Darren Cann's ambition of officiating at the greatest show on earth has moved a step closer after the Norfolk official was nominated for the 2007 FIFA match officials list.

By CHRIS LAKEY

Darren Cann's ambition of officiating at the greatest show on earth has moved a step closer after the Norfolk official was nominated for the 2007 FIFA match officials list.

The 37-year-old bank worker from Poringland has already got an FA Cup final and an international match on his CV, but is now keeping his fingers crossed that his nomination will be ratified by world football's governing body next month.

“When I got the FA Cup final I thought that was the pinnacle, but then I got a call from Neale Barry to tell me I had been nominated for the FIFA list for 2007 and that really was the icing on the cake,” said Cann, who works for Lloyds TSB at their Heartsease branch.

“Should I be successful it would open up another area of some very, very high quality matches - Champions League, the Euro 2008 qualifiers and finals and the potential to take part in other major championships.

“It is something I would love to do. It is the pinnacle of all my ambitions, I can't get to a higher stage than the World Cup.

“It is all in the future, a long way away, but it is something I will work very hard to try and achieve. If you don't aim fore the top you will sell yourself short and not get there. If you aim for the top you give yourself the best chance of getting there.”

Cann ran the line at an international match for the first time in May when he made the trip to Aarhus for Denmark's game against Paraguay - and he has been adding stamps to his passport with more overseas trips this season.

“I was in Berlin just after the World Cup final for an Inter-Toto Cup match between Hertha Berlin and Moskva and got to see the Brandenburg gates where the BBC had been broadcasting and it was a wonderful experience to be there at the time,” he said.

“This season I have also been to Croatia and Hungary and it's been very enjoyable spending three days looking at different cultures and seeing different cities.”

Cann is carrying on a Norfolk tradition as he follows in the footsteps of Yarmouth official Alf Grey, who was on the FIFA list in the late 70s and early 80s, and Norman Burtenshaw, also from Yarmouth, who served in the early 70s.