Keeping up the good work

Final preparations
The cream of the European refereeing élite gathered at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on Wednesday to began their final preparations for a campaign which includes a revamped UEFA Champions League and culminates in the long-awaited UEFA EURO 2004™ final round in Portugal next summer.

Mutual items
UEFA stages annual courses and fitness tests for its top referees at the start of each year, usually in sunny climes, but has this year decided after consultation with the referees to introduce a start-of-season seminar in which European football's governing body can meet with the match officials to discuss items of mutual concern before the season begins in earnest.

Contact and dialogue
"We feel it is important that we have regular intensive contact and dialogue between the referees, our Referees Committee and the UEFA administration who do their utmost to serve the needs of the match officials in European competitions," said UEFA Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner.

Changing environment
The UEFA CEO said that not only technical issues, but also the changing environment within top-class football was having an effect on the refereeing sector. He said that influences from various sides, include commercial and media pressure, were being keenly felt at domestic level.

Proper response
"Therefore, there is a need for UEFA to have a dialogue with its referees, so that we can monitor what is happening and adapt within our organisation to give the proper response to developments," Mr Aigner added.

Excellent displays
UEFA Referees Committee chairman Volker Roth praised the élite referees for their consistently excellent displays at the highest level. "We can say that last season was very good as far as refereeing was concerned," he said. "We have EURO 2004 qualifying matches this week, then the Champions League gets under way soon, and we are sure that you will keep your levels."

EURO hopes
"We also hope that the referees who go to EURO 2004 will produce the same performances as at the last [FIFA] World Cup," Mr Roth added. The quality of the European referees in Korea/Japan last summer was recognised by FIFA with the appointment of Italy's Pierluigi Collina to officiate at the final between Brazil and Germany. Leif Lindberg (Sweden) and Philip Sharp (England) were the assistant referees, and Hugh Dallas (Scotland) was fourth official.

Offside debate
The referees are also in Nyon to discuss technical issues such as what has become widely known as "passive" offside - a difficult issue for referees and their assistants, as they have often to make split-second decisions on whether a player is directly involved in a movement, some of which lead to goals.

Seeking uniformity
UEFA and the referees are seeking uniformity as regards the interpretation of interference with play, and European football's governing body will study feedback from the referees, who have been discussing the issue in workshops at the Nyon seminar.

Assistants' seminar
The élite referees' seminar will be followed by UEFA's third seminar for top European assistant referees, which continues on Thursday. The 'men on the touchline' will hear presentations on specific training for assistants, given by UEFA referee training expert Werner Helsen, and discuss specific areas such as signalling, positioning, and co-operation and communication with referees, especially in helping referees rule on foul play.