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Final delight for Micheľ

Refereeing

Slovakian Ľuboš Micheľ has spoken of his joy at being chosen to referee the UEFA Champions League final.

Ľuboš Micheľ will be refereeing his second European club final
Ľuboš Micheľ will be refereeing his second European club final ©Getty Images

Second club final
This will be the second major club final refereed by the Slovakian, who turned 40 last Friday. Micheľ took charge of the UEFA Cup final between Celtic FC and FC Porto in Seville in 2003, so has first-hand experience of the special nature of European club summit meetings.

Experience will help
"I think the experience will help, even if it is a different game," Micheľ told uefa.com. "The final is always a special game, the teams have been playing through the season and are close to winning the trophy, so it's true that the referee has a particular responsibility."

Eighties debut
Born in Stropkov, Micheľ made his refereeing debut in 1987. By 1993, he had graduated to the Slovakian top division and, in the November of that year, made his international debut. He went to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 as a referee, and handled the final of the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup between Brazil and Argentina.

Feeling of joy
A wealth of past experience has not lessened his delight to be given the Moscow referee's job by the UEFA Referees Committee. "It's every referee's dream – when you get the news, there's a feeling of joy," Micheľ reflected. "It's a very emotional feeling, because you are most likely appointed for one game like this in your career. Later on, you then start thinking more rationally for the other duties that you have, and you start preparing for the game."

Thorough preparation
Preparation has, as usual, been thorough for Micheľ, who was a member of the referees' team at the UEFA EURO 2004™ tournament in Portugal and the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. "I have been through my training plan," he explains, "and I have made some tactical preparations, by watching the team's last matches together, to refresh myself about their tactics, and about their players' conduct on the pitch."

Business as usual 
It will be "business as usual" as far as the working relationship is concerned between Micheľ, his two assistant referees and compatriots Roman Slysko and Martin Balko – aged 34 and 36 respectively – and another Slovakian, fourth official Vladimir Hrinak, who is 44. "We will be as normal," he says. "I've known the guys for many years, we have standard procedures. There will be no extremes – there will be no music, no silence, we'll just talk and get ourselves prepared."

Last-minute thoughts
Lining up with the teams before the match, Micheľ will allow his thoughts to wander briefly. "I will think about my son and wife. I will have a few thoughts about the people who helped me in my career, people who discovered me as a referee, my parents and family. Then you get your feet back on the ground and you concentrate on the game."