Collum 'honoured' to referee final

William Collum is keen to make the most of a "great honour" after being named as the referee for the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final between Italy and Germany.

'Good account'
The 29-year-old Scottish official will take charge of the seventh U19 final at the Střelnice Stadion in Jablonec on Saturday evening, with Poland's Krzysztof Myrmus and Sander van Roekel of the Netherlands as his assistants and Svein Oddvar Moen from Norway serving as the fourth official. "It's a great honour, not just for me but for the two assistants and the fourth official," Collum told uefa.com. "We'll be representing the entire refereeing team that has been out here for the whole tournament and we'll hope to give a good account of ourselves."

'Relaxing day'
Collum was fourth official at the 2006 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final between the Czech Republic and Russia and, having already taken charge of the group matches between Germany and Spain and Italy and the Czech hosts at this year's U19 event, he is keen to ensure the team of officials are at ease for Saturday's match. "We'll have a relaxing day," he explained. "[Referees observer] David Elleray is here with us now so we'll have a couple of meetings today to ensure we're prepared thoroughly and then we'll try to relax. Our preparations will be as detailed for this as they always are for every match."

'Like any other game'
The referee is aware of the importance of the occasion, but believes it is key that no special significance is attached to the match once it gets under way at 19.00CET. "We'll be trying to treat it like any other game," he said. "Obviously it does go through your mind that it's a final, certainly before the game, but it's important for the players that you approach it as a normal match. We'll go through our normal pre-match routine as usual and hopefully everything will go well."