With the new year approaching, UEFA will be revising their referee categories. Most notably we have a few referees who’s reached the retirement age of 45 and will be forced to retire from international duties.
Below I have listed all the retiring referees (from age), all from the list previously published. In the new list, published some time in January/February we should expect to see some promotions to the Elite category, and perhaps some new referees in the category 3/4.
Elite category
Konrad Plautz, Austria
Iouri Baskakov, Russia
Michael Riley, England
Bertrand Layec, France (comment)Premier category
Paul Allaerts, Belgium
Costas Kapitanis, Cyprus
Nikolay Ivanov, Russia
Vladimir Hrinak, SlovakiaCategory 2
Jouni Hyytia, FinlandCategory 3
Karen Nalbandyan, Armenia
Stefan Messner, Austria
Anthony Zammit, Malta
Paulo Manuel Gomes Costa, Portugal
A few trivial facts about the most prominent retiring referees:
- Konrad Plautz participated in EURO 2008.
- Michael Riley participated in EURO 2004.
- Vladimir Hrinak was fourth official in the 2008 final between Manchester Utd and Chelsea, a match Lubos Michel refereed.
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