Comment: UEFA EURO 2012 Referee Appointments Matches 1-8

Today, at 18:00 CET, the 14th edition of the UEFA European Championship for national teams will kick-off at Warsaw National Stadium, probably within pompous circumstance and a tense atmosphere accompanying the tie between the hosts Poland and Greece. 

UEFA has hence already published the first eight appointments of the match officials who will take charge of these matches.

Carlos Velasco Carballo will have the honour to blow EURO's starting whistle this year. A Spanish engineer from Spain's capital Madrid, he has already overseen 2011 UEFA Europa League final at Dublin's stadium between Porto and Braga. Retrospecting his fulminantly rising career during the last two seasons and being aware of the fact that Velasco Carballo, when going back exactly two years, might not exhibit even one UEFA Champions League match, Velasco Carballo must count to UEFA's highest regarded officials at this tournament. The big honour is however also a challenge: Under Pierluigi Collina's eyes, he will have also the task to indicate UEFA's style of refereeing they want to have applied at this tournament. Even though diversity is certainly assured amongst the twelve different officials, certain aspects which were also subject of instructions during the last weeks could be detected in his performance.

Without any doubt, the atmosphere in Warsaw will be immense. Furthermore, one does need to be a prophet to recognize that Poland's and especially Greece's technical abilities are - in comparsion to other participating nations - more likely limited. The focus will probably lie in defensive play, fight and passion. 

Carlos Velasco Carballo (c) Deportes Starmedia

Carlos Velasco Carballo has as a Spanish official assuredly plenty of experience in this area, although the last UEFA Champions League matches clearly showed that such matches do not really suit him. He showed his best UEFA Champions League performances in those matches, where football was of bigger importance than fight. For this reason, one may be very excited how he will handle the match and of course, it does not necessarily need to be a tough match. His assistant referees surely count to the best joining this tournament. Roberto Alonso Fernández and Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez made no remarkable mistake in the 2011/12 season. David Fernández Borbalán and Carlos Clos Gómez had some important decisions to make in the round of 16 clash between Napoli and Chelsea. One thing is remarkable for sure: Pierluigi Collina has been appointed as UEFA referee observer for this match (or more likely, he appointed himself as such), whilst Gianluca Rocchi and Renato Faverani will assist at the coaching zone, both from Italy as well. On the one hand, one can argue that this is totally no problem as it indicates that the fourth official as well as the reserve assistant referee will get no marks from the evaluating observer, but on the other hand, one has to raise doubts what will happen if the main referee, in this case Velasco Carballo, suffers from injury during the match. The highest ranked official will replace him, either one of the additional assistant referees or the fourth official. Rocchi is in this case the highest classified referee, so that Collina would potentially have to evaluate his countryman. And this is actually a no-go - fortunately, referees suffer from injuries very rarely.

English referee Howard Webb, a former sergeant and now professional referee from Rotherham, has been appointed to take control over the second match of Group A that will be held in Wroclaw between Russia and Czech Republic. 

Howard Webb (c) Augsburger Allgemeine

After having been in charge of two finals in 2010 (UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup) and despite of having been the alleged world's best referee in the same year, his international career seems to have come to a standstill. After a very poor UEFA Champions League season in 2010/11, he however improved in the recently finished season, in which he refereed five UEFA Champions League matches including a semifinal's first leg (Bayern München - Real Madrid). In these matches, he was averagely evaluated with the mark 72,2 by our observers which corresponds to an overall satisfying season. For a long time, it however seemed as if his countryman Atkinson could have led by a nose, but finally, Webb won the duel. He doubtless has not the most pleasant associations with European Championships after having been sent home in 2008 due to an offside error made by Mike Mullarkey. He later received death threats and was the victim of a Polish media campaign also evoked by politicians. Nevertheless, UEFA has decided to assign him for this match in Poland.

