Pierluigi Collina (left), advisor to the Association of Italian soccer referees (AIA), and member of the UEFA Referees Committee, together with Fernando Paniazzo.
Photo: Private file
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The great opportunity of my life, participate in a club World Cup as a volunteer. It was a great experience that a Quindiano with aspirations and determination sought as the way to reach the world's arbitration elite.
The entrance to the United States was complex. They stopped me almost an hour with thousands of questions from why I entered the US a Colombian without suitcases and stay more than two months. The questions were through a translator, since the officer who interrogated me did not speak Spanish, asked me for the cell phone and began to look in my WhatsApp the messages I already had to look for any information I could find in it.
Questions like: Why did you bring only a bag with very little clothes? When did he return to Colombia? What came to the US. Where did I stay? All of them in a translator of my cell phone that I had never used, I think that the experience of having visited this country before and my frequent traveler tranquility allowed me to convince her of my intention to only come to the Club World Cup, as well as express my status as an ex -articist of international football ended up convincing it and placing the admission seal to the United States until the month of November.
Arriving at the US, I enrolled as a Volunteer of Logistics and Support. In the Seminar of the referees who would be in charge of directing the matches, a friend, Jorge Ramírez, made the registration contact and the entire procedure to get there in Miami to this camp.
What does a volunteer of everything in the logistics issue? Accommodate tents, carry and load water and ice, be aware of the balls and other equipment for the development of the practices, clean the court, collect the bottles and everything related to the logistics of an event of this transcendence. We were with the FIFA cream, the arbitration tops, the best 120 central, assistant and var the world to enjoy from another vision what I had been able to live as an active referee. The best thing was yet to come.
In the morning practice with the arbitrators and equipment of Miami, simulation of play with all the teams, balls with the rechargeable chips, all the cameras of the VAR, more cameras that are adapted in the equipment of the referee for follow -ups of all the plays.
It was four weeks with all the referees, assistants, var and greed of the World Cup, perfect simulation with more than 50 auxiliary people who complemented this activity. The instructors led by Pierluigi Collina as its president and Massimo Bussaca as its director, each in their place, the instructors of attendees of VAR, those of the simulated parties headed by the Colombian FIFA instructor Óscar Julián Ruiz and Jorge Larrionnda, equipment hired by the FIFA for them that followed the instructions against the objectives of the practices.
These began at 8:30 am and ended at 11:30 am. The entire medical and science team to sport, physiotherapists, nutritionists, physical preparators, technicians and operators of VAR systems, television cameras, a world -class logistics and absolute quality placed at the service of the Team One, as the referees team was called.
Five stars hotel with chef brought exclusively to be aware of the message and preparation of meals of the entire arbitration equipment. They do not save a single weight for the comfort and comfort of all. In the lodging there was a floor for the sciences applied to sport, doctors, physiotherapists, masseuses, physical trainers and all the corresponding equipment for care.
In the training arranged, energy activation gels, moisturizing drinks and the appropriate nutritional complement for them. Static bicycles, ribbons, hoops, cones, elongation bands. In short, all arranged for the service and comfort of the 120 assistant referees.
In the afternoon, theoretical framework of the rules of football, new modifications, technical analysis of play. Everything related to a seminar at a high level and there was in the back attending with great care, respect and care observing all this great framework. In the Hall, Pierluigi Collina, president of the FIFA Referees Commission, and Massimo Bussaca, director of referees, and 12 more instructors supporting from the interpretation of the rules of the game, all in English and with a millimeter accuracy in the organization and punctuality.
Only English as a general rule of communication for all and I only with the maximum attention to the issues. And the best begins, the president of FIFA, Giani Infantino appears, to greet the referees and give them a message of team union and know that the best are in the world gathered, with the submission suit of the referees. What experience, speaking with him a little and I take the opportunity to show my book “Paneso: the story of a referee in the middle of the mafias.” What time this, I did not imagine it but I enjoyed it.
A unique experience of a proud Quindian of this region who took advantage of this moment to approach the international relationship with football.
With the latest modifications to the rules of the game. The ball with the chip to better interpret the offside and when it gives a hand, the camera that is attached to the arbitrator so that the plays are better seen and carry out corrective and preventive analyzes, the modification of the eight seconds that the goalkeeper has to play the ball and its sanction with the corner kick against it, the coordination between judge, assistants and var, the application of AI to draw the lines of the Technological that football enjoys with the absolute clarity that the last word has the referees.
“We do not want referees that expect their decisions to define the VAR, we have to be accurate and fast absolute to make the best decision,” said Colina. The best experience accompanied by a very good relationship and the best knowledge on a personal and professional level.
With the beginning of the tournament they changed the dynamics a bit and some tasks were modified, it is already the competition. The whole team concentrated on the development of the tournament, physical preparation, preparation of the referees in simulated matches, each with their arbitration team, with their assistants and the different practices directed. At night an internal tournament is played with nearby teams that play a glass led by the World Cup referees as part of their preparation.
Permanent feedback in the afternoon with the corresponding plays of the matches that are being developed and the unification of criteria in this regard.
The trial with the chamber that is placed to the referee in his intercom from the training, with it the successes were observed, especially for a vision that both spectators and expert personnel on the subject could have. Total success with this new technology.
The ball and its chip to determine the sequence of the out of place at the time the pass part, as well as its corresponding application for the hands, was a good experiment, but it is necessary to continue in it.
The VAR camp was established in New Jersey and there all the VAR and GFO, with their instructors and the technology team, they were present and daily prepared for it. The tournament left us a good balance in relation to the projected referees team for the FIFA World Cup next year, to be held in Mexico, the US and Canada.
To mention only the most prominent, for South America, the Argentine Facundo Tello and the Brazilians Ramón Abatti and Wilton Sampaio of great level with the best in the world. He lacked some consistency to Jesús Valenzuela, the Venezuelan, and his very low level English confuses. By Central America, the Mexican César Arturo Ramos and El Salvadoran Iván Barton stood out for their region.
Europeans maintain their level, the English Anthony Taylor and John Oliver, as well as the French Francois Letexier and Clement Turpin maintain their high flight level, joined the Polish Szymon Marciniak and Romanian István Kovács.
The great finalist of this FIFA Club World Cup, the Iranian Alireza Faghani was already preceded by an excellent career that allowed him to be the best and was honored with the final. It shows the great level that FIFA achieves when a large percentage of arbitration teams from different countries show a very high level for what is coming in the near future.
Also highlight the participation of women in this tournament with the United States team headed by Tori thought, of good arbitration direction. And as a curious fact the presence for the first time in the tournament, participating as referees of the FIFA of the couple of the Canadian referee and the American assistant, not only as championship officers but as a sentimental couple.
Finally, special chapter to the Colombian Var Nicolás Gallo, highlighted as one of the best in the world in this tournament. It was not inferior to the challenge and defined quickly, timely and real the aid to the central arbitrator that it had to take.
To review Colombia, an referee does not appear that can approach this level and it is detailed that, despite the fact that Colombian football keeps a fairly important position in the FIFA ranks and shows itself as one of the most prominent in South America, its arbitration remains prostrated in a history of administrative and technical order that denote its reality in the local championship and does not present an international protection that highlights as it should be.
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