On Thursday, June 10, the House of Football hosted a seminar for referees and their assistants who are on track for working on the matches of Premier-league and first league in the season of 2008/09. This event featured a three-hour lecture delivered by Michel Vautrot, a retired football referee famous in past. At present he is the member of UEFA Referees’ Committee and technical director of Referees’ Commission of France Football Federation. He expressed his vision of the role modern top-referee performs on the pitch.
Master’s philosophy
In the first part of the seminar, organized after FFU initiative, the world-famous 62-year old referee introduced to his young Ukrainian colleagues his own philosophy as for the demands a top-referee should meet. Michel Vautrot, who in 1988 supervised the final game between the USSR and the Netherlands (0:2), paid special attention to such aspects as technical principles of training, physical training of referees, attention focusing and the methods of its achieving.
Target for criticism
Speaking of a particular role of referee in contemporary football, the Frenchman admitted that at present a man with a whistle has come to be sort of a target for «shooting». «The main task for referee during any match is a defense of the game, defense of performance taking place on the pitch, − Vautrot emphasized. − Nonetheless, a certain side and its fans will always be dissatisfied with his actions. Afterwards a referee turns into a target absorbing the negative claims, criticism».
Internal shaft and boldness
«However a referee is a public person accepting only grounded criticism − added Michel Vautrot. − There’s something much more important than a penalty kick or a corner. The main thing is that a referee emanates certitude in his actions and is capable to answer after the match. This requires following the law and feeling the spirit of game. The Rules and Regulations of the game should stay a handbook for each of us. You must learn to stamp your personality on a match. Your personality is very important to refereeing so it is imperative that you be yourself and stay natural. A player will see straight through an official who is pretending to be someone he is not».
No trifles in football
Stressing upon the cooperation inside a group of match officials supervising the game, the specialist brought an example from his own experience: «Once I had to work on the Intercontinental Cup match in Japan, and local assistants were submitted to help me. In the first half on the players broke the rules and was awarded a yellow card. But imagine: once I’ve got into my pocket, I discovered it was empty. It turned out I’ve forgot them in the dressing-room. Perhaps the difference in time let me down, but the Japanese had to remind me about the cards and a coin for draw. So I repeat once again, there’re no insignificant things in football, and cooperation among referees and their assistants is very important».
Puzzled Frenchman
Michel Vautrot was somewhat puzzled after he found out that Ukrainian referees aren’t introduced in top group of European football Justice. «Ukraine is a large state with a strong national team. Your country is annually introduced in European competitions, but your own referees fail to enter the squad of the UEFA best referees, − he revealed. − It’s strange because this list sees representatives from Luxembourg or Slovakia. National Federation do their best to improve the situation, and our meeting is a confirmation of it. But further career progress is up only to you».
Practical part
The second half of the seminar was devoted to technical preparation. Michel Vautrot used a set of video fragments to analyze contentious situations. Each of the present expressed his thought concerning a certain episode, and French specialist commented on the moments according to the latest Game Rules issued by FIFA and UEFA.
