He is, with Stéphanie Frappart, one of the two French referees selected for Euro 2021. At the whistle of Wales - Switzerland at the start of the tournament, Clément Turpin (39) will also be in charge of Denmark - Russia, Monday .
If he shares this pride with his two assistants and his video team, he is especially happy to officiate in front of the stands with the public after more than a year in camera.
An essential element in his eyes, even if they are not always very tender with those who hold the whistle.
Does a referee await the list for the Euro with the same anguish as a player?
CLÉMENT TURPIN.
Of course, we are impatiently awaiting that, it is a common point that we have with the players.
If it is only us, we are not hooked to our TV since it is obviously not broadcast live.
I was at home when one of my two assistants told me the news.
At the time, we are very proud.
But very quickly we say to
ourselves
:
Come on, now we have to prepare it
.
This is your second Euro, after that of 2016 in France.
Is the emotion still the same?
Yes of course.
One Euro is one of the 3-4 biggest sporting events that exist.
In the scale of emotional discharges, it is in a separate box.
Is this a goal that we set at the start of the season, as a player can do with a selection?
I don't know what the response of a player from the France team would have been, but I imagine that the stage which precedes the competition is the qualification.
It's the same for us at the start of the season.
We knew that we would have to go for the qualifying, that it would not fall on its own.
Does this require you to be prepared strictly and without deviation?
We will say that I am between the ascetic and the extravagant
(laughs)
.
No, actually, I have a normal life, you know.
I live in my countryside in Burgundy, I do things in a very reasonable way, without exuberance, both in terms of the pace of life, food and sleep.
But maybe it's the function that wants it: the referee is not the one who climbs the tables and turns the napkins.
We are in the measure and performance.
Our body is our work tool, we take care of it.
Food, hydration, sleep: this is the great triptych of the athlete.
In May 2018, the referees Cyrille Gringore, Clément Turpin and Nicolas Danos trained in Clairefontaine (Yvelines) before leaving for the World Cup in Russia.
LP / Olivier Corsan
Besides the physical, the mental notion is also important in a referee.
How much can a mistake undermine you?
In this case, our quality is knowing how to move on.
Arbitrators do not have a monopoly on errors, everyone in fact is human being.
The difference is in our ability to “reset” and leave with a positive attitude.
Do you regret that the error is not more accepted when it comes from the referee?
As long as there are men and women playing football or taking the whistle, there will be mistakes.
We do it and we have to move forward with it.
Today, we have tools that allow us to reduce these errors, so much the better.
We also have the obligation to review each match, to cut out the key sequences and to transmit them to our hierarchy.
Then, we rework cold on these elements.
There is a real job of the referee and his staff in this area.
How did you experience the season without a spectator?
There were less emotions.
A football match is beautiful when the stadium is vibrating.
A few days ago, I had the chance to referee a match with the public
(Editor's note: the final of the Europa League, this interview having been carried out before the Euro)
.
When we got back to the locker room at half-time, we looked at each other and said to
ourselves
:
That's it, it's the beginning of the end, we finally find a stadium that is alive, it's great!
I hope this Euro will be an opportunity to end these eighteen months which were not rock'n'roll on an emotional level.
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However, the public is not always kind to the referees ...
(He smiles.)
Yes, of course.
Sometimes the forums…
(he voluntarily uses a strong vocabulary)
occasionally express a point of view different from ours.
But that's also what makes the beauty of the thing.
Me, I am for the return of the public, I want to find cries, screams and emotions in the stands.
You are one of the referees that we recognize.
How do you relate to the public outside the stadiums?
(He laughs.)
You know, I live in the country, I can go get my baguette with no problem.
But when you recognize me, it's ultra-benevolent 99 times out of 100. And people are grateful, even a little admiring sometimes.
It's nice to hear that what we do is great because the function is not easy.
It is heartwarming.
There is a real contrast between the emotions that we can experience off the pitch and those, much more exacerbated, that we sometimes encounter at the stadium.
But so much the better, it's this full spectrum that shows that our business is great.
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Has the absence of an audience changed your way of arbitrating?
The difference is that we hear more from the players. I did not have the impression that they changed their behavior, but we can hear their exchanges more. Usually, we only perceive those who are close to us, but there we even heard the sidelines. That was delirium… We sometimes heard funny exchanges between the two staffs…