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Thank you to referee from chairman of low level amateur club
I refereed my first match of the season. An exciting, challenging AND sportive cup match. Game went up and down – lots of running for me – and ended in a 3-2 win for the home team. When I left the pitch a man in a suit approached me. I thought he might be my assessor, but afterwards I learned he was the chairman of the losing team. He said: “On behalf of my club I’d like to thank you for refereeing this match. Well done.” Later a refereeing friend told me that particular chairman of the away team always thanks the referees afterwards – no matter what the result…
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Winter break: waiting for my first 2013 match
I visit the online referee appointment system a few times a day. Refresh it, or log in again. And again. Winter break has lasted long enough. I want my first match appointment of 2013. Especially because I’m coming back from an injury. My last match as a referee was between a u19 match between VFC Vlaardingen and DONK in October. A very very nice appointment between the number one and two of the league. It resulted in a wonderful match which ended in 1-2. Just a few days later I broke my ankle during a futsal match. I recovered and did a full training session at the Hague’s referee association.…
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Being an assistant referee is not that easy
“The assistant referees discussed some very difficult clips on offside and I came away thinking I’m glad I’m not an assistant referee!!” Says Don Robertson, center referee at the Uefa u19 championship qualifiers. Personally, I’m not often an assistant referee. In The Netherlands only professial matches and games in highest amateur leagues are with neutral assistants. All other refs have to do it with club assistants, provided by the home and away team. The Dutch FA only appoints trio’s at promotion/relegation matches or cup finals. And that’s how I became an assistant referee for two matches. Before these games I checked the Laws of the Game: Law 6 – The…
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The decibels of popular referee whistles
What is your favourite referee whistle? How do you pick your whistles? And what makes a whistle good? I like whistles with a sound other referees don’t have. The Fox 40 Pearl has that in The Netherlands. That reminds of a situation during last season. I officiated with a blue Pearl version of the Fox 40 – matching with my blue referee kit ofcourse. Usually people ask me afterwards something about a situation or just say thanks for refereeing. But a man stepped forward and began talking about that unique sound of the whistle. Yeah, it was a colleague who was off duty that weekend. I’m wondering if he found…
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Using running apps as a referee (part 2)
All of a sudden a female voice sounded from my left upper arm during the referees training. I was pretty surprised. I turned the audio volume of my smartphone off, but the Endomondo audio-feedback is apparently able to keep talking. The idea of the coaching is nice, but I felt a bit stupid that my phones was making noises during the training session. Last week, I asked you for suggestions for good running apps. Thanks for your mentions on Twitter, Facebook and this blog. Thanks all for your suggestions for the running apps. You suggested: Endomondo, Runkeeper, MapMyFitness and Adidas miCoach. I already used the free version of Runtastic. The…
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Measuring how many km’s I run during a match
I just bought this armband for my smartphone. Reason: I want to get an idea of how much I run while practising and maybe even when officiating a match. Hopefully you can help me. Does anyone of you have experience with running apps? I’ve used Runtastic (free version) once, but would like to try other alternatives. Which app has been useful to you? Does someone know if there are running stats of professional referees? I’ve found many of Champions League and Europa League players, but not of the officials. Would be nice to have a look at that stats too.
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Yeah, my first match in The Hague is scheduled
Yeah, the first match in The Hague is scheduled for next Saturday. For eight years I’ve combined refereeing at a club with playing myself, but now I’ll just focus on refereeing. KNVB, the Dutch FA, has scheduled two matches for me. The first one will be a youth match in Katwijk. I’m really looking forward to it. You can follow remarkable things of this fresh career on this blog, but this will not replace the interviews as I’ve posted before. Waiting for the blog: interview with top referee in Trinidad and Tobago, Dutch referee coach in Africa and few more. Suggestions for interviews are always welcome. Oh, here’s the appointment.
