Pedro Proença heads all Iberian team at Munich's UEFA Champions League final

Pedro Proença's final appointment, which was already communicated on Sunday, has unfolded to be true. He will head an all Iberian team of seven match officials including the Spanish ELITE referee Carlos Velasco Carballo from Spain.

Pedro Proença (POR) (c) UEFA.com

UEFA has confirmed that the 41 year-old Portuguese referee will be in charge of this season's greatest match in worldwide club football.

Proença, who works as financial director in Pinhal Novo, a small town between Lisbon and Setubal, made his FIFA bow in 2003 and has been joining the UEFA Champions League roster since 2007. He has already overseen a total amount of 42 UEFA club competition matches. The Portuguese is able to speak apart from his mother tongue also French and English. Enjoying reading, writing and movies as well as skiing as leisure time activties, he has taken a significantly rising development since his participation at the 2009 UEFA U21 EURO Sweden. Before that, he also joined the 2004 UEFA U19 EURO Switzerland, where he refereed his thus far first international final between Turkey and Spain. 

His biggest success is - apart from the pending UEFA Champions League final - the nomination for the 2012 UEFA EURO Poland/Ukraine. As part of the qualification mode, he took control over the playoff's 2nd leg between Croatia and Turkey as well.
Besides, he refereed the 2007 and 2010 Portuguese Cup finals and also ran the rule over two FC Porto successes in the domestic Super Cup in August 2003 and 2006. 

In compliance with the decision made by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), there will be a team of six officials, as it has been a common practice at the highest level of European club football, plus one reserve assistant referee. 

Hence, Bertino Miranda and Ricardo Santos will act as assistant referees, whereas Manuel de Sousa and Duarte Gomes (themselves UEFA First Group referees) will serve as additional assistant referees. The team is completed by Tiago Trigo, the reserve official who comes from Portugal, too, and Carlos Velasco Carballo from Spain as fourth official, himself an ELITE referee also joining the forthcoming European Championship, who has by the way the experience how it feels to be appointed for a tremendously important final: he was in charge of last season's UEFA Europa League final at Dublin Arena. 

The team will be observed and evaluated by the Slovenian UEFA Referee Committee member Vlado Sajn. Sofoklis Pilavios from Greece will execute the match as UEFA Delegate.

It is naturally difficult to characterize the typical tactical approach a certain referee normally applies in his matches. While UEFA has proven their satisfaction about a lenient style of refereeing in the last year, when the more likely generous referees Viktor Kassai (Hungary) and Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain) received the final call-ups, they have underlined the high degree of diversity in this field as well.

Proença certainly counts to the more pedantic referees, who take technical aspects more seriously then others, although he also confirmed his great feeling for the right tactical approach in different matches. This means that he possesses the ability to adapt his approach, his style to the circumstances of the respective match. A value or rather skill one has to appreciate a lot.

He allows fair and hard football, but only to a certain extent. Concerning his card management one can say that - as it is typical of Iberian officials - he does not hesitate to issue cards if necessary.

In the interval from January 2011 to May 2012, he is at the moment occupying the 6th place in World of Football Refereeing's ranking displaying the performances shown in UEFA competitions. With this final nomination, he will be able to be vaulted at the peak of this ranking prior to UEFA EURO 2012. At any rate, UEFA has made a good decision to appoint this Portuguese for the German-English tie between Bayern München and FC Chelsea London. In the last season, he has already shown that he is capable of refereeing such a tie very well, when he was in charge of a comparable match between Manchester United and FC Schalke 04.

Bertino Miranda (POR) (c) World of Football Refereeing

It is remarkable that this team has received the final against a certain background. Bertino Miranda had accompanied Olegário Benquerença throughout his international career, before latter disappeared from the peak of UEFA refereeing due to (weak performances and) a serious injury. This means that - at least in UEFA Champions League - Proença and Miranda only experienced one match together, which was the round of 16 encounter between Internazionale and Olympique Marseille (they also worked together in a UCL match in 2008). And now, they will perform a UEFA Champions League final and a European Championship together. It is potentially or obviously no problem for UEFA, in comparison to many other European teams that will act in Poland/Ukraine, it is at least remarkable after all.

Ricardo Santos is familiar with Pedro Proença and showed good performances as well. Manuel de Sousa and Duarte Gomes were in charge of a few club competition matches this season themselves and are now ready for this big task. Tiago Trigo is the unlucky man in the team, even though he was actually one of the guarantor of Proença's success, he was replaced by Miranda, who seems to be liked more. 

For Carlos Velasco Carballo - as already stated - it is the second UEFA final in a row. With the benefit of hindsight, this appointment appears as quite sensible and a decision one should have been able to predict. It will not occur that often that no Spanish club will be involved in a UEFA Champions League final. Born in 1971, Velasco therefore needs a lot of luck to be able to referee one day the final as main referee.

The match will be kicked off on Saturday, 19 May 2012, at 20:45 CET.

World of Football Refereeing and its community wishes the officials all the best for a sucessful final.