UEFA's food for thought

UEFA is holding high-level discussions on the proposed deployment of top referees at domestic matches in other countries - and developments in France are showing that the idea has every chance of success.

Dutch trio
Last Friday, a refereeing trio from the Netherlands, led by the experienced René Temmink, took charge of the key Ligue 1 game between leaders AS Monaco FC and reigning champions Olympique Lyonnais. Reaction to this latest European cross-border appointment was extremely positive.

Additional experience
At its meeting in Nyon in February, UEFA's Executive Committee is scheduled to hold further talks on a referee exchange proposal by the UEFA Referees' Committee, which is designed to give European match officials additional experience and relieve the pressure on domestic referees for derby games or other high-risk matches in their own countries. The proposal would involve no more than two games in each half-season, and if approved by the Executive Committee would come into force from 2004/05.

Concrete example
France has provided the Executive Committee with a concrete example of how referee exchanges can work. In the last two years, European élite referees have been appointed to take charge of top-flight matches there while French officials were gathered in Biarritz for a fitness and training programme.

Biarritz course
Last season, the Italian referee Pierluigi Collina officiated at Lyon's home game against Olympique de Marseille. A year on, the French Football Federation (FFF) chose Temmink to take care of the Monaco-Lyon match, which ended in a 3-0 win for the home side.

Earning respect
Temmink, 43, was accompanied by assistants Wijnand Rutgers and Adriaan Inia for the meeting of this season's Ligue 1 pacemakers. His stature - 2.03m and 109kg - immediately earned him respect. "He can be sure that I won't bother him," Monaco's diminutive Ludovic Giuly had said before kick-off.

Top referee
The Monaco captain did not have a reason to irritate Temmink, who emulated Collina by putting in a fine display. Monaco coach Didier Deschamps said afterwards: "There were a lot of tough challenges in this match, but he was on top of everything and took care that things did not get out of hand. A top referee."

French contact
It was not the first contact with French football for Temmink. A native of Deventer, he has already refereed European games involving Lyon and Monaco in his long international career. He also came to France for the UEFA European Under-18 Championship in 1996. Although Temmink does not speak French, his performance made any language differences irrelevant.

Food for thought
His experiences on Friday will doubtless give UEFA's Executive Committee food for thought in their deliberations on referee exchanges.