Two wonderful pictures in the latest Fifa Weekly. On the right: Marcelo begging for referee clemency with Dutch match official Björn Kuipers. The photo on the left shows a fan of the goalie Sepp Maier. The photo of Bjorn Kuipers is taken during the Champions League final of 2014. you Can read the Fifa Weekly as well. Check English version on Issuu.

The use of a referee whistle is an important factor in creating match highlights in the future. Spanish researchers have made an algorithm that generates match highlights. It’s a start. The autoted video selection gets 70 per cent of the important situations and goals. They’re trying to improve the algorithm in the near future. But how does that work? One elementary filter can be the detection of the referee’s whistle. Here’s some explanation from the researchers. For example in a goal occasion the audio power suddenly increases and in a referee’s whistle instance specific harmonics are spotted at concrete frequency ranges. In many sports, such as soccer, the detection of…

Referee Martin Atkinson abandoned the match Serbia – Albania due to a drone that flew over the pitch with an Albanian flag. That caused a massive brawl on the pitch after which Martin Atkinson ended the game. A reporter from The Guardian described the situation like this: “In the 40th minute, the English referee Martin Atkinson halted play – for a second time – after flares had been thrown from the crowd in the direction of Albanian players. At the same time, a drone –seemingly remote-controlled – was seen hovering above the pitch, parallel to the top of the stand, before falling towards the pitch 15 yards into the Serbian…

Champions League referees are no longer allowed to wear the pale grey shorts. Uefa has decided to switch back to the old black trousers. Only on matchday 2 next week there’s an exception. From group match 3 all referees must wear the black short. The 3rd Team has released a statement from Uefa on their website which confirms this. “In a communiqué issued by UEFA’s Refereeing Department sent to all national associations, the referees were asked to wear the old black trousers and stockings deployed in UEFA Champions League 2013/14 season from now on until the end of this campaign”, is what the website says. In my opinion it is…

Can you be in offside position from a corner kick? This referee tends to give a throw-in, but then takes over his AR’s signal for offside, which is not possible from a corner kick (plus goalk kick or throw-in). Would you go with your AR or overrule him? A good advice from Marcus Cole @dutchreferee As center, I'd confer with AR to find out his point of view and then restart with a throw-in.#GetTheCallRight — Marcus Cole (@IAmMarcusCole) September 11, 2014

Howard Webb retires from refereeing and becomes Technical Director at PGMOL. His retirement is announced in a statement on the website of the Premier League. “I am very excited to start this new chapter in my career after a wonderfully rewarding 25 years on the pitch,” Webb said. “I have spent over a decade with the best seat in the house for Barclays Premier League matches, been lucky enough to be involved in nine UEFA and FIFA tournaments, and taken charge of the UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup finals. Webb said earlier in an interview with Dutch Referee blog about the role and future of refereeing: “Referees are…