Members Blogs

Rebecca Welch recently made her debut in the English Football League as referee. In a recent webinar from the Referees Association she talked about her career, from which I distilled some very useful tips for us referees. Loving her job is crucial. “If you want to do it, give it a 100%. But you also […] Continue reading...

A reality-based training for referees was done at the Uefa Winter Course 2023. It was the first time for this exercises with both male and female referees at the same time. The general idea behind it is: “Referees run to make decisions!” So the training is combined with watching a clip of a match situation. […] Continue reading...

Uefa has selected twelve referees for the European Championship 2012 in Ukraine and Poland. You can find the Uefa list with twelve referees and the fourth officials here. I’ve searched the internet for reactions from each appointed referee, which you can find below. European referee boss Pierluigi Collina on Uefa.com: “The 12 are all referees from the elite group, so they are the top referees in Europe. They have all refereed UEFA Champions League matches during the past two seasons. What they can guarantee are two main elements – quality and experience. And only one referee, Howard Webb, was at UEFA EURO 2008. So there has been significant turnover.” Cüneyt Çakır from Turkey was appointed after a lapse of sixteen years without a...

This referee let’s the penalty kick retaken over and over again. Players won’t stop complaining, isn’t he just strictly applying the rules? Teammates of the taker and as well as opponents infringe the Laws of the Game. Mostly by moving into the penalty area (or 9,15m circle) too soon. But also take a look at the goalkeeper during the penalty kick he saved. He moves forward to fast and is way in front of the goalline when the attacker actually kicks the ball. Anyone an idea why the goal from the before last kick is not allowed? Last week, I’ve started a discussion about giving a yellow for players who pull off their shirt at amateur level. Anyone experiences with this situation? What’s your ‘record’ of retaken penalties in a row or do...

Referee Ravshan Irmatov is awarded with Order of People’s Honour of Uzbekistan. The match official officiated at 2014′s World Cup in Brazil. All three major football papers devote their frontpage to Uzbekistan’s World Cup referees they day after the event. … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Asian top referee Ravshan Irmatov talks about his tactical approach of matches. See more recent referee video’s on the Asian Football Conferation’s YouTube Channel. - AFC Elite Referee Instructor, Shamsul Maidin on AFC’s Referee Development Program. - Benjamin Jon Williams with an advice for young referees. - AFC Elite Referee Instructor Ali Traifi explains the selection process for AFC Project Future Referees. - AFC Elite Referee Fitness Instructor, Utsumi Toshio speaks about the importance of physical fitness in modern day refereeing. Dutch Referee Blog has spoken with Ravshan Irmatov form Uzbekistan during 2010′s World Cup in South-Africa. Read the article here. Ravshan Irmatov Continue reading...

Pulling shirts and shorts in football, Neymar giving the referee a shirt and more news. Photo series: Pulling shirts and shorts in football Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant publishes a photo series in the middle pages of their newspaper everyday. Last week they made a collections where playres pulling shirts and shorts in football. A nice […] Continue reading...

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A proper warm-up for referees is needed for both training sessions in games. It will improve your performance and reduces your risk of injury. The blog post is based on lessons I followed as a referee and notes I took. Physical effects of a warm-up The physical effects of a proper warm-up for referees are: […] Continue reading...

Professional referees on goal-setting: make sure you have ambitions and goals. That will guide you along the way on your referee career path. In this blog post tips and advice from top referees like Björn Kuipers, Uefa referee boss Roberto Rosetti, Kateryna Monzul and many more. Kateryna Monzul: have a dream First of all, having […] Continue reading...

A professional referee training programme is built around match days. There are sessions to prepare for the game itself, but also a lot of attention for recovery. Werner Helsen talks us through a week of training for top match officials. The primary focus is on the next match day., says Werner Helsen. During a tournament […] Continue reading...

Effective goal-setting for referees is very important, whatever you have achieved last year. Mark Clattenburg officiated the Euro 2016 and Champions League final, but he will set his goals for 2017 as well. “Last year I set my goals and I over-achieved my goals for sure”, he says. “But this year I’ve set my goals […] Continue reading...

Preparing referees for a World Cup is a big task. And Nestor Pitana has the honour of refereeing the final between France and Croatia. How does he make sure to be ready? I got the chance to speak with Esfandiar Baharmast, present in Russia as a FIFA referee instructor. “I work with all the referees […] Continue reading...

Premier League referees share tips to stay fit during lockdown. In this story you’ll get tips from referee Craig Pawson, AR Lee Betts and you’ll get the daily routine of Anthony Taylor. Both Craig Pawson and Lee Betts shared their tips in an online learning by The FA (embedded below in this post). Structure your […] Continue reading...

Here are some Premier League Referee Books you need for Christmas. My referee blog gives lots of insights and information, but there’s more detailed info in books from top level referees. If you’re looking for something under your Christmas three, below you’ll find some interesting Premier League Referee Books. The affiliate links below will refer you […] Continue reading...

Some pre-season fitness tips to get back into refereeing. The professional season has started and for many amateur referees the season will start soon as well (or has already started). But some of you might have just come back from your holidays or are still relaxing on a sunny beach. This story has a few […] Continue reading...

It looks like it can’t go wrong any more for those who want to start the tests with video referee in football. IFAB, the international organisation who decides on changes of the football rules, gave a strong recommendation for experiments with this new technique. The final decision will be made during the 130th Annual General […] Continue reading...

There’s been lots of negativity in the newspapers recently about referees. But do referees feel so bad after their games? I (Jan from Dutch Referee Blog) support the message about positivity from Ref Support: I love the whistle, I love the game. Here are parts of the message that Martin Cassidy from Ref Support shared […] Continue reading...

Dutch international referee Serdar Gozubuyuk thought he could not make it. He was Turkish, so probably was not good enough to achieve things in The Netherlands. “That’s what I thought in earlier days”, Gozubuyuk told magazine NuSport. He heared the same thoughts from other boys in his neighbourhoud. “Then parents said: nonsense. There are half […] Continue reading...

Players in Portugese Primera División get the most straight red cards per match in Europese national leagues. Each five matches in 2010/2011 season Portoguse referees showed (on average( one straight red card. Belgium, Spain, Romania and The Netherlands complete the top five of countries with hard players. Or are the referees just mild in countries like Norway (1 straight red in 21 matches), Czech Republic (1 in 15) or Ukrain (1 in 14)? In the infographic below, you can see the ‘reddest’ country based on data from Worldfootball.net and Futebol365.pt. How darker the tint, the less matches are played on average before a straight red card is handed out. The value ’0,208333333′ in Portugal means that statistically five (5×0,208333333>1)...