Referees in the media (week 50 and 51)

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

“Frank De Bleeckere was a great referee, on who should be named along with Belgian top referees like Marcen Van Langenhove and Alex Ponnet.”

Says Anderlecht chairman Roger Vanden Stock in a statement because of the retirement of referee Frank De Bleeckere.

“Foreign referees often behave differently. For example the English referees, whom you can call rather bluntly ‘asshole’ or ‘fuck you’ straight into their face.”

German player Arne Friedrich about different refereeing cultures.

“The important thing for the young ones is to know how to act determinedly in the game, to grab opportunities and develop the game, and to take that experience in order to be the future of refereeing in Europe.”

An advice of futsal referee instructor Pedro Galán Nieto to young and talented referees.

“Jordy Clasie felt dizzy and sick, but he wanted to continue playing. On Pieter Vink’s advice he let himself being substituted. That’s what the referee did wel.”

Says Feyenoord coach Ronald Koeman about Dutch referee Pieter Vink.

Pol van Boekel promoted on international list

Dutch referee Pol van Boekel has been promoted to category two on the international refereeing list. He’s on the Uefa list since 2007. Uefa doesn’t want to publish the full list at this moment.

The 35-year-old Van Boekel made his international debut during the U17 match Slovakia-Serbia on 26 March 2008. He’s officiated 19 official international games, including five Europa League matches.

Dutch international referees:
Björn Kuipers and Kevin Blom on the Elite List.
Eric Braamhaar on the Premier list.
Bas Nijhuis and Pol van Boekel on the category two list.
Richard Liesveld is a category three referee.
Danny Makkelie is on the cat. 4 list.

Pieter Vink, who was on the Elite List, stopped because he wants to give young refs a chance and because he got death threats via his daughter’s lunchbox.

Why Vink quitted international refereeing

A personal death threat was one of the reason why Dutch referee Pieter Vink quits international refereeing. “The bottomline was a letter in my daughter’s lunchbox”, says Vink to ANP, a Dutch press agency.

Written was: “We schieten je kankervader kapot” (literally translation: ‘we shoot your cancer father’ – don’t know if there are any English abusive expressions like that). His daughter of seven didn’t understand it completely, but his wife was very upset. Vink announced his international retirement in September. The official reason was: giving younger colleagues a chance.