Del Cerro Grande: "I lost weight due to the confinement at home"

If it is already very difficult to endure confinement at home for a normal person, for an elite athlete it is much more. Del Cerro Grande strictly follows the training plan that has been sent to him from the CTA, where "training is key to achieving optimal physical and mental performance", as he acknowledges in an interview with Radio Marca. 

The international referee cannot follow the usual training routine, but this confinement has been good for him to "develop inventiveness", since "not all of us have a great gym at home, I simply have some equipment and I don't train the same, but I try to do strength, elasticity and some aerobic", says the man from Madrid. Surely he has taken the exercise very seriously because "I have not put on weight, quite the contrary", he jokes. What the referee also knows first-hand is the National Police, which was his profession until a leave of absence was requested to dedicate himself exclusively to professional refereeing. Therefore, he dedicated a few words to all those who breach the confinement rules. "It makes me sad. I am puzzled day after day at the number of arrests and complaints to people for these breaches. I hope that people become aware once and for all", he reflects. On how is living during Covid-19, the referee from Madrid considers that it is "a disgrace" and "a slap in the face" and that he is now "like everyone else, confined in my house with my wife and my children, spending every day in the best possible way. We do not give enough value to the little things, such as preparing dinner, pick up the children... and now we are sharing these moments. It is the positive part - if you can use that word with this very delicate situation - of this disgrace", he relates. With regard to the decision to be made on how the football season will end, Del Cerro Grande believes that "the Federation and the League are the ones who have to determine this. We all would like football to return and the competitions, provided the right hygienic conditions are in place. Closed-door matches are rare. Football is passion, feeling, and people in the stands. You must be surrounded by people. But now this is all secondary". 

Source: El Arbitro de Futbol

UEFA Club Finals postponed

As a result of the COVID-19 crisis in Europe, UEFA has formally taken the decision to postpone the following matches, originally scheduled for May 2020: 

- UEFA Women’s Champions League Final 

- UEFA Europa League Final 

- UEFA Champions League Final

No decision has yet been made on rearranged dates. The working group, established last week as a result of the conference call among the stakeholders of European football, which was chaired by UEFA President, Aleksander Čeferin, will analyse the options available. The group has already begun its examination of the calendar. Announcements will be made in due course. 

Source: UEFA

World’s Best Futsal Referee 2019: Cordero Gallardo (ESP)

1. Juan Cordero Gallardo (ESP) - 805 p
2. Nikola Jelic (CRO) - 777 p
3. Chiara Perona (ITA) - 534 p
4. Irina Velikanova (RUS) - 439 p
5. Dario Santamaria (ARG) - 363 p
6. Gelareh Nazemi (IRN) - 273 p
7. Hiroyuki Kobayashi (JPN) - 241 p
8. Mohamed Hassan (EGY) - 91 p
9. Antony Riley (NZL) - 64 p
10. Lance VanHaitsma (USA) - 58 p

Source: Futsal Planet

Gil Manzano: "I have gone from running to the gym 6-7 days a week to being locked up at home 24 hours a day"

If there is anyone who is finding it especially difficult to cope with home confinement, it is Gil Manzano. In an interview with Radio Cope, the LaLiga referee who has been linked to sports all his life (first to athletics and then to refereeing) said "I'm going to climb the wall because this situation it has taken us all by surprise and has broken us". 

He started with nine years in the world of athletics and still runs 6-7 days a week at a rate of 10-12 kilometers in each training. "I have gone from doing all that sport and going to the gym to see myself in the situation we are in that I don't do anything aerobic. To do that type of exercise at home, I had to buy a spinning bike and an elliptical", explained the referee. “Also, I train outdoor with a group of athletes who compete and try to adapt my sessions to them," he said. To all this we must add that "the referees – especially those who are international - are extremely active people because we spend a lot of time away from home and suddenly we are locked up at home 24 hours a day, seven days a week. To counter this sedentary lifestyle to which we are being forced, we have received a training plan from the CTA and particularly I also have my personal trainer who has also sent me high-intensity exercises." Theoretical preparation is also very important for the CTA led by Velasco Carballo, which periodically sends exams and videos so that the braids continue to form. "He is in contact with us weekly and now more frequently because of the break in the competition. They send us video-tests with plays to review and that we make the decision that we would make on the field. Once finished, they send us the results and so we do not lose the dynamic", he concluded. Gil Manzano confirmed that no member of the refereeing staff has been actively affected by the Covid-19, neither with symptoms nor with a positive result: "We are all well. Every two days we make video calls where we meet and follow-up. The break was necessary because health is above all. Any decision made will be the best for sport and athletes". 

