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Week 2 Laws of the Game Quiz 2020-2021. The quiz season is back. You’ll get weekly quizzes on Tuesday’s from now on. How was week 1? Let me know the score in the comments or share it on social media and tag @DutchReferee. Good luck with this new quiz, which is all about 2020-2021 Laws […] Continue reading...

Week 1 Laws of the Game Quiz 2020-2021. The quiz season is back. You’ll get weekly quizzes on Tuesday’s from now on. The next quiz will be published on September 8th. Good luck with this new quiz, which is all about 2020-2021 Laws of the Game changes. Watch the webinar about these changes. Laden… Continue reading...

The Italian Daniele Orsato refereed very well in the Champions League Final between PSG & Bayern Münich which saw the Germans coming out on top to achieve the second treble of their history (2013, 2020). A match that had no major incidents, one mass confrontation and a couple of small penalty appeals, all managed very well by the Italian and his team. The Officials Referee: Daniele Orsato 🇮🇹 Assistant Referee 1: Lorenzo Manganelli 🇮🇹 Assistant Referee 2: Alessandro Giallatini 🇮🇹 Fourth Official: Ovidiu Hațegan 🇷🇴 VAR: Massimiliano Irrati 🇮🇹 AVAR: Marco Guida 🇮🇹, Alejandro Hernández Hernández 🇪🇸 Offside VAR: Roberto Díaz Pérez Del Palomar 🇪🇸 First half The first episode worth reviewing is the first yellow card in the 27th...

The Dutch Danny Makkelie took charge of the UEL final between Sevilla and Internazionale. The game had all the ingredients a final needs, with a very high-tempo first half and 4 goals scored within the first 35 minutes of the match. The Officials Referee: Danny Makkelie, 🇳🇱 Assistants: Mario Diks, Hessel Steegstra 🇳🇱 Fourth official: Anastasios Sidiropolous 🇬🇷 VAR: Jochem Kamphuis 🇳🇱 VAR assistants: Kevin Blom 🇳🇱, Pawel Gil 🇵🇱 Offside VAR: Pawel Sokolnicki 🇵🇱 FIRST HALF Not even the time to settle into the match that the official had their first big decision to make. In the 3rd minute, Lukaku took flight on a counter attack and was taken down but Diego Carlos in the Sevilla penalty area. Makkelie was not too close to play...

Cautionable Offences Unsporting Behaviour Charges an opponent in a reckless manner Jumps at an opponent in a reckless manner Kicks an opponent in a reckless manner Pushes an opponent in a reckless manner Strikes an opponent in a reckless manner Tackles or challenges an opponent in a reckless manner Trips an opponent in a reckless manner Commits a handball offence which is moving in the direction of the goal Handles the ball in an attempt to score a goal Handles the ball in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent a goal Attempts to deceive the referee Attempts to deceive the referee by feigning injury Attempts to deceive the referee by pretending to have been fouled (simulation) Commits a foul to...

2020 UEFA Champions League final referee is Daniele Orsato. He will officiate the game between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. The final will be held in the Benfica stadium in Lisbon at 9pm CET on Sunday August 23rd. From Uefa.com: The 44-year-old Italian, an international referee since 2010, will be taking charge of his first major […] Continue reading...

The 2020 UEFA Europa League final referee is Danny Makkelie. Uefa appointed him and his Dutch team for the game between Sevilla and Internazionale. “This is a dream come true”, says Danny Makkelie on the KNVB website. “Being on the field during a European final is one of the highest achievements.” “I see the Europa […] Continue reading...

Welcome to the Severity of Fouls coaching session! Here is an introduction by Jack & Ale How does the rating system work? Clip 1 Clip 2 Clip 3 Clip 4 Clip 5 Clip 6 Clip 7 Clip 8 Continue reading...

The SDS fitness test for referees has been introduced by UEFA 2 years ago. It is part of their innovations for the physical preparation of elite referees. Following 3 test sessions during winter and summer courses, it was observed that referees showed a better standard of fitness. Referees deliver more high intensity runs than before, […] Continue reading...

Scoring an indirect free kick in opponent’s goal. That’s something you don’t want to deal with as referee. Especially when they make such a wonderful goal as Joao Pedro did in the Serie A. Do you disallow it? What signal do you give and for how long? And how do you restart the game? All […] Continue reading...

