We have all witnessed some top class officiating in this tournament and UEFA’s Head of Refereeing Roberto Rossetti, a former FIFA Italian referee, can be satisfied with how his clear instructions to the 18 selected referees have been applied.
Referees have allowed the games to flow and not been fooled by those players who decide to go to ground easily rather than play football in the correct manner.
Those nervous early challenges by the players have received a verbal rebuke rather than the display of a yellow card.
VAR interventions have only taken place when a ‘CLEAR AND OBVIOUS’ error by the referee has taken place.
I do hope that the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd – the body responsible for English referees – will take note to avoid another disastrous season with the poor application of VAR in the Premier League.
One game where I thought that the referee did not perform well was in the Wales vs Denmark game where, in the closing stages, he appeared to lose some of his focus and concentration.
The sending off of Wales substitute Harry Wilson in the 90th minute was an over reaction by referee Daniel Siebert and I could not support him on the red card.
The challenge in my opinion did not fulfil the criteria for serious foul play and I, like many other former officials, would have supported a yellow card.
Anthony Taylor among best refs at Euro 2020
One of the referees of the tournament has to be England’s Anthony Taylor, who has grown in stature in the three games that he has officiated to date.
His prompt action in the Denmark vs Finland will be remembered where he intervened to get medics onto the field to attend to the collapsed Christian Eriksen.
Having witnessed that trauma he later resumed the game and brought it to a satisfactory conclusion.
Portugal vs Germany was his next appointment on the 19th June and his movement and positioning was terrific in ensuring that his decision-making was top class.
We then witnessed his third appointment in the tournament taking charge of the Italy vs Austria match which went to extra time. Marko Arnautovic rightly had his goal ruled out for offside following a VAR check, with English Premier League referee, Stuart Attwell, sitting in the VAR chair and taking some criticism for the length of time it took for him to make the decision.
One final point that is a concern is that I feel that referees in this tournament do need to take more care with their time keeping. I do believe that insufficient lost time is being added on at the end of each half.
I wish Dutch referee Danny Makkelie all the best in his upcoming appointment officiating England vs Germany