UEFA EURO 2012 referees named

The UEFA Referees Committee, meeting in Nyon today, has appointed the 12 referees to handle the 31 matches at next year's UEFA EURO 2012 final tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

For the first time in the history of the UEFA European Championship, the referees will have added support thanks to a decision by football's lawmakers, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), to allow the continuation of the experiment in the use of additional assistant referees. The full referee teams will be announced in due course.

The UEFA EURO 2012 main referees are:
Cüneyt Çakır (TUR)
Jonas Eriksson (SWE)
Viktor Kassai (HUN)
Bjorn Kuipers (NED)
Stéphane Lannoy (FRA)
Pedro Proença (POR)
Nicola Rizzoli (ITA)
Damir Skomina (SVN)
Wolfgang Stark (GER)
Craig Thomson (SCO)
Carlos Velasco Carballo (ESP)
Howard Webb (ENG)

In addition, four fourth officials who will only act in this specific function have been appointed. The quartet are:
Marcin Borski (POL)
Tom Harald Hagen (NOR)
Pavel Královec (CZE)
Viktor Shvetsov (UKR)

The preparations of the referees for UEFA EURO 2012 will include various courses and training activities, including:

• 30 January to 2 February – UEFA's winter annual course during which the referees will receive technical instructions as well as physical training plans to follow until the final tournament.

• 30 April to 3 May – Referees' preparatory workshop in Warsaw. The referee quintets will train together in their team base camp. They will also undergo fitness tests and review the application of the technical instructions they have received.

• 4 June – The referee teams will arrive in Warsaw for the final tournament.