Webinars for referees and match officials from all over the world. These sessions will be held on Zoom and you can participate by registering via the form below. Register for the webinars Subscribe * indicates required Email Address * Name Your permissions Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Dutch Referee […] Continue reading...

Return to officiating post Covid19. How do we do that? I am excited to take part in a discussion panel about the return to officiating post Covid19, with some fantastic contributors from around the world. The session will consider the uncertain environment, how we can best support match officials, plus the opportunities and challenges that […] Continue reading...

Fouls: careless, reckless, using excessive force/Violent conduct 1 Does the player show a lack of attention or consideration when making his challenge? 2 Does the player act without precaution when making the challenge? 3 Does the player make fair or unfair contact with the opponent after touching the ball? 4 Does the player act with complete disregard of the danger to his opponent? 5 Does the player act with a complete disregard of the consequences for his opponent? 6 Does the player have a chance of playing the ball in a fair manner? 7 Is the challenge putting an opponent in a dangerous situation? 8 Does the player touch the ball after making contact with the opponent? 9 Does the player far exceed the necessary use...

Referees have never been this connected before Social Media has been a part of our lives for almost two decades. Everyone is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or one of the many other social platforms that are available to us, making us the most connected generation in history. This type of connection has helped us with sharing more information and keeping us closer to family and friends living far from us, but as referees, social media can often be a dangerous place to be. One of the greatest aspects of football is that no two games are the same, no two incidents are the same and everyone is entitled to their opinion on often controversial topics. This is where referees can be most vulnerable. 10 years ago, when social media wasn’t...

A few months back, I decided to do more. A problem most grassroots referees have is they lack access to consistent and premium education. You see, when you reach the top levels of refereeing, you are provided with elite coaching and experienced coaches to help you bring your game up to be able to referee at a national and international level. But the path to get there is not easy, in most cases if you are not lucky and fail to make the right connections, you end up struggling to get proper coaching week in week out. This is a significant problem as good quality coaching is the only real way to be able to improve. Because of this problem, I decided to find a way to bring elite level coaching to grassroots referees. The first challenge...

Stopping a Promising Attack (SPA) has gone through some major changes in the past years, with disciplinary sanction changing based on the position of an offence on the Field of Play and the entity of the offence. In this article, we will cover the basics of what defines a SPA and hopefully, give you a better understanding of the decision-making process to define the entity of a disciplinary sanction. First, let’s look at what the Laws say about SPA The Law gives us a clear indication that players that commit an offence which interferes with or stops a promising attack must be cautioned, unless the referee awards a penalty kick and the foul is an attempt to play the ball (footballing challenge). This definitely helps us understand...

Our friend Max Dotto created this handball decisional flowchart to help you better understand the steps taken when judging a Handball. Feel free to save them and use them to study for your next games! Permalink Continue reading...

Our friend Max Dotto created this amazing decisional flowchart to help you better understand the steps taken when judging a DOGSO or SPA. Feel free to save them and use them to study for your next games! Permalink Continue reading...

One of the biggest parts of football refereeing is judging the severity of fouls. Many people, specially spectators, like to think they understand when and why a challenge is worthy of a yellow or a red card. However, not many understand truly why some challenges need a certain type of disciplinary challenge or not. In this article, we’ll talk about some practical guidelines that can be applied to most challenges and help us better judge and motivate a disciplinary sanction. THE LAW As always, the first thing we must do is identify where in the LoTG we can find more information about the Severity of Fouls. The obvious answer (or at least should be) is Law 12. When talking about the Severity of Fouls, we will always be looking at...

The amount of work and sacrifices these individuals make to reach the pinnacle of international football are unbelievable. These referees have dedicated their lives to one of the most hated and controversial jobs in sports so that 3.5 billion people could enjoy football. I have spent over 10 years doing that same job in Italy and Australia’s domestic leagues. I started my adventure in Milan, Italy, circa 2008, and since then I have turned into a completely different person. Back then I was quite shy, very self-conscious and lacked any type of real confidence. Today I’m the exact opposite of that 19 years old, and I owe it all to football refereeing. This is what I learned. Permalink Continue reading...