In the final of the Women’s Champions League, the right to be awarded for the first time by a Finnish referee. Top judge Lina Lehtovaara also knocks on the men’s Veikkausliiga gates.
TURKU. On Tuesday in May Lina Lehtovaara, 40, hurry to practice. The working day as a teacher in Parais has recently ended and we still have to drive twenty kilometers to Turku.
The week has started with normal everyday things. However, the week ends with the most significant match of Lehtovaara’s career so far.
With the top two teams in women’s football playing one of the most coveted trophies in the sport on Saturday, Lehtovaara is making history. He is the first Finnish referee in the Champions League final.
– This is definitely the biggest single match of my career. After all, it’s great to get to whistle in the Champions League final. It can be compared to one of the European Championship finals. Maybe the World Cup final would go ahead of it, Lehtovaara says.
The finals will be played this year in Turin between FC Barcelona in Spain and Lyon in France.
Until last weekend, the judges took Lehtovaara to the Helsinki metropolitan area. At the time, there was a National League match between HPS and FC Honga on the Paloheina artificial turf. Juventus Stadium, which hosts the culmination of the Champions League, draws about 41,000 more spectators, but for an experienced judge, the bright lights no longer feel dazzling.
Lehtovaara’s own team will be complemented by assistant referees from Greece and Estonia, a fourth referee from the Czech Republic and Portuguese video referees. The match is his fourth season in the Champions League and previous assignments have taken him to Madrid, Munich and London. There is final experience from the fourth referee in 2010, but now the main responsibility for judging the match rests.
Year-round football season
Lehtovaara started as an international referee back in 2009. For a long time, he drove two lanes, balancing between football and teaching, but now the situation has changed.
Shifting the focus to an increasingly judging career has paid off.
– Sometimes we’ve gone to extremes and it feels like both sides are suffering. When it came to the World Cup candidate position, I thought I needed to make some change now. Your own goal won’t be realized if you don’t change something. I’ll finish myself to the end, Lehtovaara times.
– I now work as a resource teacher, which takes a little pressure away from civilian work. I have been able to go to international matches without stress and now it feels like it has really borne fruit. The European Championship place has been reached and the crown will be this Champions League final, so it feels like the right decision.
The football umbrella organizations Uefa and Fifa make their own training programs available to the referees. Lehtovaara has gone one step further and hired a personal physics coach, initially from his own bag. Two joint workouts a week in particular develop speed and endurance characteristics.
– Especially on the international side, the game has accelerated considerably in recent years. It takes 90 minutes and a little bit to be sharp and make decisions. If you are on the extremes and your heartbeat is red, your head will not work the best either.
At Lehtovaara, the season never breaks. In Finland, games are played from the beginning of spring to the end of autumn, when the series is only at the beginning in European fields. There is no proper time to recover or reset.
International missions will come on top of the national series. This summer, Lehtovaara has been named the only Finnish judge at the European Championships in England. The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is also looming on next year’s horizon.
– If it goes so well that a place in the World Cup will be secured, the next step would be the Olympics. Some of the judges who played at the World Championships will be selected for the Olympics. That, too, would be a great goal to achieve. In addition, of course, the goal in Finland is to be the first woman to judge a Veikkausliiga match.
Still not crossing the threshold of the Veikkausliiga
Lehtovaara and Veikkausliiga have been talked about in the same sentence for some time. Yet the invitation to the highest level of men has come only as the fourth judge.
During this season, Lehtovaara has already taken responsibility for Ykkönen’s matches, so the breaking of the historic wall is closer than ever.
– I feel that now would be the right time to think about these achievements, ie the European Championship venue and the Champions League final. In order to secure a World Championship venue, it would be extremely important to get to work at the top level for men in your own country. Quite a few other candidates work in the first series of men in their own country, Lehtovaara explains.
Even in the toughest series in Europe, women’s judges have started to be seen in recent seasons, but no step has yet been taken in Finland. Lehtovaara, who turns 41 in the summer, believes that his current career as a judge will continue realistically for at least a few more years, so the development closer to the Veikkausliiga could soon bring the expected news.
– I compete for that place with all the other Finnish judges. Everyone else whistling in Ykkönen wants to take the next step and join the Veikkausliiga. There is work to be done, but I would say for myself that the games at No. 1 have gone well so far.
– However, I hope that the international merits also weigh in the balance and that the Football Association understands the importance of the next step.
Lehtovaara is an experienced referee, who can be said to have whistled the average Veikkausliiga match in tougher places at the latest after Saturday’s final. Judging in the Veikkausliiga would require, among other things, passing the fitness tests assigned to it, but Lehtovaara says that his fitness is good enough at the moment.
Work in front of larger display venues is constantly being done, as in this case on the running track of an almost empty sports hall, on the edge of which young athletes stop to watch a top judge ravaging a hundred meters of bets.
– I have been able to improve my speed, especially so that the required tests pass. You have to be fast enough to keep up with the game, but I would also stress reading the game and its importance. I would say that I am extremely good at it.
The final of the Women’s Soccer Champions League will be played on Saturday at 8 pm The match will feature FC Barcelona and Olympique Lyon.