With that bald head, those throbbing veins and staring eyes Pierluigi Collina looks like a character from a sci-fi movie.

The only thing about him which is out of this world, however, is his refereeing.

Who says so? Just about everybody in football, including managers, administrators and the players.

So exceptional have his displays been so far at Euro 2004, in the opening game between Portugal and Greece and in the vital Group B encounter between England and Croatia, that Chelsea's new boss Jose Mourinho reckons he should be given the 'Golden Ball' for the best performer at the tournament.

He has been adjudged 'best referee' six times by the international body of football historians and statisticians who keep tabs on these things.

It all makes the fact that this will be Collina's last tournament because under UEFA regulations he has to retire at the age of 45 all the more ridiculous. He will be lost to football action altogether at the end of the next Italian season when again retirement is obligatory.

Short-sighted, obdurate, nonsensical. Take your pick, they all apply to a rule which robs football of one of its most accomplished officials at the peak of his powers.

How silly to waste such experience when you consider former Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff won a World Cup medal back in 1982 at the age of 41. If a player can reach such heights at such an age why can't a referee, especially one as fit and dedicated as Collina, go on at least a decade longer?

When was the last time you saw a player eye-balling or bad-mouthing Collina? It just doesn't happen to the man who once tore a strip off an Italian talk show host on national television for joking that he should do shampoo commercials.

Collina suffers from alopecia, a medical condition which leads to the loss of all body hair and, quite rightly, does not suffer fools gladly who try to make a joke at his expense.

All of which is leading to the fact that the English Premier League should seriously consider an idea first mooted by Arsenal's David Dein last month to bring Collina to the Premiership. Heaven knows the Premiership is crying out for a man in black with authority and experience, one who could guide a new generation of fully professional officials.

They don't come with a curriculum vitae to match that of Collina.

Think of the matches at which he has officiated - the Manchester United-Bayern Munich Champions League final thriller in Barcelona in 1999; England's 5-1 World Cup qualifying victory against Germany in Munich; the tense and goalless England-Turkey qualifier in Istanbul; the World Cup final in 2002 and the UEFA Cup final between Valencia and Marseille earlier last month.

If there is any justice his clean sweep of football's greatest events will culminate in 10 days' time with the final of Euro 2004.

In the Premiership the age limit for referees is 48, which would give Collina four years, ample time to raise the bar for officialdom in a league which weekly sees such as Sir Alex Ferguson deploring refereeing standards.

More than likely Collina will be offered an ambassadorial role by UEFA, no doubt with a plush pad in Geneva and a fat cat salary.

But, as this tournament is proving through the likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Ruud van Nistelrooy and even the Czech Republic's Vladimir Smicer and Milan Baros, the Premiership is the place to be.

Collina should be its next recruit.