UEFA announces referee team for Under-21 final

Paolo Tagliavento has been selected to referee the 2011 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final between Switzerland and Spain in Aarhus, Denmark, on Saturday.

The 38-year-old Italian match official will lead a multinational refereeing team that features assistant referees Damien MacGraith and Vytautas Simkus, from the Republic of Ireland and Lithuania respectively, and fourth official Robert Schörgenhofer from Austria.

For Tagliavento, a hairdresser by trade and a FIFA official since 2007, the Aarhus Stadion encounter will be his fifth engagement of the U21 Championship. He refereed the Denmark-Belarus and England-Czech Republic group games, and was fourth official at yesterday's semi-final between Spain and Belarus, having fulfilled the same function for the Spain-England group match.

Saturday's final also represents the latest high-profile assignment of his refereeing career. Tagliavento was appointed as an additional assistant referee for the 2010 UEFA Europa League final between Club Atlético de Madrid and Fulham FC, before taking charge of his first UEFA Champions League game, between Arsenal FC and FK Partizan, last December.

UEFA has also announced the refereeing team for the third-place play-off between Czech Republic and Belarus. Serbia's Milorad Mažić will take the whistle, with Mark Borsch of Germany and Poland's Marcin Borkowski the assistant referees. Markus Strömbergsson from Sweden will be fourth official. The play-off in Aalborg will kick off at 15.00CET, and the final will follow at 20.45.