Keith Dalton is Match Centre Manager with UEFA’s Competitions division. One of his responsibilities is that of Venue Director which sees him assigned to a Champions League club to oversee their home matches in the competition
VENUE Directors
M
y principle role at UEFA is that of Match Centre manager with UEFA’s Competitions division. I
am responsible for a small team dealing with competition adminstration and match operations. This includes match fixtures, player registration, match data, playing kit and the monitoring of match preparations. My secondary role is that of Venue Director and each season I am assigned to a club of the UEFA Champions League in order to work with them in preparing and implementing their home matches in the competition. UEFA organises over 1,600 matches per year on grass pitches across competitions ranging from the amateur Regions Cup to the European Football Championship and the prestigious UEFA Champions League. At every level there is an enormous amount of planning and preparation involved but, whatever the competition, the culmination of these efforts is always the same; two teams striving for success, supported by their fans in the stadium and at home via the television. Through close collaboration with the
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football associations and clubs, UEFA tries to ensure the ideal conditions for the players so that they may perform to the best of their ability, giving their team every chance of success and to produce a show to delight the fans. To be approved for use in a UEFA competition, a stadium must meet certain criteria. For example, to be used for European youth competitions, a grandstand with 200 seats should be available and, at the highest level, 30,000 seats is the minimum. UEFA’s Stadia and Security unit coordinate a pool of fifteen inspectors who conduct a total of around 130 stadia assessments per year as well as a further forty to monitor ongoing construction work. At every UEFA match, there is always a four person team of match officials, a UEFA delegate, who is the official representative of UEFA, and a referee observer who assists the referee team and comments on their performance. At 9.30am on the day of every match, the match officials and UEFA delegate make an inspection to assess the state of the pitch, goals, lines and, if the match is
being televised, camera postions to ensure they do not pose a risk to players. Usually, everything is in order. But it has happened that the goals have been of different heights! This is followed by a security meeting at 10.00am during which the officials and teams review preparations for the match. One of the most common problems is, of course, the weather. A flooded pitch can be unusable but, depending on its drainage capacity, the situation may change within a matter of hours. Final decisions on match postponement are delayed as long as possible. It is clearly not possible to play on a frozen or snow- covered pitch but, with more and more venues installing heating or covering systems, postponements are rare. However, the climate this season has, once again, proved unreliable with snow causing unexpected problems in Greece where such installations are not available. During my six years working for
UEFA, I have had the opportunity to visit all manner of stadia and, whether a local village venue with standing room only and a snack bar, or an international all-
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