Ever had to ask yourself the question: am I fit enough to referee a sports game? This week that question buzzed in my head. I was not sick enough to stay in bed the whole day. I could even work with a few painkillers. Yes, lots of sneezing and coughing. It all started last Saturday in my warming-up as referee of an u15 game. The teams were doing their warming-up on another field than we should play on. I walked there, talked to the coaches about the shirt colours and then wanted to check the goal nets on the actual match field. I needed to walk underneath some ads that…

This weekend I officiated a youth match between DHC Delft C1 – Feyenoord C1 (under 15 teams). Was it on? A member of the home club called me in the morning that there was a little bit of snow on the pitch, but temperatures were rising and snow would start to melt. The first thing I did when I arrived at the sports park was check the pitch. The snow was indeed melting and the pitch was not icy at all. So the game was on – and the snow was already gone after the warming-up. What criteria do you use when you check is the game field is good…