Snood, You Lose

In the 2012 European Cup playoff 2nd leg match between Croatia and Turkey on Tuesday 15 November 2012, there were some interesting attire adorned by the ARs. The match finished 0—0, and Croatia qualified 3—0 for the 2012 European Championships.

Snood-wearing, flag-waving AR2

Croatia coach Slaven Bilić stands near a snood-wearing AR1

The 4th Official

Considering the IFAB banned the wearing of snoods (neck warmers) from the start of the 2011-2012 season, it is a surprise and an embarrassment to see ARs wearing snoods.

It is common sense that match officials usually follow Law 4_The Player's Equipment as much as they can in a consistent manner with players. Obviously, referees are allowed to wear timepieces, carry whistles, cards, coins, pens, pencils and writing pads plus they are not required to wear shinpads. However, if match officials wear undergarments, they are the same colour as the predominant colour of their shirt sleeves and/or shorts. Since players are banned from wearing jewellery and clothing with religious or political or controversial slogans, then it is common sense that match officials will not wear these items either. And with the new clause about snoods, match officials should be consistent and not wear snoods too.

But because the two ARs wore snoods, the team of Portuguese match officials did not give a good image of themselves. They were:

Referee
Pedro Proença (POR)
Assistant referees
Bertino Miranda (POR), Ricardo Santos (POR)
Fourth official
Manuel De Sousa (POR)