Wolfgang Stark appointed for Bucharest final

German referee Wolfgang Stark from Landshut, Bavaria, has been nominated by UEFA to be in control of the all Spanish final of this season's edition of UEFA Europa League between Atlético Madrid and Athletic Club Bilbao at Bucharest's National Arena on Wednesday, 8 May.

Stark, who is working for a bank one day per week, will head the team of match officials destined for overseeing the final. He will be accompanied by Jan-Hendrik Salver and Mike Pickel (acting as assistant referees), while Florian Meyer and Deniz Aytekin will stand at the byline functioning as the recently established additional assistant referees. UEFA also announced the appointment of the  fourth official, the French ELITE referee Stéphane Lannoy will fulfill this job at the coaching zones. Mark Borsch, who is normally Felix Brych's assistant referee, will accompany the team as reserve assistant referee.
The team will be officially observed by Jaap Uilenberg from the Netherlands.

Wolfgang Stark may exhibit an amply high experience both on national and also and especially on international level. Apart from the fact that he was in charge of a total amount of 260 Bundesliga matches in Germany and of the 2011 DFB Cup final between MSV Duisburg and Schalke 04, he is leading the current roster of active FIFA referees related to the amount of insets in the most popular club competition of the world: he refereed 43 UEFA Champions League matches until now.

The participations in the 2007 FIFA Under 17 World Cup Canada and 2008 FIFA Olympic Games China may be seen as the basis for his achievements in recent history. After having been in charge of three matches at 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa including a Round of 16 match, he whistled the semifinal's first leg of UEFA Champions League in 2011 between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. In June, he will be one of the 12 match officials of 2012 UEFA EURO Poland/Ukraine.
In addition to this, Stark is considered as probable referee for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, as he joins the official FIFA list of prospective referees for the next World Cup.

Final referee: Wolfgang Stark (GER) (c) Sportbild

The 42 year-old, who savours football and ice hockey as leisure time activities, is the incarnation of the active and predicting referee. Recent performances certify that Stark has an incommensurable feeling and way of how to deal with upcoming conflicts between players and the referee and also between players themselves. His tactical approach is always lenient, powerful speeches are the key for him to lead the match. Nevertheless, many red cards were the result of insults and complaints, Stark there applies a zero-tolerance-policy. This is more or less reinforced by the fact that he was - two times in a row - elected as the worst referee by the majority of the Bundesliga players. In fact, his approach is mostly successful, however leads to problems every now and then, too.

He basically does not rely on his cards, which does not however mean that he has a too negligent dealing with his leniency. A milestone for his success may be also found when considering his assistant referees. Jan-Hendrik Salver, who had already accompanied Dr. Markus Merk in his most important matches, is probably the most active assistant referee at this European level and made some vital decisions, which needed a lot of courage and self-confidence and mostly led to a good decision. Mike Pickel's strengths are especially the (non-)offside detection and his international experience in general, having been the assistant referee 1 of Herbert Fandel for many years in Germany.

As for Florian Meyer, one of the most experienced referees in Germany, this final nomination is probably the peak of a very successful career as referee, although he never managed the final step to finally arrive at Europe's top class. Deniz Aytekin has been being an international referee since January 2011 and managed to be promoted by UEFA into First Group of referees in only one season. In Bundesliga, he made an enormous step in the past season as well and was in charge of many top clashes which were refereed in a quite good way by him. Mark Borsch completes the German side in the referee team, a young, promising and - as proved in Champions League many times - a very good assistant referee. Stéphane Lannoy's nomination is surely a surprise, or even a historical decision: UEFA never appointed a fourth official coming from a different country than the rest of the referee team. With regard to the pending EURO, which Lannoy will join as well, this might be an exception or just a remarkable change in UEFA's refereeing philosophy, since former worldclass referee Pierluigi Collina has taken control.

World of Football Refereeing and its community wish the referee team all the best for a successful performance and a great match.

Overview

Atlético Madrid		-:-		Athletic Bilbao
MATCH FACTS: UEFA Europa League Final 2011/12, Wednesday, 08 May 2012, 20:45 CET

Referee Wolfgang Stark (Germany) Assistant Referees Jan-Hendrik Salver (Germany) Mike Pickel (Germany) Additional Assistant Referees Florian Meyer (Germany) Deniz Aytekin (Germany) Fourth Official Stéphane Laurent Lannoy (France) Reserve Assistant Referee Mark Borsch (Germany) UEFA Referee Observer Jaap Uilenberg (Netherlands) UEFA Delegate Pierino Lardi (Switzerland)

Venue National Arena, Bucharest, Romania