Our Referees
The most important task of regional referees associations and their umbrella organization, Football Referees Association of Slovenia (FRAS), is a constant responsibility for the best possible quality of refereeing at all levels, while raising the number of referees as a whole. While trying to achieve these goals and live up to the task, the FRAS, a completely independent entity inside the Football Association of Slovenia, has an absolute support from all football structures in Slovenia. While FA Slovenia takes care of all the administrative aspects instead of FRAS and take care of its financial needs, the FRAS focuses on educating the referees and providing high-quality refereeing on the national and international scale. Football Referees Association of Slovenia puts a lot of emphasis on the education and evolution of young referees, which is one of the reasons they started the »Talent - mentor« referee program, as recommended by UEFA.
Apart from educating referees, the FRAS strives to educate the representatives of the clubs, coaches and players, as their knowledge about the laws of the game could often prove to be very important, if not decisive, on the field.
Slovenia has a long history as far as the refereeing goes. Slovenian referees have played a big role in Yugoslav football during the times of the ex-Yugoslavia and soon after FIFA accepted Slovenia as a full member, Slovenian referees were catapulted into international refereeing scene. In 1993 FIFA added seven Slovenians to their international referees list: Milan Mitrovič, Štefan Tivold and Darko Jamšek as head referees and Anton Beton, Žarko Hvalič, Žarko Vidali and VIli Kranjc as assistant referees. The list kept changing as the years passed, but in 1996, four Slovenian futsal referees (Zoran Novarlič, Božo Tabar, Ivan Žunič and Silvo Borošak) found their way on the international futsal referee list as well.
In the recent years, Slovenian referees are getting more and more recognition in the international waters and while it's everybody's wish to be on the international list, only a few get that honour. Darko Čeferin and Damir Skomina are two of Slovenian four (Matej Jug and Robert Kranjec were the other two in 2009) internationals and most prominent Slovenian referees. Skomina has been in the role of the fourth referee at the previous Euro in Austria and Switzerland, but has been a regular this year in the Europa League. He was even promoted to the Elite list of referees and has officiated matches in the most prestigious football club competition, Champions League.
Apart from Čeferin, Skomina, Jug and Kranjec, the following referees were also on the list in 2009: Andrej Kokolj, Milan Kogej, Primož Arhar, Marko Stančin, Robert Zirnstein, Bojan Ul and Gregor Radojko as assistants, Tanja Subotič and assistants Petra Sever and Maja Dovnik made it to the women's international list, while Borut Šivic, Dejan Nikolič, Boris Toplak and Gregor Kovačič represented Slovenian referees on futsal international list.
