England fans were filled with trepidation. Collina only officiated three games at the World Cup but his third saw him reach the very pinnacle of international football when he was awarded the World Cup final. Germany were to play Brazil and the best referee on the planet was to officiate the biggest game between the two best international teams going. A booking for each team inside the first nine minutes set the tone by Collina and left the players in no doubt that the accountant from Bologna was going to referee the game and not the occasion.
Valencia defeated Marseille , a victory for the Spanish side that was partially due to Collina showing Fabien Barthez a straight red card on the stroke of half-time.
Read The dirty look and the traffic lights that gave birth to yellow and red cards. The Italian would claim a seventh accolade in This collection of 13 honours over a nine-year period demonstrates the almost robotic consistency and desire to be the very best that he could be. Every fibre of his being was tuned towards facilitating the game of football in the most understated way he possibly could.
When Collina reached the age of 45, the Fedarazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio FIGC took the unprecedented step of raising the age limit of referees to 46 so that the Italian could referee in Serie A for a further year as well as officiate in the World Cup finals. However, in August , Collina signed a sponsorship agreement with Opel. As the infamous Calciopoli scandal, which embarrassed Italian football in demonstrated, Pierluigi Collina was incorruptible.
Numerous Serie A referees were implicated in the scandal and only Pierluigi Collina and Roberto Rosetti remained untainted. The man with an almost alien appearance had the aura of a being from another world. Such was the esteem with which every professional player held him, he is still the only referee who has been asked by a player — David Beckham — to swap shirts.
He covered everything. It was incredible. A distinctive 6ft 2in presence, known for his bald head and piercing stare, Collina had the look of happy hardcore raver from one of those 90s nightclub promo videos on YouTube — but he was no joke.
Few are naturals to the rigours of elite level officiating, but Collina defied convention with a combination of brains and brawn. The Italian understood the importance of communication too, learning multiple languages to better relay his orders to players — but he also knew that, on the pitch, actions often spoke louder than words.
He confronted issues quite literally head on in a way that left players in no doubt as to who was in charge, fixing his steely gaze upon them at close quarters, before explaining his reasoning firmly and fairly. Born in Bologna to a mother who was a teacher and a father who worked for the Italian Ministry of Defence, Collina was educated at a Catholic school run by nuns. His formative years were spent in the Italian military and at Bologna University where he studied a degree in economics and enrolled in a refereeing course at the age of A passionate football fan who started out playing as a centre half, Collina had the foresight to turn his intimidating physical presence on the pitch to effective use as a match official.
Italian football was at its peak then, and with analysis and discussion in demand, it was common to see refereeing performances dissected and critiqued by fans and pundits alike. The Focus: So we have to live with the fact that referees — being human — will make mistakes? Making mistakes is part of the job. When a match is shown live on TV, two minutes later everyone on the field of play knows that the referee made a mistake.
TV people talk to journalists beside the pitch, they talk to the benches, and they inform the players. So two minutes after you make a decision, the players know exactly if the penalty was a penalty. And they tell you so, and try to influence you. Collina: The best thing is always to forget it.
When a forward misses a great scoring opportunity early in the match, he can either continue to regret his mistake, and the match will become a nightmare, or he can look ahead, and go on to deliver a good performance. That is something a referee must not do, because it doubles his mistake. After the match he has to try to understand why he made the mistake, and in this process, technology like videos is very useful.
A critical post-match review is another important part of improving your performance. The Focus: Does the kind of authority that a referee needs come naturally or is it something you can learn?
Collina: You can be an excellent piano player but to be at the very top you need to have something special in your DNA. What you can learn is to understand the way people think. In business you talk to your staff about the consequences of any given decision.
That is part of the teamwork in which everything is analyzed. Collina: Like any great player, the referee should be able to control his emotions. One of the differences between a good player and a great one is how they handle their emotions.
Collina: Every match is difficult. If you ever think a match is going to be easy, you will lack concentration and your performance will suffer. The Focus: Now that you have retired from refereeing, will you go back to being a financial consultant? The instantly recognisable Pierluigi Collina, a no-nonsense Italian referee known for his famous bald head and piecing eyes, remains one of the most respected figures in football, 14 years after handing in his shock resignation from officiating, aged In a glittering 28 year career of refereeing, he took charge of Champions League, World Cup and UEFA Cup finals but for many, it was Collina's larger than life personality that earned him such a respected stature.
This calm but stern approach to officiating earned him FIFA's "Best Referee of the Year" award six consecutive times between and Towards the end of his career, the Bologna-born official was even chosen to become Pro Evolution Soccer's cover star on two separate occasions in the mid 00's alongside Thierry Henry and Francesco Totti.
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