It's a mystery to me. Just why has Peter Kirkup been removed from the list of English officials, sent home and replaced with a Dutch assistant referee?
Howard Webb, Michael Mullarkey, Martin Atkinson and Mark Clattenburg all got to stay on, while Kirkup goes home. The information was revealed to us journalists at a press conference in the Warsaw National Stadium this afternoon by Pierluigi Collina, now working for UEFA..
Collina was facing a barrage of questions about why some referees were sent home and others stayed. He said UEFA had changed its policy since the incident four years ago when Howard Webb was sent home because of a mistake by one of his assistants (was it Darren Cann?) in a European Championship game. Collina said UEFA realised this was unfair, especially as Webb had been having a great tournament. Indeed, he has gone on to be the world's leading referee. So this time around, he said, "one of the English assistants has not been confirmed."
That's sensible of UEFA. Webb and his team get to stay on, although we don't get to know what Peter Kirkup did wrong. It could be a mistake during a game or it could even be fitness. We don't know.
2 comments:
Three poor calls on tight off-side decisions during the Italy v Croatia game may be the reason for PK's return home.
This does not however, seem to be consistent with the decisin to return the whole of the Hungarian (Kassai) team due to the errors of an AR and an AAR.
Collina addressed this by saying the pressure on Kassai would be unacceptably high. he paid tribute to him and made it clear he's done nothing wrong. Odd, I agree.
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