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A former referee has opened up on the 'degrading' experience of being stripped almost naked and examined by Pierluigi Collina.
Jonas Eriksson has described the body fat tests introduced by UEFA's chief refereeing officer in 2010 as 'humiliating'.
Eriksson, a FIFA referee between 2002 and 2018, tells all on the strict culture regarding diet and physique in a new book.
Collina, known for his strictness and professionalism, analysed his officials' bodies in front of each other, enforced eye tests, shared body fat results in front of the group, and cracked down on food such as pasta carbonara, oysters, and cake.
It led to a culture of fear among some of the world's best, writes Eriksson in House of Cards.
'When it came to tests of weight and fat percentage, however, I mostly felt disgust, anger and humiliation. It wasn’t the tests that were the problem, but the way they were conducted,' he says in an extract published in The Guardian.
Pierluigi Collina used to have referees' stripped and examined as part of their UEFA tests because he wanted them to be in the best shape possible
Jonas Eriksson said it was 'degrading' as their body fat percentages were called out
Collina, one of the best referees in football history, was known for his high standards
'We slowly took off our clothes [at a test in 2010],' he continues. 'There we stood in a long row, in just our underwear. We were Europe’s best referees, elite athletes, role models, adults, parents, strong personalities with great integrity … but no one said anything. We barely looked at each other, our gazes flickered a bit nervously while we were called forward two by two.
'There Collina observed us from top to bottom with an ice-cold gaze. Silent and observant. We stepped on to the scale one by one. I sucked in my stomach, straightened my back and held my breath as if it would make any difference.
'I stepped off the scale and it felt like I was standing in a fog. The same instructor came forward with a kind of pliers, a polygraph-like tool that he began to pinch me with on different parts of the body. The caliper, as the instrument was called, was cold and I flinched a little every time it touched my body.
'The instructor squeezed, pulled, pressed, measured, measured again, mumbled something inaudible, pressed again and pinched my skin and body fat. After each measurement area, he called out the number of millimetres he could measure.'
He adds: 'Why didn’t I, or anyone else, say anything? Why didn’t we stand up and say what everyone thought: that it was degrading. If I had raised my voice I would have simultaneously signed my career’s death sentence. If I had questioned or challenged the methods that Collina had introduced then I wouldn’t have got any matches, I’m convinced of that.
'Of course, I also wanted to become fitter, weigh less and reach my goal, to become a world-class referee. It was obvious you shouldn’t be overweight, equally obvious you should be fit – and sure, maybe the entire referee corps needed a professionalisation. But it was wrong to try to get there through a humiliating weigh-in and an agenda where the most important thing was to lose weight and minimise your fat percentage.'
Collina was one of the world's most famous referees but has moved into a variety of roles upstairs since blowing his whistle for the last time in 2005.
Known for his intense stare and strict demeanour, he won the World's Best Referee award six times in a row between 1998 and 2003 and took charge of the 1999 Champions League final as well as the 2002 World Cup final.
