What we can learn from Pierluigi Collina

I think very few people will debate that PierluigiCollina was the best referee of the planet or at least for the last 30 years. I met him for the first time in 1995 for his ever first international assignment for an International Militarygame. It was in Ankara and I was there for a meeting of the Referee Committee that I chaired then. When I first met him, I realized something different than any other referee I ever met before –his looks. His performance in the first game was not anything spectacular – Turkish Armed Forces NT vs. French Armed Forces NT. I met him several times later in life but I can never forget hislook.

Collina is very popular with Turkish fans since not a single Turkish team whether it was the NT or a club team ever lost a single game that Collina refereed.

Hisbright and big blue eyes are the first things you notice when you look at Pierluigi. Collina contracted early in his refereeing career a severe form of alopecia, resulting in the permanent loss of all his facial hair, giving him his distinctive bald appearance and earning the nickname Kojak. This god-given look helped him a lot with the teams and players he met for the first time. Definitely the look brought him an incredible charismaand a natural air of authority. You could rarely see Pierluigi smiling during games.  His scary look or stare helped him a lot in his first years of international refereeing. He always kept eyecontact with players when managing them. While warning, cautioning or sending off a player, you miss the boat if you lose eye contact with him or her. Clearly you cannot be the best referee on theplanet just with your looks. 

He is well educated and very smart. He speaks Spanish and English fluently as well as his native tongue Italian and French. Clearly, knowing Spanishwell helps him to understand Portuguese. Communicating with the players in their own language is a great asset in player management. 

He was always well respected by the playerseven though like all referees he made mistakes and some of them were key match incidents. Building up respectability over years is a very difficult task especially if you are a soccer referee and heexactly did that. Respect is not a derivative of fear but rather matures through objectivity over many games that you manage. During the Calciopoli scandal in 2006, two referees came out unscathed:Collina and Roberto Rosetti.  Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi said Juve did not want Collina because he was too “objective.”

At the end of the famous Champions League finalin 1999 between Bayern Munich and Manchester United, when United scored two goals in overtime (2-1), not a single a Munich player showed any negative reaction or disrespect to Collina, but Collinaunderstanding the frustration of the Bayern players gave those lying on the field a hand. 

He was always exceptionally fit and detests those referees who struggle to pass thephysical fitness test. He never played soccer at an advanced level but understands both the letter, the spirit of the Laws as well as what “football expects.”  Some people say that inorder to be a good referee you have to play the game at an advanced level. Unfortunately, among the best in the world, there very few if any who played soccer professionally. You have to understandthe game and be smart. That is the basic requirement. 

Collina was famous for preparing for each game meticulously.  With his crew, he would sit for hours watching clipsto understand how both teams played and what kind of tricks the players had up their sleeves. Once you are so well prepared for the game, then very few things will surprise you during the game andthis will be reflected into your management as great self-confidence.

Recently Collina said in an interview: “Let’s talk about courage, about the courage to decide, to takedifficult, important decision, so important that they put the referee in a situation where he does not get noticed, where he becomes a leading character, but not the leading character in a match. Thebest referee is the referee who has this conviction, the one who makes the decisions even when it would be easier not to, putting the problem off until later, until the end of thematch.” 

I shared these sentences on social media with some local referees and asked for their comments. All of them focused on the courage part. Clearly, a referee sometimeshas to make very difficult decisions like a red card or a penalty kick that can change the outcome of the game.  Unfortunately, it is true that referees sometimes chicken out to make courageouscalls. What Collina is trying to say is that you have to have courage to be a good referee – which is obvious – but when making that courageous call you have to be unnoticed and become aleading character — and not the leading character of the match. That only referees like Collina who built up a reputation of being objective and fair throughout all their careers canmanage.

Naturally, a red card in the first five minutes of the game or a penalty kick awarded in the last few seconds of the game are very difficult decisions to make. Even ifthey are black and white correct decisions, when the referee makes such a courageous decision there will be considerable dissent. It is the Collinas of our beautiful game who will make such decisionsand still stay unnoticed. Because only he and maybe a few others who can sell such calls with ease have an aurora of trust and confidence surrounding their character that is nurtured by objectivityand fairness. If you think that it is the bright blue eyes and the Kojak look of Collina that made the difference, then you are wrong, my friend.

Ahmet Guvener (ahmet@ahmetguvener.com) is the former Secretary General and the Chief Soccer Officer of Turkish FA. He was also the Head of Refereeing for the Turkish FA. Heserved as Panel member for the FIFA Panel of Referee Instructors and UEFA Referee Convention. He now lives and works as a soccer consultant in Georgetown, TX.

Photo: Erwin Otten/PicsUnited/Icon Sportswire