Source: El Arbitro de Futbol

Kuipers: "Don't know yet if I can, may or will continue in 2021"

"I have a FIFA badge until 31 December 2020. I don't know if I can, may or will want to continue for another six months", said Kuipers. "But postponing the European Championship was the only right decision", added the referee, who does not know whether he will be present at the Euro in 2021. "The most important thing now is to win this game against corona. After the summer I can give a definite answer about this", says the Netherlands' best referee. "I can say that I want to continue, but I need help from UEFA and the KNVB. After the World Cup in 2018, I thought it would have been nice to retire in terms of European and World Cups, but UEFA asked me - partly due to the introduction of the VAR - to be available for Euro 2020". 

In September or October, Kuipers will decide whether he can afford another year to focus more than 100% on the European Championship. The Oldenzaler is now leaning towards 'yes'. "I am mentally and physically super fit. But the most important thing now is to win this game against corona and to make sure everyone stays healthy". 

Source: De Telegraaf

Spain will eliminate the age limit of professional referees

The change only has one last procedure left so that it can take effect from the beginning of the next season, 2020-2021, as was the intention of the Referees Committee and the RFEF. The RFEF Delegate Commission recently approved this historic change in the employment relationship of the Spanish referees. Now there is only the last step that passes through the approval of the CSD Board of Directors for its implementation. Something that could occur in the coming weeks, except for the setbacks due to the coronavirus, at the same meeting where the electoral process will be approved in the Ciudad del Fútbol de las Rozas. 

As a consequence of this change, all professional football referees and assistants will leave the current situation, where they were in an administrative relationship regime, to move to the Social Security regime to which the majority of employees who work for a company are subject. It is a status for which the referees of Spanish football have been fighting for many years and which will finally see the light of day next season. This historic step has been possible following many months of conversations between the Spanish Federation and the Ministry of Labor. The new agreement will only apply to professional referees and it will not be applicable to the rest of the referees in other categories (Second Division, Third Division, etc.). This new scenario will have an immediate impact according to the professional referees’ remuneration agreement signed by the League and the RFEF in August 2018 and in force for five years, with respect to the Social Security that was totally frozen. Once the legislation will enter into force, the referee group will receive the 1,900,000 euros agreed in this agreement and destined to cover precisely these payments for the 2019-2020 and the previous season. In addition, the Commission adopted another change that affects Spanish referees and it has to do with the age of the referees. The RFEF also wants to remove the age limit set at 45 and thus join the FIFA standard that already eliminated it in October 2015. In this way, the decision would be in the hands of the Referees Committee (CTA) at the end of each season, as it happens in the English Premier League. In Portugal, for example, the limit is 48 years, but after 45 you must meet certain requirements to be able to keep on blowing the whistle. In Germany, the limit is 47 years and in Italy, although it is 45, exceptions are established for those who are in certain conditions. 

Source: Time24News

Referees and sanitarians

In an interesting report published on its website, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) explains the story of three referees who combine their activity as match officials with their work in the world of healthcare. They are Iragartze Fernández, nurse, Elena Pelaéz, midwife, and Judit Romano, anesthesiologist. All three send a message of support to fight to end the coronavirus. 

The RFEF website explains that Iragartze Fernández is a nurse at the Rekalde Health Center in Bilbao and an assistant referee in the First and Third Division. She explains that “we are working intensively and at many times under stress situations screening for possible cases of coronavirus. For the good of all, stay home and help us not to spread the disease any further”, she asks firmly. 

Elena Peláez, meanwhile, is a midwife at the Río Carrión Hospital in Palencia and referee in the First Division. Elena says that “with everyone's effort and positive attitude we will overcome it.” 

Lastly, Judit Romano is an anesthesiologist and resuscitator at the Central University Hospital of Asturias in Oviedo. She is also the only woman assistant referee in the Second Division, after the promotion of Guadalupe Porras to the First Division. Mother of two children, she overcame lymphoma when she was 14 years old. “We are a team and together we will win for sure”, she says. 

