BRUFF man Dermot Broughton has been appointed as assistant referee for this evening’s UEFA European Under 19 Championship final between France and Serbia in Marijampole, Lithuania.
The match will be shown live on Eurosport and will be Broughton’s fifth assignment at the tournament, where he has already worked at games involving Serbia three times, including, coincidentally, their group match against France.
The 27-year-old joined FIFA’s list of officials last year and he is a member of the Airtricity League referees’ panel. John Ward, Head of the FAI’s Elite Referees Committee, said Broughton’s appointment is well deserved.
“We are absolutely delighted with the news of Dermot’s appointment and congratulate him on this outstanding achievement which is well deserved after four excellent performances in the tournament to date. Dermot is a very diligent individual who works hard and is 100 per cent committed to improving. Great credit must go to Eddie Foley, who works very closely with our assistants,” said Ward.
Broughton becomes the fifth Irish official to be involved in a UEFA final since 2008 and he is the second to be involved in a men’s tournament. He is also one of four officials from Ireland to be involved in international UEFA competitions this year, along with Neil Doyle, Paula Brady and Mark Gavin.
The under 19 final between France and Serbia will be refereed by Aleksei Kulbakov from Belarus, who told UEFA.com: “To be part of the refereeing team along with Dermot is both a big honour and a pleasure. It’s a very important moment in our refereeing lives. Every referee here at the tournament formed a great group. We were from countries all over Europe but spoke only one language, the language of football.”
