Alain Sars (born 30 April 1961) is a retired French

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. Sars has officiated matches in the

2000 African Cup of Nations The 2000 African Cup of Nations was the 22nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria, who jointly replaced Zimbabwe as host. Just like in 1998, the field ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, the

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

, and the

1995 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1995 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 10th edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It was held in Qatar from 13 to 28 April 1995. The tournament too ...

. He also served as a referee in qualifying matches for the

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

1998 World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

, and

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

tournaments. Alin Sars became infamous in Sweden in the Champions League game between AIK vs. Barcelona in the year 1999. AIK took a surprising lead by

Nebojša Novaković Nebojša Novaković ( sr-Cyrl, Небојша Новаковић, born 29 October 1964) is a former professional football player who played as a striker, most notably for AIK. He is the manager of Vasalunds IF. Born in Sarajevo, he moved to Swe ...

when there were 20 minutes left of the game. In the 85th minute Sars decided to allow Barcelona to commence with their corner kick during a double substitution for AIK, resulting in a goal. AIK lost the game 1-2 after a late goal in extra time from Barcelona. The Swedes were furious and the Head Coach of AIK Stuart Baxter was sent off after heavily protesting the unjust goal. Even to this day Sars is an unpopular referee among AIK-fans. The AIK-Barcelona game wasn't the first game in which he made a huge scandal. In a game between

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, whi ...

and Kauserlautern he allowed a goal when the ball wasn't over the line thanks to player protests. After these scandals Sars was appointed as a referee in a FIFA world cup. Sars was named by FIFA in March 2006 as one of the 44 candidate referees to officiate at the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

in Germany,FIFA
"Referees enter final FIFA World Cup preparation phase"
15 March 2006. Retrieved on 24 May 2013. but he was not among those selected for the tournament. He retired internationally in 2006.

References

External links

Game Northern Ireland – Ukraine as part of World Cup 1998
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sars, Alain 1961 births Living people French football referees