Collina Retires

[Xàbia Shrimper]

Italian referee Pierluigi Collina has retired after resigning from the Italian Association of Referees (AIA). The 45-year-old had been accused by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) of a conflict of interest after accepting a sponsorship deal. Opel, who also sponsor AC Milan, were to pay Collina £545,000 per year and the FIGC told Collina he would only be able to referee second division games.

"After 28 years I've decided to hand in my resignation," said Collina. "People must believe in a referee. In the end, we have all lost out. I have slept less these last few nights than on the eve of the World Cup final. For me it wouldn't have been a problem to referee in Serie B, but either they (the FIGC) have faith in us referees or they don't. If they don't, then we have to go. Without trust we cannot move forward."

Collina, who has been voted the world's best referee five times, took charge of the 2002 World Cup final between Brazil and Germany. He was due to retire in the summer but the Italian football association extended the maximum age for referees to 46 to accommodate him for a further year. Collina will replaced for the 2006 World Cup qualifier between Spain and Serbia and Montenegro on 7 September by England's Graham Poll.

Source : BBC Sport

WS

 

[Guest]

A shame, he's an excellent referee.

Had a shocker in the Everton game in midweek though.

 

[overseas shrimper]

I've heard that the FA are trying to get Collina to move over to the Premier$hite. Any truth in this?

 

[Xàbia Shrimper]

I heard that a few months ago but nothing ever came of it?

WS

 

[Guest]

No i dont think it did. I think it would be great if he did come over here though!

 

[BoyWonder2]

Think his extremely overrated and his performance in the Villareal Vs Everton match summed it up.

The only reason he is "the best referee" is because he has a scary presence on the pitch, not because of his refereing.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Quote[/b] (BoyWonder2 @ Aug. 30 2005,12:51)]Think his extremely overrated and his performance in the Villareal Vs Everton match summed it up.

The only reason he is "the best referee" is because he has a scary presence on the pitch, not because of his refereing.

Disgaree with that. He was the best referee for some time because:

a) he rarely, if ever, got caught out by playacting
b) he was loath to brandish his cards, recognising that football is a physical sport - if only other refs followed that example
c) he was always prepared to make "tough" decisions - e.g. awarding or not awarding a penalty in big games, despite the pressure of the occasion
d) he commanded respect amongst the players which meant that potential powder-keg games passed off incident-free
e) (and most importantly for us) he was a luckily English talisman, having reffed all of the following:

Bayern Munich 1 - 2 Manchester United - Champions League Final, 1999
Germany 1 - 5 England - WC Qualifier, 2001
England 1 - 0 Argentina - WC, 2002.

However, the Everton v. Villareal game was perhaps evidence that his powers were waning. At least this way he has retired whilst still at the peak of his powers...

Matt

 

[overseas shrimper]

Quote[/b] (BoyWonder2 @ Aug. 30 2005,13:51)]Think his extremely overrated and his performance in the Villareal Vs Everton match summed it up.

The only reason he is "the best referee" is because he has a scary presence on the pitch, not because of his refereing.

He was just about the only class referee in Serie A and the Italian Federation have - once again - really cocked up.

 

[BoyWonder2]

I'd agree with you Matt on d and e but not on the others.

One big decision he has to make was to do with Ferguson's "goal". He balls up big time, nothing was wrong with the goal. I know Bent was supposed to have fouled the other fella but thats rubbish. That was a huge decision and cost Everton £20million. If the goal had stood it could have gone to extra time and it would have been Everton who had the momentum, not that that guarentees Everton the win but there you go.

Extremely overrated referee. Refs are only as good as their last game and Collina's last was Villareal Vs Everton, nuff said.

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Quote[/b] (BoyWonder2 @ Aug. 30 2005,16:20)]Refs are only as good as their last game and Collina's last was Villareal Vs Everton, nuff said.

That's a sh*t argument.  By that logic, since he didn't do too badly in his last game with us, that would make Joe Ross a decent referee. Yours is a cr@p argument, I'm afraid - sorry.  You cannot junk someone's reputation simply because they had a poor game in their last run out.

Whilst I will accept the argument that his powers are almost certainly in decline (and will now be permanently so now that he has retired), you cannot tarnish the man's reputation simply because he may now be past it.

In the time that I've watched football and known enough about it to be conscious of whether a ref is competent or not, when it comes to judging the standard of a referee in terms of allowing the football to flow, getting decisions routinely correct, not handing out cards like confetti and not being taken-in by play-acting, then few if any have got it as routinely right as Collina has in recent years.

Just think of his competitors... Kim Morten Neilsen, Anders Frisk, Graham Poll...  even if he ballsed up against the Toffee-men, he's still been the best referee in Europe for the last half a dozen years.

Besides, he was merely fulfilling the ying and yang of European destiny - which is that all the luck in the world resides with the red half of Liverpool, and none of it resides with the blue half.

 

[BoyWonder2]

Quote[/b] (Matt the Shrimp @ Aug. 30 2005,17:05)]

Quote[/b] (BoyWonder2 @ Aug. 30 2005,16:20)]Refs are only as good as their last game and Collina's last was Villareal Vs Everton, nuff said.

That's a sh*t argument.  By that logic, since he didn't do too badly in his last game with us, that would make Joe Ross a decent referee.  Yours is a cr@p argument, I'm afraid - sorry.  You cannot junk someone's reputation simply because they had a poor game in their last run out.

Whilst I will accept the argument that his powers are almost certainly in decline (and will now be permanently so now that he has retired), you cannot tarnish the man's reputation simply because he may now be past it.

In the time that I've watched football and known enough about it to be conscious of whether a ref is competent or not, when it comes to judging the standard of a referee in terms of allowing the football to flow, getting decisions routinely correct, not handing out cards like confetti and not being taken-in by play-acting, then few if any have got it as routinely right as Collina has in recent years.

Just think of his competitors... Kim Morten Neilsen, Anders Frisk, Graham Poll...  even if he ballsed up against the Toffee-men, he's still been the best referee in Europe for the last half a dozen years.

Besides, he was merely fulfilling the ying and yang of European destiny - which is that all the luck in the world resides with the red half of Liverpool, and none of it resides with the blue half.

That isn't the sole base of my argument Matt and you know it.

Collina has long been overrated and lives of the reputation. He has a presence on the pitch and has a scary look about him, which makes players think twice about arguing a decision with him.

Yes he is a competent referee, I'm not denying that, but the best? Nah, not for me I'm afraid. Not really sure who I'd class as the best referee, the majority of them seem to be as bad as each other and as for the others I'm yet to see them. Some of the referee's in the Premier$hite have shown great promise before then have gone big time charlie and turned the whole match into a show about the referee, a lot of them want to be centre of attention and its killing a lot of games.