Star graduates from referee talents scheme

For the last decade UEFA has matched young up-and-coming referees with experienced officials in the talents and mentors scheme, and the success of that project was clear at the FIFA World Cup.

The man in the middle for Sunday's final, 38-year-old Howard Webb, was the youngest referee to take charge of the showcase game in 72 years. He was also one of seven of the ten European referees in South Africa to have benefited from the talents and mentors scheme since its 2000 inception. In all, it has involved a total of 156 talents from 50 UEFA member associations, with assistants now also included.

The most recent seminar bringing together talents and mentors was held in Nyon in May. Josef Marko of the UEFA Referees Committee told UEFA.com: "The mentors work long term, one or two years with these young referees, not just by coming to their matches but keeping regular contact by email and by Skype. The referees send mentors their domestic matches on DVD and the mentors send them back their opinions.

"The national associations invite mentors to the [talent's] home country so they can see their talent at domestic level and the mentor speaks with members of their referees committee, sometimes even the referee's family. This is something special and if the referee is interested he can grow a lot thanks to such experiences."

Among the current crop of talents is Artyom Kuchin, who in May became the first referee from Kazakhstan to officiate at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals. The 32-year-old is mentored by former international referee and UEFA referee observer Jørn West Larsen from Denmark, and is joined in the scheme by compatriot assistant referee Yevgeniy Belskiy.

"This programme will help me to improve," Kuchin said. "The level of UEFA and our association are very different, of course. If I want to be a good referee the scheme will be very useful for me and our association too, as my mentor will teach me some things and I can take them to our association. I will go to my mentor's country, and I will invite him to mine too of course. This is important for me as [the Football Federation of Kazakhstan] only became a member of UEFA in 2002."

Kuchin is following in exalted footsteps from the last ten years, and Marko explained that as time has gone on, so the talents and mentors project has evolved. "At the beginning these mentors gave them advice, emphasised their positive points, tried to change their negative points," he said. "Now they have another role – they are role models. One year ago, [Swiss referee] Massimo Busacca visited as a lecturer, now we have assistants as well.

"Today it is not important who initiates a decision, the important thing is the right decision – it doesn't matter if it is the referee, assistant, fourth official or even additional assistant. I have been on the UEFA Referees Committee for 17 years and it is good to work with young referees. If they listen, I also learn from them."