France calls in foreign help

Five foreign referees have been asked to officiate in the rearranged Le Championnat matches taking place this Wednesday.

Frozen pitch
All the games were victims of the severe winter weather that hit France just before Christmas. Montpellier Hérault SC actually started their 19 December home match against AS Monaco but it was abandoned goalless after 19 minutes because of a frozen pitch.

Four other games
The other four matches - ES Troyes Aube Champagne v FC Metz, Lille OSC v FC Girondins de Bordeaux, AJ Auxerre v FC Lorient and Olympique Lyonnais v SC Bastia – were all called off in advance of the scheduled start.

Annual training camp
France’s referees are all unavailable because they are staging their annual training camp in Quiberon, which is why the French Football Federation has decided to ask for outside help. The foreign stand-ins are all top officials in their respective countries and come from Italy, Belgium, Spain, Germany and Switzerland.

The referees are:
Lille OSC v FC Girondins de Bordeaux – Roberto Rossetti (It)
ES Troyes Aube Champagne v FC Metz – Eric Romain (Bel)
Montpellier Hérault SC v AS Monaco - Eduardo Ituralde González (Esp)
AJ Auxerre v FC Lorient - Alfons Berg (Ger)
Olympique Lyonnias v SC Bastia - Massimo Busacca (Swit)