UEFA has appointed FIFA Referee Alan Mario Sant for the UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament to be played between May 4 and 16 in Slovenia. Alan Mario Sant passed a rigorous FIFA Fitness Test in preparation for his participation in this Final Tournament and was commended for his optimum physical condition.
This is a very prestigious appointment as 12 years have passed since the Malta FA was represented with a referee (not assistant referee) in a Final Tournament.
Alan Mario Sant is the only referee chosen from the UEFA Category 3 List of Referees (total of 104 referees in this category) while the other 5 are all from Category 2.
The match official team will consist of six referees and eight assistant referees new to the FIFA list, and two experienced fourth officials from the host nation, as follows:
• Referees – Emir Ale?kovi? (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Marius Avram (Romania), Mattias Gestranius (Finland), Ivan Kruzliak (Slovakia), Harald Lechner (Austria) and Alan Mario Sant (Malta).
• Assistant Referees – Milutin Djuki? (Montenegro), Mark Gavin (Republic of Ireland), Serkan Gençeler (Turkey), Haralds Gudermanis (Latvia), Mubariz Hashimov (Azerbaijan), Borut Križari? (Croatia), Leif Opland (Norway), and Jean-Yves Wicht (Switzerland).
• Fourth Officials – Dejan Balaži? and Mitja Žganec (Slovenia).
The group matches will be played on 4, 7 and 10 May in Ljubljana, Domzale, Maribor and Lendava, with the top two teams from each section progressing to the semi-finals three days later, and the final on 16 May.
The participants include three former competition winners, with the Netherlands having won it in 2011, Germany in 2009 and France in 2004. Poland were added to this list, since they won the European Under-16 Tournament in 1993.