Source: SportsFinding

Referee Guida in self-isolation after Juventus - Inter

Italian referee Marco Guida has decided to self-isolate having refereed last weekend’s Derby D’Italia between Juventus and Inter according to a report from the online edition of Naples based newspaper Il Mattino. 

Guida’s decision to self-isolate comes after Juventus centre back Daniele Rugani tested positive for Coronavirus in the days after the match at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, which Juventus won 2-0 thanks to goals from Aaron Ramsey and Paulo Dybala. Upon Rugani’s positive diagnosis, Juventus announced they would be going into quarantine and Inter followed in their footsteps almost immediately after by placing everyone who travelled for the match into quarantine. The report goes on to state that Fabio Maresca and Ciro Carbone, who were the fourth official and one of the assistant referees for the match respectively, have also decided to self-isolate. None of Guida, Maresca or Carbone have been tested for the virus as protocol does not require for them to be. 

Source: SempreInter

FIFA referees quarantined in Argentina

FIFA referee Nicolas Lamolina assured that, despite not having "symptoms", he decided together with the rest of the referees who were in the match between Flamengo and Barcelona to make a "preventive safeguard" after it became known that the vice-president and the technical director of the Brazilian team tested positive for coronavirus.

"We decided to make a preventive move and now we are in quarantine," revealed Lamolina, who was the fourth official in the aforementioned meeting and where the referee himself said that he had "a handshake" with Jorge Jesús, the coach of Flamengo. In addition to Nicolas Lamolina, the main referee Facundo Tello and assistants Pablo González and Julio Fernández, who have already undergone the corresponding exams, are in the same situation. "You have to try to be calm and not generate psychosis", Lamolina said to TyC Sports, while commenting "If we did not decide to stop on our own, we could put many people at risk."
Lamolina was appointed for the game played last Monday by Lanús and Argentinos Juniors, which was finally led by Hernán Mastrángelo and gave his opinion on the decision not to be present. "It was a conscious and very correct decision because I had to referee Lanús - Argentinos on Monday and if I did it was going to be a risk, that's why I got off," he said, after which he revealed that he feels "very contained" by the football environment. In this sense he said: "(Federico) Beligoy, (Claudio) Tapia and (Héctor) Baldassi are very close to us to know how we are at the health level. We feel very contained by everyone at this time." Lamolina also pointed out about the coronavirus outbreak: "It is a social issue and as a first step we have to make society aware that it is not something so minor and that is how we are going to get ahead."

Source: Jornada

Kitabdjian: 19 years on FIFA List

With the disappearance of Michel Kitabdjian at the age of 89, French football has lost one of the most illustrious referees in its history. Of all French referees, he had the greatest longevity at the international level. For 19 seasons, from 1961 to 1980, Michel Kitabdjian represented French refereeing at the international level and he was an appreciated and respected ambassador. His service record includes two matches at the football tournament of the 1968 Summer Olympics and the final of the European Champions Cup, on 28 May 1975, at the Parc des Princes, between Bayern Munich and Leeds United (2-0). In total, he refereed 233 international matches, including two European Cup semi-finals. Appointed federal referee in 1959, the Niçois also refereed the 1965 French Cup final between Sedan Torcy and Stade Rennais. In total, he refereed approximately 1,500 games and was ranked the best French referee from 1965 to 1976 by the Central Referees Commission, the ancestor of the Technical Refereeing Directorate and the Federal Referees Commission. 

Once retired from the field, Michel Kitabdjian was very involved in the training of young referees in the Côte-d´Azur District (of which he was honorary president), but also at the federal level. “He was a member of the Central Youth Commission at the FFF, recalls Claude Colombo, a former international referee. At the level of the Mediterranean League, along with Gilles Veissière and Bruno Coué in particular, we know what we owe Michel. For years, training young referees has been his mission, his passion, his raison d'être. He had a very marked charisma, an extraordinary CV, but above all an exceptional humility. He was unanimous everywhere he went. He was concerned with giving back to football and refereeing what football and refereeing had brought him. It was his leitmotif. He will remain as an extraordinary example for all those who knew him”. 

Source: FFF