Refs call in foreign legion

By Mark Chaplin

Europe's national football associations are being invited to take advantage of a referee exchange programme at national level that is being launched by UEFA for the 2004/05 season.

Gaining experience
The UEFA Executive Committee recently followed up a proposal by the UEFA Referees' Committee by approving the programme, which is designed not only to help referees gain experience, but also to prevent domestic referees being subjected to excessive pressure in specific matches.

Voluntary basis
The referee exchange programme at national level is offered by UEFA to national associations on a voluntary basis. There is no obligation to join this programme; some neighbouring associations already have reciprocal exchange agreements, and these may continue on a bilateral basis.

Pressure matches
The objective of the programme is to offer the associations the chance to use neutral international referees who will not face the pressures under which the national referees are placed for specific matches, such as derbies, games when league positions are at stake, and matches which are charged for religious reasons or because of media campaigns.

Improving uniformity
The programme is also designed to allow European international referees to take charge of a variety of top matches, acquiring additional experience in different national competitions and improving the uniformity of European refereeing.

Neutral association
In co-operation with the national referees' committee, any UEFA member association can apply to the UEFA administration for an international referee from a neutral association to be appointed for a given match. Such requests must be submitted at least one month in advance of the match in question and should be limited to a few special matches per season.

Referee appointments
The UEFA Referees Committee, in cooperation with the UEFA administration, will be responsible for referee appointments. National associations will not be entitled to request or indicate a specific referee or a referee from a particular country, or to propose, refuse or replace such referees. Only under these conditions will UEFA be able to avoid clashes with its club competitions.

Reciprocal exchanges
In a first step, the exchange programme should be based on reciprocal exchanges which will give fair opportunities to referees to get experience abroad and, in addition, will not undermine the quality of national referees. Therefore, national associations which have no top international referees themselves cannot expect to have élite referees appointed for their matches.

International list
One referee, two assistant referees and a fourth official of the same nationality will be appointed for each match. Referees and assistant referees will come from the international match officials' list, and UEFA will decide on the category of the referees.