The opening match of the European Championship between Turkey and Italy is led by Danny Makkelie, UEFA reported on Wednesday. Both countries will meet on Friday in the Stadio Olimpico. Hessel Steegstra and Jan de Vries are Makkelie’s assistants, while Kevin Blom will act as VAR. Stéphanie Frappart is the fourth official at the opening game. Kick-off in Rome is at 9 p.m.
In addition to Blom, Pol van Boekel has also been appointed as VAR, just like the Germans Christian Gittelmann and Bastian Dankert. For Makkelie it is his debut at a major tournament and UEFA entrusts him with the opening game right away. For Bjorn Kuipers it is his fifth and last major tournament. It is not yet known which other matches will be assigned to the Dutch referees at the European Championship.
Kuipers and Makkelie have been in Istanbul since this week, the base of operations for all referees and assistant referees at the European Championship. During the European Championship, the video arbitrators Blom and Van Boekel will be staying in Nyon, Switzerland, where UEFA’s head office is also located. From there, the VAR arbitrators do their work from behind the television screens in all matches, just as they do in the Dutch competition from the ‘replay center’ in Zeist.
UEFA has selected eighteen European referees for the European Championship. In the context of an exchange with the South American Football Association CONMEBOL, the Argentine referee Fernando Rapallini has been added to the referees’ guild. “We train together, we analyze the matches together. We sit together to be able to switch quickly and to have everyone on the same page. Uniformity in the arbitration is very important,” Makkelie recently told the court. General Newspaper.
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