Alain Hamer (born 10 December 1965 in

Luxembourg City Luxembourg (; ; ), also known as Luxembourg City ( or ; ; or ), is the capital city of Luxembourg and the Communes of Luxembourg, country's most populous commune. Standing at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers in southern Luxe ...

) is a Luxembourgish football referee. He was a referee in the

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway women's national football team, Norway, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament fea ...

. He has refereed over 50 matches in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, the first in 2000–01. He has also refereed a match in the

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

and close to 30 matches in the French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

. He has been a

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

referee since 1993. Hamer was one of the referees who agreed to officiate

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

matches in November 2010 after

strike action Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike in British English, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Working class, work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Str ...

was announced by the Scottish referees association. He was assigned the role of referee for the match between

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

and

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, Inverness CT or just Inverness, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team competes in , the third tier of the Scottish Professional Footba ...

on the Saturday and the match between

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

and

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

a day later. Hamer was available to referee Scottish games due to a strike in his native country. Due to the lack of refereeing opportunities in Luxembourg, Hamer has frequently refereed in the professional leagues in the neighbouring countries of France and Belgium. He is openly gay. In a 2007 UEFA Euro qualifying match between Sweden and Iceland, with Sweden leading 4–0 in the second half, Markus Rosenberg of Sweden reached out with his right leg in the penalty area to settle down a chip. He then tried to lift the ball in the air, but it hit defender

Ívar Ingimarsson Ívar Ingimarsson (born 20 August 1977) is an Icelandic former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He began his career in Iceland with Valur and ÍBV before moving to England where, after an initial loan spell with Torquay Un ...

's left arm which was reached out. The Swedes waved their hands to call for a penalty, and instead Ingimarsson picked up the ball and, under the erroneous belief that a foul had been called against them, passed the ball to Rosenberg who then passed to teammate

Marcus Allbäck Marcus Christian Allbäck (; born 5 July 1973) is a Swedish former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), striker. He was known for his sharp finishing ability and represented clubs in Sweden ...

who fired the ball into the net for a 5–0 lead.

References

External links

Profile at weltfussball.de
(archived) * * * * * Luxembourgian football referees 1965 births Gay sportsmen Living people People from Luxembourg City UEFA Champions League referees FIFA Women's World Cup referees 21st-century Luxembourgian LGBTQ people {{Luxembourg-footy-bio-stub

See also

References

External links