Attwell to take charge of Under-19 final
Saturday, July 30, 2011
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Stuart Attwell will referee the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final, describing his appointment as "recognition for all the hard work we've put in".
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England's Stuart Attwell has been chosen to referee the final of the 10th UEFA European Under-19 Championship between Spain and the Czech Republic.
The 28-year-old will be assisted by Dimitriy Mosyakin of Russia and Denmark's Lars Hummelgaard, with Artyom Kuchin of Kazakhstan acting as the fourth official for Monday night's game at the Stadionul Concordia in Chiajna. "It's a fantastic honour to be selected for the tournament in the first place, and it's nice for all the hard work we've put in as a team to be recognised in the final," Attwell told UEFA.com. "Our job is to make sure people talk about the football and hopefully we've done that."
The Englishman was fourth official for the Czech Republic-Serbia semi-final, a role he also held when the Czechs overcame Greece on Matchday 3, while he was referee for the group games between Romania and Greece and Spain and Belgium, the latter match initially having to be abandoned due to adverse weather conditions.
"That was an interesting situation to address but there was good co-operation from UEFA and the Romanian authorities, and we reached what I think was the right decision," he explained. "That teamwork has been reflected across the whole tournament, it's been a positive environment for us all."
The two finalists are fine-tuning their plans for Monday's game, and the officiating team are no different. "We'll carry on as normal, we prepare thoroughly and professionally for every game and we won't be doing anything different so we can make sure we're in the best possible frame of mind," Attwell explained. "We'll do our usual physical training over the next couple of days, and some technical training too to make sure we're coming from a position of consistency.
"It's the same attitude and approach for every game; the refereeing teams, both the officials themselves and the support staff, has been first class and that's what's made for a fantastic tournament," he added. "We'll continue our hard work and by doing that, hopefully we'll go unnoticed. That's what we want – we want people to go away from the final talking about the football."
