UEFA has taken the unprecedented step of selecting two referees from one nation for a major finals – with Martin Atkinson and Mark Clattenburg being chosen to officiate at the EURO 2016 finals.
England is the only country to have two referees on the 18-man list announced on Tuesday morning with Atkinson and Clattenburg rewarded for their performance in both domestic, continental and international matches.
As at UEFA EURO 2012 and in the European Qualifiers for EURO 2016, the referees will have added support through the deployment of additional assistant referees.
Each refereeing team will consist of a referee, two assistant referees and two additional assistant referees and the majority of assistants and additional assistants will come from the same country as the referee. The full referee teams will be announced in February 2016.
David Elleray, chairman of the FA referees’ committee and a member of the UEFA referee committee, commented: “That UEFA has made an exception to the convention that no country has more than one referee at a EURO finals is indicative of how highly Martin and Mark are regarded throughout Europe, not just by UEFA but also by clubs, players, coaches and spectators.
"Both regularly take control of major UEFA Champions’ league matches and were also involved in critical EURO matches including the play-offs when Mark refereed Norway v Hungary and Martin refereed Denmark v Sweden.
"They have been in excellent form for several years as shown by their appointment to UEFA top matches – Mark refereeing the 2014 UEFA Super Cup final and Martin was in charge of the 2015 UEFA Europa League final.
"Mark and Martin will each have their own team of assistant referees and additional assistant referees and this means that there will be 10 English officials in France and thus England and The FA will have three teams all fighting to be in the final in Paris in July.
"Following on from Michael Oliver’s recent appointment to the FIFA U17 World Cup final in Chile, Mark and Martin’s selection demonstrates that English officials continue to lead the world and we all hope that, should the England team not make the final, one of them will add to English refereeing’s outstanding recent role of honour of which includes the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final, 2010 UEFA Champions’ league final, 2012 Men’s Olympic final, 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup final and the 2013 UEFA Women’s EURO and Champions League finals.”
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Referees who have been selected:
Martin Atkinson (England)
Felix Brych (Germany)
Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)
Mark Clattenburg (England)
William Collum (Scotland)
Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)
Ovidiu Hategan (Romania)
Sergey Karasev (Russia)
Viktor Kassai (Hungary)
Pavel Kralovec (Czech Republic)
Bjorn Kuipers (Netherlands)
Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
Milorad Mazic (Serbia)
Svein Moen (Norway)
Nicola Rizzoli (Italy)
Damir Skomina (Slovenia)
Clement Turpin (France)
Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain)
