Porto
Referee: Craig Thomson (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Alan Mulvanny (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: David McGeachie (SCO)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Steven McLean (SCO)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Kevin Clancy (SCO)
Fourth Official: Derek Rose (SCO)
UEFA Referee Observer: Christos Skapoullis (CYP)
UEFA Delegate: Adrian Titcombe (ENG)
Blog Referee Observer: Chefren (ITA)

Group G, 18 September 2013, 20:45 CET
Stadium: Estadio Vicente Calderón, Madrid (ESP)
Atlético Madrid - Zenit St. Petersburg
Referee: William Collum (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Martin Cryans (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: William Conquer (SCO)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Robert Madden (SCO)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: John Beaton (SCO)
Fourth Official: Gavin Harris (SCO)
UEFA Referee Observer: Vítor Melo Pereira (POR)
UEFA Delegate: Jean-Louis Piette (FRA)
Blog Referee Observer: Edward (GRE)

Group H, 18 September 2013, 20:45 CET
Stadium: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan (ITA)
AC Milan - Celtic Glasgow
Referee: Wolfgang Stark (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Jan-Hendrik Salver (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Mike Pickel (GER)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Marco Fritz (GER)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Robert Hartmann (GER)
Fourth Official: Christoph Bornhorst (GER)
UEFA Referee Observer: Nuno Castro (POR)
UEFA Delegate: Khennet Tallinger (SWE)
Blog Referee Observer: Albin (SWE)

Group H, 18 September 2013, 20:45 CET
Stadium: Camp Nou, Barcelona (ESP)
FC Barcelona - Ajax Amsterdam
Referee: Svein Oddvar Moen (NOR)
Assistant Referee 1: Kim Thomas Haglund (NOR)
Assistant Referee 2: Frank Andås (NOR)
Additional Assistant Referee 1: Dag Vidar Hafsås (NOR)
Additional Assistant Referee 2: Svein-Erik Edvartsen (NOR)
Fourth Official: Sven Erik Midthjell (NOR)
UEFA Referee Observer: Levan Paniashvili (GEO)
UEFA Delegate: Ronny Zimmermann (GER)
Blog Referee Observer: Hagi (GER)

Now We Mix More

As recently presumed, UEFA's Referee Committee headed by Pierluigi Collina have decided to form mixed teams of referees to be appointed even in the highest competitions such as UEFA Champions League. Politics in the pure form that rarely happened over the past seasons.

UEFA is obviously going to mix some teams (c) UEFA.com

All started after UEFA EURO 2012. At last year's tournament in Poland and the Ukraine, Pavel Královec from Czech Republic functioned as fourth official in a couple of matches. Slovakian Roman Slyško, who is probably remembered as one of two excellent assistant referees at Luboš Michel's side in former times and who sourly upset José Mourinho having awarded a ghost-goal in a Champions League semifinal between Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC in 2005, attended the tournament as reserve assistant referee and thus accompanied the referee teams and Královec as the fourth official in several matches. In a newspaper article, UEFA Referee Committee member Dagmar Damková (Czech Rep.) confirmed that, after the tournament, Pierluigi Collina had the idea to integrate Slyško into Královec' team in "some matches". However, this also had an effect on the prospective list of referees for 2014 FIFA World Cup. Královec and Slyško were said to suit together in terms of their characters and hence, both agreed to Collina's plan. The other Czech Republican assistant referee, Antonin Kordula, who performed well in every match he had with Královec, was of course not asked how he would find it being removed from the pre-list. Certainly, one may not withhold that Slyško is indeed one of the best European assistant referees and had some very good calls in last season's Champions League campaign.

Today, Sandro Pozzi's name caught our eyes when going through the referee appointment for Bayern München - CSKA Moskva as part of next week's Champions League group stage start. As gathered last week, he is intregated into an Italian officiating crew, since he is fluent in the Italian language due to his origin. Like Massimo Busacca, Sandro Pozzi is living in the Southern part of Switzerland close to the Italian border (this fact will be revelant later on, too). Pozzi was good at UEFA Under-21 EURO 2013 in Israel and also showed his skills at Stephan Studer's side during FIFA Under-17 World Cup 2011. To make that clear: Pozzi practically deserves to be seen and appointed by UEFA for important matches taking into account his quality. Nobody questions that and nobody begrudges him his nomination. But...there is a "but".

