EURO referees prepare in Portugal

UEFA seminar
The 12 referees chosen to officiate at matches in the finals, the two assistant referees accompanying them and the four referees chosen as fourth officials will gather on Monday for the UEFA seminar at San Félix da Marinha, near Porto. Click here to read about the EURO referee appointments.

Video examples
Uniform interpretation of various aspects of the Laws of the Game and co-operation between referees and their assistants will be among the items at the seminar, which continues until Thursday. Video examples will help the referees gain an idea of what UEFA expects from them, and the match officials will also be able to give their viewpoint in discussion groups. The referees and assistants will also take a fitness test under the supervision of UEFA's referee training expert from Belgium, Werner Helsen.

Fouls, misconduct and offside
"Usually before such a big tournament, we need to have uniformity," said UEFA Referee Committee chairman Volker Roth, "and we have good UEFA Champions League material from this season, so we can show our referees our opinion on issues such as fouls, misconduct and offside.

Referee teams
"We had a similar preparatory seminar before the last EURO final round, and the only thing that is new is that this time, we are preparing with refereeing trios from the same country. The move has been made because of the understanding between referee teams and their experience in officiating together."

Administrative duties
UEFA's Referee Committee will hold a meeting during the seminar, and the referees will also be given an insight into the organisation of the tournament, as well as some of the administrative duties that they will have to fulfil, such as compilation of the referee's report, and relations with the media.

Referee ambassadors
Four referees – Pierluigi Collina (Italy), Anders Frisk (Sweden), Markus Merk (Germany) and Lubos Michel (Slovakia) - will also have special duties during this week's Portugal seminar. The quartet are acting as ambassadors for the UEFA/International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) campaign promoting the protection of children in war. Last month, Frisk, Merk and Michel travelled to Sierra Leone on a special field visit. They witnessed at first hand programmes designed to help children who have suffered the effects of war. In addition, the referees officiated a match between children from two refugee camps. Visit the ICRC website on www.icrc.org to read about the organisation's activities and the UEFA/ICRC link-up

Seminar launch
The final morning of the seminar on Thursday will mark the official launch of the UEFA/ICRC campaign which, for the first time, is being pegged to the final tournament of a UEFA European Championship. The campaign is being launched at a media event featuring UEFA's Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson, Euro 2004, S.A. chairman Gilberto Madaíl, Yves Daccord, ICRC director of communication, and the four referees who are acting as ambassadors.