Merk makes his mark

By Pete Sanderson

Good relations
Merk, who believes relations between coaches and referees are at an all-time high, was one of the guest speakers at the sixth UEFA Conference for European National Team Coaches in the Swedish capital - and he proved to be very popular. Over the past few years he has established himself as one of Europe's leading match officials, a point vindicated by his exemplary display when he took charge of the UEFA EURO 2004™ final between Portugal and Greece.

Wonderful year
"It has been a wonderful year for me and I was delighted to take charge of such a huge match," Merk, a 42-year-old dentist from Kaiserslautern, told uefa.com. "And it is nice to speak with all the national coaches at this event to see how they feel about certain laws in the game such as the passive offside rule which has received a lot of publicity of late."

Frisk incident
Another theme which has been prominent in recent weeks has been the safety of officials, after Swedish referee Anders Frisk required medical attention to a cut on his forehead after being struck by a missile thrown from the crowd in a UEFA Champions League fixture in Rome a fortnight ago.

Illegal challenge
Frisk had sent off Roma defender Philippe Mexes for an illegal challenge on visiting striker Maris Verpakovskis, and after being struck, was forced to abandon the game. Merk is keen to see such incidents removed from the game. "First of all it is a very sad situation for referees, for Anders and especially for the game of football," said Merk. "He is a good friend of mine and I know he was very disappointed with what happened because something like that can hurt you mentally as well as physically.

Difficult situation
"Nobody wants to see incidents like this," added the German official. "Everybody knows it can happen but it is not something you try to think too much about as a referee. The problem is it is tough to see what actions can be taken to prevent incidents like this happening. It is a one-off situation which is very hard to avoid and the last thing we want to do is lose some top referees because of these incidents."

Safe area
But Merk insists that episode will not change a thing next time he walks out into a Champions League stadium. "Despite this incident I am not afraid and I am sure Anders will be the same," he said. "Our job is not so easy and when incidents like this happen, it can make it even harder. But I always feel safe when I go into the field with all those spectators.

Top referee
"I think if you went into a game scared you would not be able to focus on the task in hand. It is just a shame an incident like this can ruin a big night of Champions League football for football fans. But if people think they can drive referees out of the game with acts like this they can think again."