Collina keeps cards close to chest

OUR celebrity-obsessed times are defined by strange idols. But even in a culture so empty, it hangs on the loose words of a glamour model, something about the iconic status of Pierluigi Collina doesn’t sit right.

Firstly, he’s a referee. Anyone with a remote association to football has questioned the eyesight of a referee at some stage. Secondly, well, he looks kind of strange. Collina lost all his hair in two weeks to alopecia when he was 24.

But, it is this very appearance that has been parlayed into fame. Now, Collina is arguably the best ref in the business and would have enjoyed a certain amount of fame, regardless of what he looked like. However, the Helix, DCU’s concession to modernity, wouldn’t have been buzzing as it was yesterday. Collina entrances people. Even girlfriends who have to suffer the long, boring nights of Champions League football take notice when Collina is admonishing a player. That stare. That scowl.

The first impression is that Collina looks both much younger and much smaller than he does when he blows the whistle on another big European night.

Yesterday was the second time he was in Ireland, having refereed the Euro 2000 qualifier against Yugoslavia in 1999. A joke is made about Roy Keane. “Myself and Roy Keane have a very good relationship. Roy is one of the bosses on the field, and as a referee, so am I, so we have to communicate. And we always have a very good relationship.”

You would imagine so. Collina rarely falls prey to the head-rush of blood that occasionally afflicts Premiership referees. He told the rapt audience that it pains him to flash his yellow card and you only need one hand to count the number of players you remember Collina sending off, Paul Ince seems to have got the rough end of Collina’s stick, being sent off twice by him.

“A referee’s job is to enforce the rules and make sure the players follow the rules. A referee is not happy to show a yellow card or punish a player. They would much prefer if they didn’t have to show one yellow card during the entire game, but events during a match decide that.”

The key to a referee’s job is preparation, according to the best in the business. “Every match is different. Preparation is the key word for a referee. Before every match, you must know the players, the teams and the tactics. You must be able to work out what will happen and to prepare yourself so that you are self-confident starting a match.”

Sometimes, that can be difficult. At the last World Cup, Collina was told two days beforehand that he had to handle Brazil and Germany in Yokohama. “But I spent those two days preparing. It is not just important to be prepared, another of the main things is the courage, make difficult decisions all over the field. Take a difficult decision in less than one second is very tough, but you need to take those decisions.”

Collina began refereeing at 17 in his native Bologna. He was still playing football at the time, as a defender but says his feet got in the way. Given his defensive background, unsurprisingly, he picks Paolo Maldini as the most impressive player in the modern game: “he is one of the best players in the world and he has been playing at the same level for the past 15, 16 years. He deserves much more than he got.” It took him 14 years to graduate to Serie A, by which stage the hairless image that now adorns PlayStation games and is the face of Coca-Cola Ireland’s Big Send-off for Euro 2004 (that he launched in DCU yesterday). Four years later, he became an international referee and the rest is history. And fame. When asked about his favourite moment on a football field, a certain night in Barcelona in 1999 comes to mind.

“I don’t think anyone can forget that match. The players and the crowd, those last three minutes when I was thinking of just getting through a match without any mistake and then the equaliser and you are thinking there is going to be extra-time, another 30 minutes of this. Even though, I haven’t made a mistake in the first 90, all I will be remembered for is that one mistake in extra-time. And then the other goal. If I think of the most emotional moment, I think of those last three minutes in Barcelona.” Mistakes are a currency of refereeing. There are made all the time. Collina doesn’t look back at any decision he made with particular regret, though. “You can only regret if you are not prepared. If you miss something before the match about either team, then you regret. If you miss something on the field, it is important not to regret, it is important to understand why you made that mistake so you don’t make it again. After the match, you have to analyse and assess what you did, and if you took some wrong decision, understand why you took that decision and you learn from it.”

His peers say he’s the master and both players and managers seem more comfortable when the Italian is in charge on big European nights.

He calls diving a crime against football and hopes FIFA work to eliminate it, but generally, he sees the standard of refs as improving all the time. “We are very fit, very well-prepared, we all attend courses and stages. Everything is well-organised and because of it our performances are improved.

“Of course, we are assessed by 20 cameras positioned by different cameras all over the field.”

Outside, the student population of Glasnevin and Whitehall mill around, hoping for an autograph. Sign the world is on the road to ruin, refs signing autographs. Perhaps, but in this media-saturated age, Collina is one person who deserves the image, and iconic status, accorded him.