The Guardian:
Uefa will demand that the Premier League and the Football League relinquish their role in the organising of refereeing appointments as verdicts in the appeals by clubs involved in Italy's match-fixing scandal are expected today.
The European governing body considers the leagues' stake in the Professional Game Match Officials body, the referees' regulator in which each has a third share along with the Football Association, to be illegal under Fifa and Uefa statutes. Uefa believes the PGMO's structure leaves English football open to the same type of corruption as in Serie A, where favoured referees were selected for matches in order to sway results. Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and Milan are due to learn today if their punishments will be confirmed.
Instead, football's European governor wants the appointment of referees to be the sole preserve of the FA. "Referees should be appointed completely independently of clubs and leagues," said Uefa's director of communications William Gaillard yesterday.
"Leagues not complying with that are in breach of Uefa and Fifa statutes. The PGMO is a breach of these statutes. In England the response is to say we are more honest but we do not think this is good enough. There should be a systemic answer; people have to answer how and why a repeat of Calciopoli [the Italian scandal] is impossible under their system. We have had no such response from anywhere."
Uefa first raised its concerns in an audit conducted in 2003. Its objection surrounds the perception of a possible conflict of interest where referees are appointed by a body whose major stakeholders include the Premier League. The League itself consists of 20 shareholder clubs: therefore, argues Uefa, it is possible that clubs could have a say over who officiates their matches.