‘Referees in the media’ will be published each Monday on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading.

“They often asked me after the game what I thought of the arbitration, but I never said anything negative to them and definitely not that they may have caused loss or win of a match.”

Says François Eelen, who was referee assessor in Belgian top leagues until last week, in an interview with Nieuwsblad. He regrets the way he was set aside just two days before the start of the competition started.

“There has always been a misguided desire to keep 22 players on the pitch and, as a result, difficult players often get away with too much and then believe they can repeat their actions without sanction.”

says Graham Poll in his weekly referees review on Daily Mail. He admits he used to do it with some ‘irksome’ players too.

“Coaches must learn to live with errors.”

In a opinion article by Reinhard Schüssler, head of sport at WAZ Mediengruppe (Media Groupe, jth).