Product Description

On 30th June 2002 Pierluigi Collina, universally acknowledged to be the world's finest referee, officiated over Brazil and Germany in the World Cup Final. A matter of weeks later he was back on the field refereeing a Italian Cup first round encounter between Sampdoria and Siena. This unique vantage point makes Collina perfectly placed to comment on the game, on the stars, the media and the matches he has overseen, including England's world cup victory over Argentina and Manchester United's dramatic treble winning European Cup Final.

The Rules of the Game takes us as never before into the world of the referee, the preparation needed for each game, the managing of players and the other officials and the camaraderie behind the scenes. Collina describes how it feels to make a difficult decision, the pressures from the crowd and from the players while taking us through the most significant matches he has refereed.

But more than anything this is Pierluigi Collina's chance to speak out about the game he loves. His passionate, expert and, sometimes controversial views are compulsory reading for anyone with a passing interest in the beautiful game.

'In my opinion, Collina is the best referee in the game' David Beckham

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74530 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'In my opinion, Collina is the best referee in the game' David Beckham

About the Author

Pierluigi Collina was born in Bologna in 1960. By trade a financial consultant, he has become one of the greatest referees of all time, having officiated at the World Cup Final, Champion's League Final and Olympic Final. He lives in Viareggio with his wife and two children.

Customer Reviews

People........Give it a chance!
Pierluigi collina is one of the, if not the best referee in the world. He recently wrote and autobiography published under the rather misleading title 'the rules of the game.' Just in case you are wondering, 'the rules of the game.' has nothing to do with the rules of football. It is the autobiography, not Collina's version of the rules of football (soccer). As some other reviewers pointed out earlier, Collina's writing style is not very good, nor is it very stylish. But this may be because he wrote the italian version, who may have been very good, and it was translated by Lain Halliday to English, so this style of writing is not 100% Collina. The straightfoward and blunt sentences may be because Lain Halliday translated it badly, or it may have been badly written in the first place. Either way, Collina did not write the English version of 'the rules of the game.'

I think that the words 'translated by Lain Halliday' should be on the front cover.

Overall, 'the rules of the game' is both interesting and quite infomative, but either Collina's storytelling, or Lian Hallidays's translations went wrong

An excellent insight into the world of football refereeing
To all in football Pierluigi Collina is probably the most respected and most identifiable referees that there has ever been, and this book provides the reader with an insight into the mind of a great referee.
Collina attempts to answer many of the questions that a reader might have, discussing such issues as the preparation of a referee before a big game and his thoughts on tv replays. The book is also highly entertaining with Collina describing many difficult situations that have occured on the field during his time as a referee.
The book has been translated from Italian, but nothing has been lost in the translation. I found this book to be highly entertaining and with Collina describing what it takes to be a great referee, my respect for top class referees has grown immeasurably.
A real classic!

Great autobiography
Luckily I, like most of Europe did know the identity of the author and found it to be a great insight into the football world from a different angle.
Although I wasn't happy with the cover as I was initially looking for something about baldness in sport.