The UEFA He just announced his list of international referees for this year 2023 which has just started. There are a total of 288 members divided into 30 from the Elite Group (the highest), 52 from the First group (Second level) and 206 from the second group.
And which, as Mundo Deportivo has done, presents a great novelty. And suppose the entry of two colleges within the men’s list. This is about Welsh Cheryl Foster and the Croatian Ivana Martinçic. The two join the Second group where there are 204 other male referees. This means they will be able to whistle for club competitions as well as UEFA national teams. In this way they join the French Stephanie Frappart who is in the first group consisting of 52 members.
A big step but in percentage terms it barely represents 1.04% of the total.
Foster’s story is especially compelling. The college was a professional footballer until just 10 years ago. He was a member of Liverpool for 9 seasons, dressing the national team on 63 occasions since he made his debut in 1997. In 2013 he decided to dedicate himself to arbitration and in 2016 he got the international badge. She became the first woman to officiate a match in the men’s Welsh league. He combines his arbitration activity with his role as a physical education teacher. In the Croatian case, he has been international since 2014. Ivana Martinçic plays as an assistant in the first Croatian men’s league, which he combined with his arbitration in the second division.
Four Spanish referees remain in the Elite group
A list in which Spanish arbitration will have the most representatives in the elite of European arbitration in European arbitration. There are four Spanish referees who are part of the select group “ELITE” with thirty referees. That means 13% of the members are Spanish. This is Valencian World Cup referee Mateu Lahoz with Del Cerro Grande, Gil Manzano and Sánchez Martínez. No other country has this number; starting in one of the five major leagues.
To these four referees, we must add the two who are in the First group, which also consists of forty referees. It is the Basque De Burgos Bengoechea and Hernández Hernández, who remain in this category increasing the number of referees by one in 2023.
Finally, four more are in the second group which includes Cuadra Fernández, Martínez Munuera, Soto Grado and Munuera Montero. In the case of Martínez Munuera and Hernández Hernández, they have been selected for the Women’s World Cup this coming summer. The two, along with De Burgos Bengoechea, have just returned from Qatar. The same ten members of the collegiate that are in 2022 are maintained and of which the last to gain international status is Soto Grado. Two will be attendees who have already achieved internationality at the start of the year. They are Ivan Massó and Diego Sánchez Rojo.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.