Proud Rosetti realises dream

Anyone who can combine their passion with their job can consider themselves extremely fortunate. Roberto Rosetti, the man refereeing Sunday's UEFA EURO 2008™ final in Vienna, considers himself an ardent football fan – so you can imagine his delight when he was given the most important match in Europe's international football calendar.

Team effort
The 40-year-old hospital manager from Turin dedicated his appointment to his fellow Italian referees and those close to him, and stressed that Sunday's assignment was testimony to the work of a team. He will be accompanied by Italian assistant referees Alessandro Griselli and Paolo Calcagno, just as he has been throughout the EURO preparation period and the tournament proper.

Obvious motivation
The adrenalin will be flowing through the Italian match officials' team ahead of the game, but the pre-match routine will be calm and meticulous as usual. "There is no need for special motivation, just because the motivation is obvious," Rosetti told euro2008.com. "It is clear that anybody should not be over-motivated at such events, it is more important to be able to gather all one's energy and to keep up the right intensity. I have to say that the football played in Italy offers important situations, and you therefore have a certain practice in refereeing such important matches."

Mental note
Mental strength allied to supreme physical fitness are key parts of a top referee's armoury, along with tactical acumen. "The mental preparation is essential and fundamental for a referee," said Rosetti. "Of course a referee has to be well-prepared physically and technically, he has to know about football in general, about the teams' tactics and the characteristics of the players, but above all he has to have a high internal motivation, which then has an influence on his decisions. So a great mental preparation and courage is needed. Courage especially should be one of the top qualities of a referee – to take difficult decisions in difficult situations."

Fingertip feeling
A football man such as Rosetti has a detailed understanding of the situations that occur in matches. This appreciation of the game's emotions came to the fore when he refereed the quarter-final between Croatia and Turkey in Vienna. Images of him comforting Croatian Mladen Petrić after the latter had missed in the penalty shoot-out were flashed around the world.

Spontaneous reaction
"It was absolutely spontaneous," says Rosetti. "I think it's not the player who is important, but the human being behind a player, and it's not the referee, but the human being behind a referee. It was a very sad moment, there was a player that had experienced a huge sporting drama. So in this moment, he was close to me and it was a spontaneous reaction and I would do it again."

Referee anthem
Rosetti's mind will be fully focused on the job at hand when Spain and Germany line up before the game and he takes an innovative stance on the national anthem procedure. "Sometime in the future, I would like to also hear an anthem for the referees – this would be interesting. Of course [we would hear] the anthems of the teams. But there is another team on the pitch – the referees." The 17th team at UEFA EURO 2008™ has been a solid, dedicated unit – with Rosetti their proud representative for the biggest occasion of all at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion on Sunday.