Former referee Mark Halsey has praised the officiating at Euro 2024 and singled out the current Premier League duo for their performances.
The tournament has so far been largely free of any major referring controversy, and it's allowed for games to flow in what's been an entertaining group stage.
Speaking exclusively to DAZN thanks to Online Poker, ex-Premier League ref hailed the standard in Germany and said he was pleased to see the league's Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor performing well on the biggest stage.
"These referees are the cream of the crop, they’re all the top refs from their leagues around Europe – we’ve got the best at the Euros. I think we’ve seen that," Halsey said.
"We look at our own referees, Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor, and apart from a couple of big decisions they’ve had in their games I think they’ve refereed really well in their games too – as have all of them. They’re allowing the game to flow and they’re not too quick to hand out any yellows, they’re communicating with the players and that’s what you want to see, that level of consistency."
Halsey has been particularly pleased with how the officials have only interfered in the game when necessary but believes things could change as we progress to the knockouts.
He added: "The main thing is they’re not jumping in, they’re only stamping their own authority on the game when it’s needed, when the reckless challenges come in. When there is a 50/50, you’ve got to remember it’s either reckless, which is a yellow, or careless, which is just a free kick, or endangering the player, which is a red card.
"Once we move into the knockouts, I think the level and intensity will go up which will mean the referees have to stamp out more of those poor challenges. As a whole, I think they’ve done very well."
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