Pierluigi Collina

Pierluigi Collina (born 13 February 1960) is an Italian former football referee.

During his teenage years, he played as a centre-back for a local team, but was persuaded in 1977 to take a referee's course, where it was discovered that he had a particular aptitude for the job.

Within three years he was officiating at the highest level of regional matches, while also completing his compulsory military service.

Collina was born in Bologna and attended the University of Bologna, graduating with a degree in economics in 1984.

In 1988, he progressed more rapidly than normal to the national third division, Serie C1 and Serie C2.

After three seasons, he was promoted to officiating Serie B and Serie A matches.

Around this time, Collina developed a severe form of alopecia, resulting in the permanent loss of all his facial hair, giving him his distinctive bald appearance and earning the nickname Kojak.

In 1988, Collina met his future wife Gianna in Versilia.

After living together almost from their meeting, they moved to the coastal town of Viareggio.

Since their marriage, the couple have had two daughters.

In 1995, after he had officiated at 43 Serie A matches, he was placed on FIFA's Referees List.

He was allocated five matches at the 1996 Olympic Games, including the final between Nigeria and Argentina.

He was named "The World's Best Referee" by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics six consecutive times from 1998 to 2003.

He refereed the 1999 UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United; he cited this as his most memorable game because of the cheers at the end, which he described as a "lions' roar".

Kahn was referring to two previous high-profile matches that Collina had refereed which involved Kahn: the aforementioned 1999 UEFA Champions League final, a 2–1 defeat for Bayern; and Germany's 5–1 defeat against England in September 2001.

Kahn's luck did not change in the final, and his team lost 2–0.

In June 2002, Collina reached the pinnacle of his career, when he was chosen for the World Cup final, between Brazil and Germany.

Prior to the game, Germany's Oliver Kahn told the Irish Times: "Collina is a world-class referee, there's no doubt about that, but he doesn't bring luck, does he?"

He refereed the 2004 UEFA Cup Final between Valencia and Marseille.

UEFA Euro 2004 was his last major international tournament, as in February 2005, as he reached the mandatory retirement age.

However, a dispute emerged between the federation and Collina early in August 2005, following his decision to sign a sponsorship deal with Opel (also advertising for Vauxhall Motors in the United Kingdom – both are owned by General Motors).

As Opel was also a sponsor of Serie A club A.C. Milan, the deal was seen as a conflict of interest, and Collina was not allowed to referee top flight matches in Italy.

In response, Collina handed in his resignation, effectively ending his career.

The Italian Referees Association then attempted to reject his resignation, but he persisted with his retirement from the league.

His final competitive game was a Champions League qualifier between Everton and Villarreal on 24 August 2005.

He announced his retirement soon after the game.

His last international match was Portugal – Slovakia, for a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier at Estádio da Luz in Lisbon.

The FIGC raised its mandatory retirement age to 46 in order to accommodate Collina for a further season.

Collina attracted the ire of Luciano Moggi, the Juventus executive and chief instigator of the 2006 Italian football scandal.

Collina was one of the referees that Moggi attempted to have punished for decisions that were made against Juventus.

In an intercepted phone call, Moggi claimed that Collina and his colleague Roberto Rosetti were too "objective" and should be "punished" for it.

As a result, he and Rosetti were two of the few referees that emerged unscathed from the scandal.

After retiring from Serie A, Collina refereed the Soccer Aid matches for charity in May 2006 and September 2008.

During the latter of these games, Collina was involved in an awkward fall and was stretchered off after 21 minutes of play.

Collina is still involved in football as an unpaid consultant to the Italian Football Referees Association (AIA), the Head of Referees for the Football Federation of Ukraine since 2010, a member of the UEFA Referees Committee, and Chairman of the FIFA referees committee.

He later refereed the first half of the 2010 Soccer Aid match.

Collina was appointed head of referees for the Football Federation of Ukraine since 2010.

His work in this position is criticised by national referees who disapprove of his lack of involvement in Ukrainian football (spending not more than two weeks per year in Ukraine) and possible tolerance towards corruption in the Ukrainian national football association.

Collina was involved in the introduction and evaluation of the video assistant referee system for the 2018 World Cup.

During the tournament he pointed out the system's effectiveness and later commented positively on its application.