Pierluigi Collina

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Pierluigi Collina (born 13 February 1960) is a former Italian football referee, who was widely regarded as one of the world's best referees. After his retirement in August 2005 he concentrated on his own business as a financial advisor.

[edit] Career

Collina was born in Bologna and attended the local university, graduating with a degree in economics in 1984. During his teenage years, he played as a central defender for a local team, but was persuaded in 1977 to take a referee's course, where it was discovered that he had a particular aptitude for the job.

Within three years he was officiating at the highest level of regional matches, while also completing his compulsory military service. In 1988, he progressed more rapidly than normal to the national third division, Serie C1 and Serie C2. After three seasons, he was promoted to officiating Serie B and Serie A matches.

About this time he contracted 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 , while many also joked that he was a doppelganger for a character in the horror film The Hills Have Eyes.

In 1995, after he had officiated at 43 Serie A matches, he was placed on FIFA's Referees List. He was allocated five matches at the 1996 Olympic Games, including the final between Nigeria and Argentina; and the 1999 UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United. In 2002, he reached the pinnacle of his career when he was chosen for the World Cup final between Brazil and Germany. He was also the referee for the 2004 UEFA Cup final between Valencia and Olympique Marseille.

Euro 2004 was his last major international tournament, as he reached the mandatory retirement age of 45 for FIFA referees early in 2005. The Italian Football Federation raised its mandatory retirement age to 46 in order to accommodate Collina for a further season. However, a dispute emerged between the federation and Collina early in August 2005, following Collina's decision to sign a major sponsorship deal with Opel (also advertising for Vauxhall Motors in Great Britain - both are owned by General Motors). As Opel was also a sponsor of Serie A club A.C. Milan, the deal was seen as a major conflict of interest and Collina was disbarred from refereeing top-flight matches in Italy. In response, Collina handed in his resignation, effectively ending his career. The Italian Referees Association then attempted to reject his resignation, but he persisted with his retirement. He did, however, referee the Soccer Aid match for charity in May 2006.

One of his last games, a Champions League qualifier between Everton and Villarreal, was shrouded in controversy as he disallowed a goal by Everton that may have sent the game into extra time.[1] This was seen by many as an error, but did little to tarnish a career in which Collina was almost universally considered to be the best referee in the world, and perhaps the only referee that teams were ever happy to be drawn.

Perhaps one of the greatest distinctions of Collina’s career was earning the hatred of Luciano Moggi, the Juventus official and chief instigator of the 2006 Serie A scandal. Collina was one of the referees that Moggi attempted to have punished for decisions that Collina made against Juventus.

The level of respect that Collina commanded from professionals and fans alike throughout his career saw him become arguably the world's only "celebrity referee". Unusually, he was chosen as the cover figure for the popular video game Pro Evolution Soccer 3, at a time when football games had come to almost exclusively feature players and managers on their covers; in addition, he appeared as an "unlockable" referee in the rival game FIFA 2005. His easily recognisable face (to followers of football) also led to his appearance in a 2006 Vauxhall Vectra commercial, which aired during 2006 FIFA World Cup matches (in the advert break) in the United Kingdom.

Although Collina is closely identified with football, his favourite sports club plays basketball. He is a lifelong supporter of Fortitudo Bologna, one of Europe's leading basketball clubs. After having retired from refereeing, he admitted that he has been a life-long supporter of S.S. Lazio.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] External links

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