Referees will be no tougher than normal

Dallas after he was struck by a coin at Parkhead

Hugh Dallas, Scotland's representative at Euro 2000, says that he and his fellow referees will let the players hog the headlines this summer.

At Euro 96, and particularly France 98, match officials did their best to get tough in line with tournament guidelines - and they ended up making a mockery of many of the games they took charge of.

Managers and players could have been forgiven for calling for leniency at Euro 2000, but it is the referees themselves who are asking for a common sense approach.

"The referees won't be any tougher than they normally are at this level," says Dallas. "What we did ask for was that there weren't any hard and fast guidelines that come out like they normally do.

"This was taken on board by Uefa, so hopefully it will be a low-key approach from the referees.

"But there are guidelines set out for the 16 nations and they would have been given a video and instructions on what the referees will be looking for."

Struck on the head

Dallas, one of 12 referees at the tournament is no stranger to headlines himself, having been struck on the head by a coin as Rangers clinched the Scottish title at Celtic in 1999.

Dallas had just sent off a Celtic player when the coin struck him and blood poured from his head.

Celtic chief executive Allan MacDonald then had a report commissioned to investigate Dallas' performance.

Despite these controversies, Dallas is considered one of the best referees in the world.