Considering the sort of match, it could be also a very tough, close and intense one. To be honest, I do not think that Webb's hectic style is suitable for this match, anyway, the team around Webb - joined by Mullarkey, Kirkup, Atkinson and Clattenburg - should not be prejudged. They are supported by two Portuguese officials, Manuel de Sousa and Bertino Miranda will function as fourth official, respectively reserve assistant referee. Herbert Fandel from Germany will evaluate their performances. De Sousa's and Miranda's nomination could signify an appointment of them and the rest of the Portuguese team, under the leadership of Pedro Proença, for the second match held at Wroclaw, i.e. Greece - Czech Republic.

Mark van Bommel (r.) already knows Skomina (c) (The Sun)

Slovenian official Damir Skomina will be the man in the middle in the Group B encounter between the Netherlands and Denmark at Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

Observed by Kyros Vassaras (Greece) and living in Koper at the Slovenian-Italian border, he will be accompanied by his countrymen Primož Arhar, Matej Žunič, Matej Jug and Slavko Vinčić. A surprise was Žunič' appointment, as Marko Stančin was actually considered as assistant referee 2. Probably due to failed fitness tests or a suffered injury, the 29 year-old and therefore youngest assistant referee in EURO's history, Matej Žunič, will replace him. (Still) Elite Development group member Pavel Kralovec from Czech Republic and Roman Slyško, former assistant referee of Luboš Michel, will complete the team.

The match itself is probably one of the more calmer sort, which is of course difficult to predict. At World Cup 2010, French official Stéphane Lannoy struggled in it, which was however not due to match's intense degree, but due to his own inconsistency in it.

Skomina has already had two involvements each in matches of the concerned national teams, both containing one win (3-0 each) and one draw (1-1 each). At 2007 UEFA U21 EURO, Skomina was in charge of two matches of the Under 21 national team of the Netherlands, including the final, which was won by the Dutchmen.

Stéphane Lannoy (c) DFB.de

Exactly this referee, Stéphane Lannoy from Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, will handle the first clash of this tournament. Germany will play Portugal in Lviv, Ukraine. 

After plenty of controversial performances also at 2010 FIFA World Cup, Lannoy has managed to establish himself at the peak of UEFA refereeing as consequence of a quite good UEFA Champions League season. His tactical approach - if existing - is mostly based on leniency. His first assistant referee Eric Dansault has suffered from an injury during the fitness tests so that he has been replaced by Michaël Annonier. Frédéric Cano consequently moves on the spot of the first assistant referee, while Fredy Fautrel and Ruddy Buquet are standing at the bylines as additional assistant referees. Germany have negative associations with Lannoy, when he refereed their friendly in Mönchengladbach, in 2011, against Australia, which resulted in a 1-2 loss including a penalty and many overseen brutal fouls. 

Lannoy has however proven that he can deal with matches, where football prevails instead of embattled duels. Germany - Portugal is probably one of them.

Two Polish officials will support the French team, Marcin Borski as fourth official and Marcin Borkowski as reserve assistant referee. David Elleray, the head of English football refereeing, will observe their performance.

The world's best referee of the year 2011, Viktor Kassai of Hungary, has been appointed to take control over the clash between Spain and Italy in Gdansk. Gabor Erös and György Ring will act as assistant referees, while István Vad and Tamás Bognar will stand at the goallines. William Collum (Scotland) and Alasdais Ross will be the fourth official, respectively reserve assistant referee. The team will be observed by Jaap Uilenberg from the Netherlands.

