Every game on the Primeira Liga started with one minute of silence after the death of Paulo Paraty, a Portugese referee who officiated for Uefa and in highest league of Portugal. The moment in the game Boavista and Uniao da Madeira was the most special. Referee João Capela wrote RIP on the pitch with his […]
Continue reading...
Members Blogs
The latest blog posts from our members
You are the ref
Latest news from the chaps at YATR
- Threads
- 619
- Messages
- 626
Dives, crazy tackles, aggressive coaches. That’s also football nowadays, but not everything is like that. Also lots of nice skills are shown, unexpected teams (Leicester) are crowned as champions and there’s also some good sportsmanship by football stars these days. I found this clip of Dortmund’s Gonzalo Castro against Werder Bremen. He has the ball […]
Continue reading...
An interesting situation in the Ajax vs AZ u19 game. Ajax was behind constantly and scored the 4-3 in extra time of the game. Due to the victory Ajax is on top of the league table again. Matthijs de Ligt (number 3) scores the winning goal. He takes of his shirt and accepts the yellow card. […]
Continue reading...
Tom Simmons is currently a level 5 referee, but this month is very exciting for him. He hopes to hear he’ll get that promotion to level 4. Recently he got a cup final and now has to wait for the final news. Exciting times ahead. An interview with this 23 year old UK referee. Please […]
Continue reading...
The blog hasn’t been all that active as of late but it will be again on a less frequent schedule soon. It’s been a lot of hard work over the past year to get where what this blog is today so I’m pleased to announce that today is the official launch of The Top Ref store! […]
Continue reading...
“You won’t make it on the pitch with only the knowledge of the Laws of the Game”, says Willem Schuitemaker at a workshop I visited in Leiden this year. “You need passion, talent and motivation. That combination will bring you to your personal best and passion is the most important here.” Schuitemaker has been invited […]
Continue reading...
IFAB has released the Laws of the game 2016-2017. They call this revision “probably the most comprehensive in The IFAB’s 130 year history”. The idea behind it: so the laws will be “appropriate for football in the 21st century”. The ultimate aim of the revision of the Laws is according to IFAB: “to increase the universality of […]
Continue reading...
In a ground-breaking move, the FIFA Laws of the Game is out earlier than ever before; April 13th. Why you ask? Great question. I’ve held off on paraphrasing FIFA articles promising some of the changes earlier this year. These will change the way we think about the game. Simply because it ain’t real until it’s […]
Continue reading...
Tyler Tschunitz did 193 games in less than one year of refereeing. How I did it? “I have no idea, I just showed up everyday and did my thing. I just tried to keep motivated and enjoy what I did.” Referee Tyler Tschunitz is 16 years old. He currently is a district referee from Québec, Canada. […]
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...
A camera on the line to determine if a goal is scored. Seems fair. But do the costs of goal-line technology weigh up against the advantages? In the Premier League it has cost each team around £250,000 to install the systems. That’s an indication of the costs for all countries. “If you look at it […]
Continue reading...
Sara Cox is rugby’s first professional female referee. She got a full contract at the Rugby Football Union. “It is a lot more relaxing to do this as a job and not to have put pressure on my boss in a 9 to 5 job.” I want you to share this story with you, to […]
Continue reading...
8th of March 2015. That was the day Pieter Vink officiated his last game in the Dutch Eredivisie. Since then he was injured. On April 1 2016 he will be back after more than a year of absence. Whatcan you learn from the comeback of Pieter Vink? 1. Only whistle when you’re top fit Vink […]
Continue reading...
As referees you need to know how you perform. If you see how much you run, what your heartrate is or where you run on the pitch, you’ll get an idea of how you perform during a game. And you’ll see how you can improve. On Twitter I got in touch with Louis Bird and […]
Continue reading...
Johan Cruijff and refereeing, not always the best combination. The Dutch football legend, who died on March the 24th 2016, was critical about referees and their decisions. He discussed a few in his newspaper stories. Some interesting views about en from Johan Cruijff about key “situations” with referees. And finally the minute of applause in […]
Continue reading...
Players do crazy things to influence match officials. Some gestures to the referee are well-known all over the world. From the players who show the referee they other person dived or the player gives a sarcastic clap after a referee’s decision The video I found online points out some general gestures to the referee that can […]
Continue reading...
A nicve photo series: Feyenoord u16 vs Utrecht u16. I officiated a game between the teams last weekend. The home team scored an early goal, but never came back after two Utrecht goals right before half-time. The final result: 2-5. Photo’s are courtesy of Hans Warnaar, who was so kind to send me the pictures. […]
Continue reading...
Water bottle goal: correct or not? You might think: a what? Here’s the match situation that happened recently in the game between Twente and Zwolle. Jason Cabral, a FC Twente player, receives the ball on the right side. He dribbles to the edge of the penalty area and curves the ball towards the goal. In […]
Continue reading...
Can a referee cheer during a game? I once officated a youth game in my home town. I gave a free kick. The team took it fast to a player who was not in offside position, but the ball was still moving at the moment it was taken. I whistle and ordered a re-take. Many […]
Continue reading...
A review of a totally different book this time. It deals with the earliest history of the FA and the LotG. Not much in it for active referees, but a must-read for historians of the game. Click here to read the review.