Wrote:
Menna Omar
Wednesday 29 June 2022
01:08 PM
Former English referee Mark Clattenburg is close to assuming his new duties as a foreign expert to develop the arbitration system in Egypt.
The Board of Directors of the Egyptian Football Association had announced earlier, the assignment of a foreign expert to develop the arbitration, to work independently from the referees committee.
Clattenburg is a former English referee, who received the international badge in 2006, and managed many important international matches, whether in the English Premier League, the European Champions League, the European League, the Saudi League, the European Nations League (Euro) and European qualifying for the World Cup.
Before Clattenburg assumed his duties, he had previously experienced the same experience in Greece, and personally supervised several matters, the most important of which were the status and locations of VAR cameras in all the Greek league stadiums (18 stadiums), and he also succeeded in developing the arbitration system there.. So what did he do?
Clattenburg worked on several axes with the Greek rulers, the first concerns the physical factor, the second concerns punishments and rewards, and the third axis relates to the theoretical aspect.
First, the physical factor
Clattenburg made an agreement to hold training camps for Greek referees in England with English referees, and subjected the referees to Cooper-like fitness tests once a month.
He set physical measurements for all judges and subjected them to DNA analyzes, and stipulated that the referee’s weight should not exceed a certain (kg) according to several factors related to height and age.
He also made another agreement with the English Football Association to use Greek referees to run some third-tier matches in England.
Second, penalties and rewards
Clattenburg developed a strategy with the Greek rulers regarding penalties and rewards.. It came as follows:
1- A list of penalties for referees
2- Announcing through the official page of the federation the penalties of the referees.
3- Raising the salary ceiling of the Greek rulers in three stages (25% of each stage).
4- The Greek referee who is selected to officiate any match in the Champions League, Europa League or European Conference League will receive a bonus (bonus).
5- Prohibition of making any press statements, and in the event of making any statement, the penalty list shall apply to the referee (a deduction of a percentage ranging between 10% and 20% of his salary, and it may even lead to his expulsion from a number of matches).
Third, the theoretical side
The former English referee was keen to hold weekly meetings with all referees after the end of the week’s rounds, in order to identify errors and correct them, as well as talk about the positives.
He also hired some psychiatrists to give lectures to referees on how to deal with fans’ violence in the stands, and other lectures on the strength of personality and how to make decisions and not be influenced by external factors before and during matches.