Pierluigi Collina

Pierluigi Collina (2010)

Pierluigi Collina (born February 13, 1960 in Bologna ) is a former Italian football referee .

Experts consider him to be one of the best referees in the history of football . From 1998 to 2003 he was elected World Referee of the Year six times in a row , making him the record holder.

Collina has been head of the UEFA Referees Committee since 2010 and also head of the FIFA Referees Committee since 2017 .

Life

Collina attended the University of Bologna , where she graduated in 1984 with a degree in economics.

At the age of 24 he suffered from so-called "circular hair loss" ( alopecia areata ), an autoimmune disease in which the own immune system attacks the hair follicles. In Collina's case, the alopecia is severe, namely alopecia universalis, which results in a complete loss of body hair including eyebrows and eyelashes , which gives Collina its distinctive appearance. Because of his bald head he was nicknamed " Kojak " or "Bald Merciless".

He is married and has two daughters with his wife.

Collina is a fan of Fortitudo Bologna , which was one of the leading basketball clubs in Europe for a few years, but has since sunk into sporting insignificance due to financial problems.

Career in football

Pierluigi Collina during a Super Cup 2015 game

In his youth he played as a central defender in a local soccer club . In 1977 he took part in a referee course, where his great talent was discovered. In only three years he managed to be deployed above the regional leagues in addition to his military service . 1988 Collina already initiated games in the third Italian League, Serie C . After only three seasons, he was referee of the Series B and Series A .

In 1995, after overseeing 43 Serie A matches, he was named to the list of FIFA referees. In 1996 he led five games at the Olympic Games , including the final between Nigeria and Argentina. 1999 he whistled finally the UEFA - Champions League -Endspiel between Bayern Munich and Manchester United . In 2002 he reached a marked high in his career and led the final of the 2002 World Cup between Germany and Brazil , making him the second referee after William Ling , who led both a final at the Olympic Games and the World Cup.

In 2004 he was in charge of the UEFA Cup final between Valencia CF and Olympique Marseille . The subsequent EURO 2004 was Collina's last major international tournament, as he was approaching the maximum age of 45 for international referees.

On August 29, 2005, Collina submitted his resignation to the Italian referees association Associazione Italiana Arbitri (AIA) . Since his advertising contract partner Opel also sponsored AC Milan , a club in the first Italian league (Serie A), Collina would only have been allowed to lead games in the second division (Serie B), since, according to the AIA, his impartiality was no longer given by the joint sponsor would. On December 28, 2006, he returned to the AIA Referees Association, where he volunteered to train referees.

Since July 5th, 2010 he is the new head of the Ukrainian professional referees.

Furthermore, it was announced on July 3, 2010 that Collina had also been appointed head of the UEFA Referees Committee.

In June 2017 he was also appointed head of the FIFA Referees Committee.

Performance as a referee

Collina was particularly known for his sometimes very idiosyncratic interpretations of rules, for example he was the first referee to show a substitute a red card because of an insult to the referee. Unlike today, however, this was not yet specified in the football rules.

The referee wrote a book about his experience that is available in nine languages. His explanations of what football taught me about life were also published in German under the title My Rules of the Game .

According to IFFHS statistics, Collina is still the world's best referee with 86 points.

Popular figures

Pierluigi Collina's popularity and striking appearance earned him a number of advertising contracts. He advertised watches, sporting goods and frozen foods. For the fashion designer Laura Biagiotti, he already went on the catwalk . With these activities he achieved up to 800,000 euros a year. According to press reports, the contract with the car manufacturer Opel provided a fee of around one million euros.

Collina can be seen on the cover of the third (2003) and fourth (2004) part of the popular soccer simulation Pro Evolution Soccer .

A podcast and a column on n-tv are named after him with the title Collina's heirs .

Honors

Collina was named Italy's Referee of the Year in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 , and together with Nicola Rizzoli is the record holder of this award.

Shortly after the 2004 European Championship, he was through the northeastern English Hull University of Honorary Doctor of Sport Sciences awarded for his many contributions to the sport.

Collina was elected “World Referee of the Year” six times in a row (1998-2003) by FIFA, making it the sole record holder.

In 2011 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Italian Football .

publication

My rules of the game: what football taught me about life . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-455-09398-1 (also: dtv, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-423-34290-0 )