There is a clear principle in football refereeing which should be aspired and considered as somehow ideal: referees or assistant referees may not be assessed or appointed on the basis of politics. Performance principle has to count. Surely, this might sound naive. Even at the grassroots level you only move up if you have someone behind you. But it actually lies in UEFA's and specially Collina's interest to avoid even the appearance that some referees acting at the highest level are only there for political purpose. Therefore I must congratulate Mr Collina that he did not even try to put his political appointment procedure under a veil. In fact, it has already come to that. And that's good. It makes things easier for me to analyze and makes sure that criticizing this referee management with regards to politics won't be considered as mere conspirary theories but as mere facts. 

Now we can ask several questions. Why is the Suisse referee management, which was also criticized by Urs Meier in an interview to DutchReferee.com and The Third Team, rewarded for having failed to produce top-class referees after Busacca and Meier? If they do not produce good referees, their assistant referees have bad luck, it is as simple as that. Why is the Suisse football association so important that there has to be a Suisse assistant referee in Champions League? The UEFA coefficients or the domestic structures cannot be the reason, otherwise countries like Greece or Belgium should have drawn a profit from that, too. The same speech might count for Austrian Roland Brandner, who attended the UEFA courses two weeks ago as well and is therefore expected to accompany a foreign referee into UCL. Austria, with all due respect, is no country that is known for top-class (referees) in modern football. As indicated, the origin of those match officials might give a hint: Sandro Pozzi is from the very Soutern part of Switzerland (Lugano), as said. He is living quite close to the Italian border. Same counts for FIFA referee head Massimo Busacca and, what might be even more interesting, a quite powerful man in UEFA refereeing, being an important referee observer and having taken some relevant roles in sub-committees during the past years: Francesco Bianchi (living in Morbio Inferiore). So was Pozzi "recommended" by Bianchi? 

Same could count for Roland Brandner, who is living in Linz (county Upper Austria). And who is from Upper Austria, too? Horst Brummeier, a meaningful UEFA referee observer who is mostly attending highly important matches and referees. Only two coincidences? I hope so.

Another explanation for today's appointment (Rocchi with Pozzi) might sound more logical. Collina is probably facing resistance in the committee and I furthermore cannot imagine that all the referees and assistant referees concerned accept these plans and movements without saying a word. It is no secret that "PLC" tends to do what he likes in the committee. So it's just phenomenal to choke off every form of criticism by "erasing" an own (= an Italian) assistant referee who makes place for a foreign assistant referee. Very clever.

By the way, Elenito Di Liberatore was surely full of joy when he noticed that Rocchi and company would take the flight to Munich without him. Same will count for Kordula, Rose and other men who are perhaps still fearing to be ruled out so that Brandner gets his place in CL.

In Rocchi's case, a pre-selected trio is destroyed and cannot collect international experiences together. Rocchi has potential, but of course quite low chances for next year's World Cup, considering Rizzoli has too strong arguments at the moment (not to forget his relation to Collina). Actually one should believe UEFA appoints these pre-selected trios as often as possible together on the international stage where they can recommend themselves. One has to wait whether this change will happen once, twice...or will affect the entire season.

And finally, there were and are good reasons why FIFA and UEFA moved away from mixed teams. The recent Under-21 EURO was a paramount example for what happens if you have six men on the field of play who are supposed to communicate on a foreign language in extreme moments. Please Mr Collina, don't return to the start of this millennium, where even at World Cups quite absurd appointments were made, e.g. consisting of a Jamaican referee and two assistant referees from Belarus and the Maldives...

A good team is created over months, mostly years. If Pozzi and Rocchi go into five or six matches per season, this deal-making has no sense at all expect satisfying politics.

In Slyško's and Královec' case, that's different, because they are both acting together in the Czech Republican league as well. Thus Collina should be consistent and invite Pozzi into Serie A - of course he won't do that. And for this reason all that seems to stay a practical hazard and political shenanigans.