Maltese officials help out as Scotland refs strike

[maltese jambo]

Taken from The Times of Malta

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101126/sport/no-help-from-poles-in-refs-strike

 

Appologies if this has already been posted

 

Two Maltese referees and two assistant referees are on their way to Scotland to help out with top games over the weekend after a strike by Scottish referees.

 

The Maltese officials are referees Chris Lautier ad Marco Borg and assistant referees Philip Agius and Joe Camilleri.

 

Their participation was made possible after a request made by the Scottish FA to the Malta Football Association.

 

Meanwhile, Polish officials said they had decided against helping out at games this weekend, despite making an earlier commitment to do so.

 

The Polish Football Federation had indicated yesterday that it was planning on sending match officials, with Israel also confirmed and countries such as Portugal reportedly also co-operating with the Scottish Football Association.

 

In a statement on Scottish Television's website, www.stv.tv, a spokesperson for the Polish FA confirmed: "We will not be sending our referees to Scotland tomorrow because they are needed for our domestic games.

 

"We did confirm to the SFA yesterday that we would be sending a team of 12 officials but that is no longer the case. Our domestic games take place today, Friday, tomorrow Saturday and Sunday."

 

The strike was called by referees to protest what they see as undeserved and over-the-top criticism of their performances by players and managers.

 

All Premier League games have been allocated match officials with one SFL lower-division match also receiving the services of a referee and assistant referees.

 

The Alba Cup Final and three Scottish Cup replays have also been allocated match officials.

 

It was not immediately clear what would be the consequences on these games of the Polish about-turn.

 

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One of these guys is a personal friend of mine and although i haven't talked to him about this i know for a fact that he would not have been told the reason why the strike is on.

 

Just like the Portugese it seems, they are being kept in the dark as long as possible.