Kassai has certainly not shown his best UEFA season so far, keeping the fact in mind that the year 2010 and the following season 2010/11 have beem amazing for the young Hungarian official, considerably dominated by his appearances at 2010 FIFA World Cup and his performance in 2011 UEFA Champions League final at glorious Wembley Stadium. During the group stage of Champions League, there has been a slight change in his style, at least we thought to have detected that. After having missed at least two penalty kicks in Bayern München - Manchester City and after many examples showing that Kassai potentially has applied a too lenient style, he has proven that he can be more strict, too, in the following matches including the semifinal tie between Real Madrid and Bayern München. His tactical approach must be characterized as one of the most lenient ones amongst Europa's top referees, he mostly is quite far away from the action and may exhibit an almost perfect degree of fitness. His second assistant referee György Ring joins - from my point of view - the pool of the best European assistant referees.
It is remarkable that Tom Harald Hagen as well as Damien Macgraith have not received an inset so far. Probably, that will follow in Group A on matchday 2.

The other match in Group C, Ireland - Croatia, will be handled by Björn Kuipers from the Netherlands. The 2011 UEFA Super Cup final referee will be supported by Sander van Roekel, Erwin Zeinstra (assistant referees), Pol van Boekel, Richard Liesveld (additional assistant referees) as well as by the Ukrainians Viktor Shvetsov (fourth official) and Oleksandr Voytyuk (reserve assistant referee). Yuriy Baskakov from Russia will observe the team.

The Dutchman, who was controversially involved in the UEFA Champions League match between FC Barcelona and AC Milan, has already received two nominations for finals by UEFA. After having been in charge of 2009 UEFA U21 EURO's final between Germany and England, he took control over last year's UEFA Super Cup final between FC Barcelona and FC Porto as well, where he sent off two players of the Portuguese team. Kuipers has already refereed Ireland in the relegation match against Estonia, so that his nomination for this match is logical, but still surprising. Ireland - Croatia could become an intense duel, especially the Irish side will pay plenty of attention to fair but aggressive playing as display of passion.
Kuipers' nomination for Group C means that he will be either in charge of a matchday 2 encounter in Group D, or a matchday 3 match in Group A, respectively Group D.

Two high profile referees have been nominated to take charge of the first two Group D encounters. Turkish referee Cüneyt Çakır from Istanbul will blow the opener whistle for the host nation Ukraine, who will play Sweden in Kyiv. Bahattin Duran, Tarik Ongun (assistant referees), Hüseyin Göçek, Bülent Yıldırım (additional assistant referees) and the Polish officials Marcin Borski and Marcin Borkowski are completing the call-up. Herbert Fandel has been nominated as observer.

Probably, Turkish referee Cüneyt Çakır is the biggest winner of the last season. After his quick rise in UEFA's category system and very good performances at 2011 FIFA U20 World Cup Colombia, he received high profile matches in UEFA's club competitions, having its peak in the semifinals when he performed extraordinary well at Camp Nou (FC Barcelona - Chelsea London) including the correct sending-off issued to John Terry upon consultation with his additional assistant referee Göçek. This match, the first match of the host nation Ukraine, may indicate to what extent Çakır has chances at this tournament. I would generally count him to those referees who should get a third match in K.O. stage, also due to the fact that he can get every team.

In addition, Nicola Rizzoli from Bologna, Italy, has been nominated to referee the top clash between France and England along with Renato Faverani, Andrea Stefani (assistant referees), Gianluca Rocchi, Paolo Tagliavento (additional assistant referees) and Pavel Královec from Czech Republic as fourth official. They will be evaluated by Jozef Marko (Slovakia).

The Italian architect has experienced his worst UEFA season in 2011/12, although the team "worst" is naturally quite exaggerated. After two very good seasons, in which Rizzoli really received many big tasks, which he solved well, the last season was much calmer. The circumstance that he received only two appointments in the club competitions' K.O. stages underlines that. Nevertheless, he made his FIFA tournament bow in last year's December and it - like every other referee acting at this tournament - considered as a prospective referee for 2014 FIFA World Cup.
France vs England is assuredly a big task for Rizzoli, who however frequently showed his skills. His tournament progress also depends on the way the Italian national team will take, but in general, one can take him into account for the extended pool of possible final referees, even though this is more likely not that probable, since the last final referee, Rosetti, also came from Italy.

We wish the officials all the best for a successful start into the tournament.