Appeal to UEFA...

I am sure that I have seen enough from all the officials who could potentially reach the UEFA Euro 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Based on that, I can state with good reason that I fear the common geopolitical decisions with regard to the match officials' nominations.

I hope that Collina again shows that he has his own rules (what made him as referee unforgettable). I hope that he again shows courage and makes a trend setting decision:

as German, it is easy to say for me that Germany has a couple of excellent referees. In contrast to some other countries, there is not only a large peak but also a good talent pool. The peak surely consists of Wolfgang Stark, Felix Brych - Manuel Gräfe as promising referee for the next years after Stark.

On the one hand, I have never seen a bad Brych on international level, he was trusted a lot even in his first year as Elite referee and at least yesterday's appointment and perfomance should wipe away several doubts on his quality. Wolfgang Stark, top referee for a decade, the best perfomance of his career was in my opinion shown in "el clásico", he proved to be a referee who does not fear issueing personal punishments even in such a hot match, many said that he was inconsistent, which I did not and do not understand. But sometimes it is hard as referee, criticized for courage and correct decisions and just two weeks later, a referee who is in charge of the same match (2nd leg) and has no courage to send players off is praised for a superb perfomance...

Merely considering the perfomances shown on international level, i.e. UEFA Champions-League, UEFA Europa-League and also UEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers, the only reasonable decision UEFA could make is taking both German referees to the UEFA Euro 2012 finals.

Perfomance principles must dominate geopolitical reasons. The result of what happens, when you merely focus on the latter, could be observed in South Africa last year.

In my honest opinion, I believe I had the same opinion if I were not German, the top 5 group of European referees consists - at the moment - of Nicola Rizzoli, Viktor Kassai, Pedro Proenca and both Germans. It would be paradoxical to nominate referees who are joining UEFA Elite Group for about 1 year. These two Bavarians, Stark and Brych, would be deserved participants in the finals. The fact that the referee comitee is still joined by men like Villar Llona and Batta takes however all my hopes away.

Finally, it will be hard for them to explain that they let Brych at home and Monsieur Lannoy and Señor Undiano may again be up to mischief..