Philippe Diallo:“Proud of our referees”
The president of the FFF has welcomed the new UEFA appointment of François Letexier and Clément Turpin, who will referee in the semi-finals of the Europa League and the Champions League respectively. Last week, UEFA also selected them to officiate at Euro 2024.
The day after the decision to appoint Clément Turpin (main photo, right) to preside over this evening’s Bayern Munich - Real Madrid Champions League semi-final, UEFA announced on Tuesday April 30th that François Letexier (main photo, left) would take up a similar role in one of the Europa League semi-finals.
On Thursday May 2nd he will take charge of the match between AS Roma and Bayer Leverkusen (KO 9pm) assisted by Cyril Mugnier and Mehdi Rahmouni. Jérôme Brisard and Willy Delajod will be on VAR duties. These appointments for two European tournament semi-finals come just a week after the European body selected the same two French referees for the finals of the 2024 European Championship in Germany, set to take place between June 14th and July 14th.
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This double appointment in the European competition semi-finals is a first for French refereeing since the 1990-1991 season, which saw Joël Quiniou referee Barcelona-Juventus (3-1) in the Cup Winners' Cup, and Gérard Biguet the UEFA Cup for the match between Inter Milan-Sporting Lisbon (2-0). During the 2002-2003 season, two semi-finals were officiated by the same French referee, Gilles Veissière: Lazio - Porto (0-0) in the second leg of the UEFA Cup, followed by Inter Milan- AC Milan (1-1) in the Champions League three weeks later.
Philippe Diallo, president of the French Football Federation: “The appointment by UEFA of Clément Turpin and François Letexier for the semi-finals of the Champions League and Europa League are a real cause for satisfaction. This is a new mark of trust and recognition from international authorities. After also being selected by UEFA on the list of nineteen referees for Euro 2024 in Germany last week, this is excellent news. I therefore wanted to congratulate our two international referees, as well as their respective assistants, Nicolas Danos and Cyril Mugnier, and Benjamin Pagès and Mehdi Rahmouni. And I haven’t forgotten Jérôme Brisard and Willy Delajod, who will also be present at the European Championship as VAR assistants. Alongside France, only three other nations will have two central referees present at the Euros: England, Germany and Italy. This participation of our referees in the final four of the European Cups and the Euros rewards performance at the highest level of French refereeing. It highlights its overall quality and value. We can be proud of our referees.”