Match officials appointed for UEFA EURO 2012 final

054 - Pedro Proença to officiate at Spain – Italy final

UEFA today announced the appointments of the officials for the final match of UEFA EURO 2012, to be played at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv on Sunday 01 July at 20.45CET. Portuguese referee Pedro Proença and his team will have the honour of taking charge of the encounter between Spain and Italy.

Pedro Proença will be assisted by fellow countrymen Bertino Cunha Miranda and Ricardo Jorge Ferreira Santos as assistant referees, with Manuel Jorge Neves Moreira De Sousa and Duarte Nuno Pereira Gomes as additional assistant referees. The fourth official will be Cüneyt Cakır and the reserve assistant referee Bahattin Duran, both from Turkey.

Pedro Proença has been on the rise in European refereeing circles since taking charge of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final in 2004. He achieved UEFA Premier referee status in January 2007, and made his debut in the UEFA Champions League group stage during the 2007/08 campaign.

Promoted to UEFA's Elite category at the start of 2009/10, he oversaw four games in that season's UEFA Champions League group stage, and five in the 2010/11 competition. The 2011/12 season brought six more UEFA Champions League engagements, ending with the final between FC Bayern München and Chelsea FC in Munich.

At UEFA EURO 2012, Pedro Proença and his team were in charge of two group-stage matches: Spain’s 4-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland in Gdansk on 14 June, and Sweden’s 2-0 win over France in Kyiv on 19 June, before they officiated at the England – Italy quarter-final which was decided by a penalty shoot-out in Kyiv on 24 June.