Zoom. Assistant referee in Ligue 1 for eight seasons, the Angevin Pierre Chevreux (42 years) has definitely set his flag. Back on a career rich in emotions.
Interview
with Pierre Chevreux, former referee in Ligue 1. His career: Promoted in National in 2005, in L2 in 2006, in L1 in 2009.
What made you decide to stop your refereeing career?
I officially stopped on June 30, 2018 but it was a year since I stopped. By choice. Several parameters played, including the fact that my central referee Lionel Jaffredo was retiring, so it meant that I had to go on a new adventure. And there are physical constraints also after 40 years. I had the chance to referee Kylian Mbappé and he goes very fast (laughs).
You mentioned Lionel Jaffredo, you did most of your career in Ligue 1 with him ...
Yes. I had the chance to do my last six years in trio with him and Tugdual Philippe. We spent an infinite time together [...] With Lionel, we had incredible matches because he was able to arbitrate in explosive contexts. We notably officiated during Marseille's last victory over Paris (3-0). We did a Saint-Etienne - Lyon, it was huge in terms of tension. We have also been very often in Corsica, for derbies in particular. I believe that you can not succeed in the sport of high level without liking the difficulty.
That is to say…
The harder it was, the more I wanted to go. I say that without bragging because in the locker room, 10 minutes before the kickoff of an OM - PSG, it probably laughed less than before some other matches. There is obvious pressure, including members of our staff. They were tense on matches like that. Which means very clearly that they were transmitting their stress.
As an assistant, how do you manage the pressure coming from behind, stands?
My favorite moment was when we came back to the field. The bigger the stadium, the more people there were, the stronger it was and the more I appreciated the moment. There is a kind of adrenaline dump. After, during the match, yes there is pressure, yes there is noise behind but we must never lose sight of the fact that we are there to make decisions so it means to be able to see and analyze. The only solution for that is to be super focused on what's going on.
"The match where Zlatan said that France is a country of m ..."
So you had to ignore everything behind?
Yes. Of course, I have received projectiles, so in these cases, the public remembers reality. But it was very rare, maybe three times in 12 years. And if we start thinking that behind that can move, we must stay in the locker room ... Of course when you let a player pass that everyone thinks out of play, it ends up at the bottom and there are 50 000 screaming people, you hear it. But that's part of the game
When we made a mistake, a game goes bad, we gamble until the next ...
Sometimes it's even a lot longer than that. Do you remember the match where Zlatan said that "France is a country of my ..."? It was Bordeaux - Paris (3-2), I was there. In fact, we are wrong about a decision. At least, we do not have the same interpretation with Lionel Jaffredo and Bordeaux marks the goal of the victory soon after [...] We return to the locker room and in the long corridor of Chaban-Delmas, there is Blaise Matuidi who is displeased, do not stop talking to us, who is quite vindictive, he is not in the discussion, it is contestation [...] When we come out of the locker room, at least three quarters of an hour later, a journalist comes to see us and say, "What do you think of Ibrahimovic's statements? "We do not understand, we do not know, he explains us [...] When we get in the car, we turn on the radio and there ...
It only spoke of this sentence ...
Yes. It was a surf. People call, fall the first reactions of the policies. We listen to this and as we used to, we decide to stop at the first rest area to have a coffee. And there, we see buses of Parisian supporters with CRS trucks around, we did not even stop. Almost all the French political class has reacted to this sentence of Ibrahimovic. It lasted two - three weeks [...] That day, we touched on the extent to which football in general, and therefore the decisions that we, we could take, could have a media impact. It was staggering.
You have chosen to never be totally pro. Why ?
I always wanted to keep a job nearby (after working in human resources, he is now at the head of a restaurant with his brother). Several things guided my thinking. On the one hand, even if we are well paid, it is not enough to fund a conversion. On the other hand, for my balance, I needed to meet other problems in the week, do not think that arbitration, the match that went wrong ...
What is your best memory ?
It's difficult to bring out a match. What I remember is more this personal adventure but also collective with this particular trio, with whom I spent six seasons. We built an incredibly strong thing.
TESTIMONY
"A very fast succession of decisions"
"We spend our time making decisions knowing that doing nothing is also making a decision. It is an ultra-sequenced work - an action, a decision - and as soon as the decision is made, it must already switch to the one after. Sometimes this succession of decisions is done on a single action: you let the attacker go, so you have decided that he is not out of play, but you can not stop, you have to start, see if he will be foul or not, hanging with the goalkeeper, outside the area, inside, foul, penalty, red card.
It is a very fast succession of decisions, it lasts three seconds or less. And without the possibility of retro back. This is less true since the use of video. But the stake was there, it was to make the decision and immediately to pass on the one after. "
"One mistake in one direction, one in the other, is not compensation. These are two errors. "
Pierre Chevreux , former professional assistant referee.
"Video, a safety net"
"I do not know if I would have liked the video but I think it completely changes the way to referee. This is not serious in itself because for people, what matters is that decisions are good. It will not make them all but it's a safety net.
Since always, the fear of the assistant referees, it is to be mistaken on an offside. It is quickly known to reactions in the stadium. "
"Most players are honest. We must stop with the image of footie cheats. "
Pierre Chevreux, concerning the litigious actions.
"A referee management problem"
"I think there is a real management problem for referees in France. It's completely closed, the referees are not allowed to speak outside. There is a total block out to the press. Because there is the anxiety that the referee is trapped by the journalist. That's why a referee never speaks after a match, which in my opinion is a fundamental mistake.
That a referee does not go express himself directly after the match, I can understand it, it is not the best moment, it is necessary that the pressure falls. But what would prevent a weekly update, to review 7-8 actions of the last day and explain why we made that decision, why it was remarkably well managed and also to say where we were wrong. We would benefit from communicating more. "
"I am not surprised by Tony Chapron 's analysis, especially on the ranking - notes aspect. "
Pierre Chevreux, about Tony Chapron's book