‘Small clubs’ begin to lose faith with refs

ONE of the unique privileges of Italian football referees is that they get to have audiences with the Pope.

Not all of them of course. At the last count there were 23,670 active referees in Italy (1,234 of them women).

The audience with Benedict XVI ten days ago was limited to 200, mostly officials from the minor leagues, plus the referees' association, with just one representative from Serie A, a man with the appropriate name of Massimo de Santis (who incidentally will be the Italian official at the World Cup later this year).