Hugh McDonald slams the current state of SFA's Scottish referees and the appointment of Willie Collum as Head of Referees.
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Hugh McDonald states: "Willie Collum as head of referees is an appalling move. Not because of Willie Collum, he's in his 40s, has been refereeing since he was an embryo, and he's a FIFA referee. FIFA says he's the most senior referee in Scotland. The big problem is this was an opportunity for Scottish refereeing, which for a long time has been in a poor place, not producing top referees. This isn't just my view; UEFA and FIFA don't appoint Scottish referees to big games. We need to ask ourselves why this has been the case for the last 10, maybe more, years.
People might say if the league is poor, why shouldn't the referees be poor? The Slovenian League isn't great, but they have referees at the top level. The Polish League isn't a top league, but they had a referee at the World Cup final. We needed a complete reset, perhaps bringing in someone from the outside, someone who has successfully developed referees elsewhere. Instead, it feels like the same old Bowling Club mentality. It feels stale.
No Scottish Referees Selected for Euro 2024: Full List of Officials Announced
UEFA has announced the complete list of referees and officials for this summer's European Championships, and notably, no Scottish referees have been selected to participate.
A total of 90 match officials, including referees and VAR teams, have been appointed from across Europe to oversee the games in Germany. The selected officials hail from various countries, including England, Portugal, Romania, France, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain, Poland, and Turkey, among others. Unfortunately, no members from the Scottish Football Association (SFA) referee group, such as Willie Collum, John Beaton, Don Robertson, or Kevin Clancy, have been chosen.
Euro 2024 Referee Teams
Nineteen referees will officiate the 51 matches scheduled between June and July. The remaining officials will serve as fourth officials and VAR officials. This year, Argentine referee Facundo Tello and his two assistants will join the European group as part of a collaboration between UEFA and CONMEBOL, marking the second time non-European referees have been included in the tournament, following a similar initiative at Euro 2020.
Preparation and Operations
The refereeing teams for each match will consist of a referee, two assistant referees, a fourth official, a reserve assistant referee, and a team of three video match officials. All referees, assistants, and VAR officials will undergo a preparatory course in Frankfurt, Germany, in mid-May. During the tournament, referees and assistants will be based in Frankfurt, while VAR officials will operate from the International Broadcast Centre in Leipzig.
Statement from UEFA
Roberto Rosetti, UEFA’s managing director of refereeing, expressed confidence in the selected officials: "UEFA Euro 2024 is the pinnacle of European national team football with the best teams competing, and that’s why we have selected the best referees to officiate these matches. All chosen referees have performed consistently to the highest standards in UEFA’s top competitions, and also in their domestic competitions. They have prepared exceptionally well to be in this position and we have full confidence in them to show their quality at the final tournament."
Full List of Selected Referees:
Artur Soares Dias (Portugal)
Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain)
Marco Guida (Italy)
Istvan Kovacs (Romania)
Ivan Kruzliak (Slovakia)
François Letexier (France)
Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
Halil Umut Meler (Turkey)
Glenn Nyberg (Sweden)
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