What would be the ideal referee shirt colour? Due to new possibilities referees sometimes make stange mistakes by picking almost the same referee outfit colour as one of the teams’ shirts. One referee had to change his shirt during the first half – the assistants followed him after half-time. Check out the examples below.
The man in black is still the right term for amateur referees in England, but many football associations in other countries allow their referees to wear their refs all sorts of colours. Even the professional referees in the Premier League do use all sorts of colours. Their last season kits were greenish, red and black and during the 2013/2014 season they’ll wear the Nike outfits as Dutch and French refs were wearing.

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Spot the Belgian referee. Click to enlarge.There was also a funny situation during the match between Vålerenga Oslo and Sarpsborg 08 a few weeks back. A referee friend from Germany was there in the stadium and took the pictures below. The referee wore a bright yellow shirt, the team was wearing a shiny green one. It did not work together. The referee went to the dressing rooms in the first half to change his outfit. After half-time, his assistants also came back on the pitch in a black shirt as the referee.
What is your favourite referee shirt colour? Let me know via comments below, Twitter or give a reply on Dutch Referee Blog’s Facebook Page.
Als scheidsrechter toch niet tevreden met je tenuekeuze? Dan wissel je toch gauw nog even voor de rust: http://t.co/2jxDclw8Or
@dutchreferee yes, I did. Also asked goal keepers to change after it was clear their shirts didn’t work. Give one reason why not to do it…
@dutchreferee I did it after a few minutes on the pitch. Too many are too “shy” to correct a wrong “decision”. BTW, like your tweets.
Question for UK referees: would you stick to the black referee shirt if other colours were allowed? http://t.co/ghrUioPuxs
@dutchreferee don’t you mean for English referees. In Scotland we wear colours
@dutchreferee Mainly. Black and very dark blue shirts are more common than they should be and alternative is always nice (I like pale blue).
@dutchreferee I’d wear different colours if I was allowed, especially as some teams wear dark colours.