Collina admits that referees made mistake during England-Ukraine match

UEFA Head of Referees Pierluigi Collina has admitted that the team of referees headed by Hungarian Viktor Kassai made a mistake during the last group match of the Euro 2012 championship between Ukraine and England by not awarding the goal scored by Ukraine in the middle of the second half.

"The referee's assistant [behind the goal] was appearing in Euro 2012 for the first time – it's a trial introduced by UEFA. According to the statistics, they made their contributions to making correct decisions 16 times. Unfortunately, a wrong decision was made at the match between England and Ukraine. The goal was scored, the ball crossed the goal line by 50 centimeters, it's true. It was human error. It was the only mistake in a thousand matches," Collina said at a press conference in Warsaw on Wednesday.

He added that this mistake was the first in over three years of the experiment with additional referee assistants.

Collina refused to comment on the issue of introducing an electronic system to control the goal line, explaining that the UEFA Referees Committee is not in charge of it.

Collina also said that, in general, he was satisfied with the work of referees during Euro 2012.

"The twelve referees selected for Euro 2012 are among the best European referees. After 24 matches we are happy and satisfied with their performance," he said.

As reported, in the 63rd minute, when the score was 1-0 in favour of England, Ukraine's forward Artem Milevsky led his team mate Marko Devic to the shooting position and the latter skilfully passed the rival's defender and shot, but England's defender John Terry kicked the ball out, although it could be seen on the video recording that the ball crossed the goal line. Officiating referee Viktor Kassai decided not to award the goal.

As a result, England defeated Ukraine 1-0 and Ukraine were kicked out of the championship.

On July 2, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) will hold a meeting in Kyiv to sum up the results of trials of the electronic system to control the goal line. If IFAB decides to introduce the system, the electronic systems will be installed at stadiums next season.