Referees: packed schedule for ASA on the European exchange front

These are weeks of intense activity for ASA on the international stage. The successful practice of Referee Exchanges continues and is gaining further momentum both in football and in futsal. Last weekend saw a refereeing team made up entirely of officials from Gibraltar taking charge of two matches in Matchday 23 of the BKN301 San Marino Championship. At the same time, a team from the San Marino Referees’ Association was in action at the foot of the Rock in two fixtures of the Gibraltar Football League. Mattia Andruccioli, Elison Luci, Andrea Zaghini and Marco Savorani handled St Joseph's – Magpies on the Saturday and Europa FC – Europa Point on the Sunday with great authority. And it was not only about football: for the first time, futsal was also involved in a refereeing exchange between San Marino and Gibraltar. Hercules – Bavaria and Europa – Lions, both games from Matchday 16 of the Premier Division, were entrusted to the duo of Cristian Tonelli and Laurentiu Ilie, who also returned home with excellent results in terms of refereeing performance. The “return leg” took place yesterday at the Multieventi Sport Domus, where the pair Zyl Sheriff – Daniel Sanchez, assisted by Ilie himself in the role of Third Referee, officiated the postponed Matchday 21 fixture of the San Marino futsal championship between Folgore and Juvenes-Dogana. The exchange programme will continue next weekend, heading to very different corners of the European continent. On 2 and 3 March, Gianmarco Ercolani and Andrea Piccoli will be on duty in Latvia, taking charge of two play-off matches in the local championship, renewing the relationship between San Marino and the Baltic country that was successfully launched a year ago and which will once again see Latvian referees involved in officiating matches in the San Marino post-season. The detailed schedule, however, will only be finalised in the coming weeks. Turning back to football, on 9 and 10 March, referees William Villa and Alessandro Vandi, assisted by assistant referees Francesco Lunardon and Manuel Bellavista, will travel to Andorra to officiate matches in the local championship, while on the same weekend Andorran officials Pedro Miguel Gonçalves Fernandes (referee), Marta San Juan Casado (referee), Joan Guiu Serra and Luis Miguel Pinilla Acosta (assistant referees) will be in action in BKN301 San Marino Championship fixtures. ASA referees were, as mentioned, involved for the first time in the Gibraltar futsal league. But that is not the only prestigious milestone. There is also a very personal one concerning Cristian Tonelli, who, with his appointments to Hercules – Bavaria and Europa – Lions, can now say he has officiated matches in four top-tier European futsal leagues: the San Marino league, the Gibraltar league, the Maltese league (February 2020: here is a dedicated article) and the Italian league.

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