Michel Vautrot

Michel Vautrot (born October 23, 1945 in Besançon ) is a former French football referee who was also active on the international stage in the 1980s. He later worked in various functions in the French (FFF) and the international professional associations ( UEFA and FIFA ).

As an active referee

Vautrot, who comes from the Franche-Comté region , has achieved almost everything a referee can achieve, both nationally and internationally, and even trumped his successful predecessor as the best French referee, Robert Wurtz . He started refereeing when he was 14; eleven years later, in May 1971, he led his first first division match , in which Red Star conceded a 5-0 home defeat against SCO Angers . In addition to several hundred appearances in the first and second leagues , he made it to the undisputed record holder in the cup competition with five finals (1979, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1987) - there are only four other referees who have made it to three cup finals each, and as Michel Vautrot switched to the upper floor of the French association as a functionary, he introduced the rule that each referee was only allowed to lead a French cup final once in his career. While the trade press pointed out that he was cementing his own record for eternity, Vautrot justified the measure with the fact that more referees would get the chance of such a "high point in their sporting life". This instruction was repealed in 2006.

Internationally, his highlights include five game directors at two world championship tournaments: 1982 in Spain the preliminary round match Italy against Poland and in the intermediate round Belgium against the USSR and in 1990 in Italy two preliminary rounds ( Netherlands - Ireland and Argentina - Cameroon ) and the semi-final match Argentina - Italy. From the mid-1980s he became a strong competitor in his own country with Joël Quiniou , who even took part in three World Cup finals and was nominated for the 1986 World Cup instead of Vautrot .

Furthermore, Michel Vautrot whistled several games at the European Championships in 1984 and 1988 , including the 1988 final between the Netherlands and the Soviet Union in the Munich Olympic Stadium . Vautrot also led finals in international competitions for club teams, namely the 1983 World Cup final Grêmio Porto Alegre against Hamburger SV (2-1 a.s.), the 1985 UEFA Cup final ( Videoton Székesfehérvár against Real Madrid , 0-3) and a year later in the 1985/86 European Cup , which Steaua Bucharest won against FC Barcelona 2-0 on a pen. He was also elected World Referee of the Year in 1988 and 1989, and French Referee of the Year ten times (from 1979 to 1989 with the exception of 1985).

As an association official

In May 1991 he ended his active career by leading a match in Division 1 ( OGC Nice was defeated by Olympique Marseille 1-0) and became Directeur Technique National de l'Arbitrage français of the FFF, and in the same year a member of the FIFA Referees Committee and in 1996 the UEFA referee training and observation committees. He was confirmed in the last two functions in 2006 for a further three years, but was replaced at the head of the French referees in 2004 by Marc Batta . He is an advocate of the use of technical means to support communication and decisions of the referee teams; In January 2003, he ensured that French television viewers could hear the radio communication between the game master and his assistant for the first time during a live broadcast (Olympique Marseille - SC Bastia ).

In 2006, Michel Vautrot, who lives near Besançon , was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor . Since the beginning of 2017, the Complexe de la Malcombe, which comprises several stadiums and pitches, has been called Complexe Michel-Vautrot in his hometown .

Web links

• UEFA website on Michel Vautrot

Remarks

1. ↑ L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès: Coupe de France. La folle épopée. L'Équipe, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2007 ISBN 978-2-915535-62-4 , p. 314
2. ↑ L'Équipe / Gérard Ejnès, pp. 312f.
3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ France Football of December 30, 2008, p. 17
5. ^ Alain Pécheral: La grande histoire de l'OM. Des origines à nos jours. Ed. Prolongations, o. O. 2007 ISBN 978-2-916400-07-5 , p. 297
6. ↑ to http://www.uefa.com/search/index.htmx?q=Michel+Vautrot
7. ↑ http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=524288/newsid=48208.html
8. ↑ Article “Besançon honore Vautrot” in France Football of January 17, 2017, p. 10