Members Blogs

The indirect free kick is an important part of football, but not raising your arm can cause serious problems. In the Euro U 19 game between Portugal and the Czech Republic the referee forgets to raise his arm. Usually no big deal, but it is when a team scores directly. An interesting case study. It’s the […] Continue reading...

In the referees dressing room: this time in the referees changing room of VFC Vlaardingen an amateur club in The Netherlands. Today I’d better say: outside the dressing room. The doors of the referees changing room at VFC Vlaardingen are … Continue reading → The post In the referees dressing room: VFC Vlaardingen appeared first on Football: Dutch Referee Blog for match officials. Continue reading...

In the referees dressing room: now in the referees changing room of the ADO Den Haag. It’s the club in the city I live in. Referee Azzopardi and her Maltese team check the pitch at ADO Den Haag. Two weeks ago I published the interview with Maltese referee Esther Azzopardi. Shortly thereafter she got an appointment for the match between ADO Den Haag ladies versus Rossiyanka from Russia in Uefa Women’s Champions League. We met in person at the stadium, which was really nice. I also got the chance to see the referees dressing room and the inspection of the pitch by the referee team. Thanks to the press officer I got some high quality photo’s of the referees dressing room. ADO Den Haag referees dressing room: the shower. ADO Den Haag...

In the dressing room: now in the referees changing room in the Ricoh Arena of Coventry City Football Club. But today I should say the City of Coventry Stadium, because the building is hosting the women’s bronze medal match at the Olympics and International Olympic Committee does not allow sponsored stadiums. Thanks to ‘LeamDavid on Flickr’ I can show you where referee Jenny Palmqvist and her assistants will prepare for the match between Canada and France, today at 13pm (GMT). Referees dressing room at Ricoh Arena from Coventry City. Referees dressing room at Ricoh Arena from Coventry City. You can find the original photo’s by ‘LeamDavid’ here and here. If you have some photo’s of an interesting dressing room (could be your local one)...

Something new on the blog: In the dressing room. This time with photo’s of the referee’s dressing room in Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. Had some ideas about photo’s of different dressing rooms on the blog, but don’t know if people would like it if I only post them from changing rooms I visit (Send me your pictures if you have them!). That’s when I found out Constant Onstenk, secretary of the board of the Referee Association of Arnhem (city in the eastern part of Holland), visited the Emirates Stadium with his wife and posted some of here photo’s in the local referee magazine. He wrote that the dressing rooms were locked, but he could enter them after he asked politely. It’s actually a referee area, with three different rooms: a dressing...

Dutch professional referees will wear black armbands this weekend in memory of Leo van der Kroft. The former referee at the top level in The Netherlands and a FIFA referee passed away on November 24th of 2016. Leo van der Kroft was the first referee in The Netherlands who issued a yellow card. After his career […] Continue reading...

Improving the Laws of the Game is can be great for football, but is always part of a public debate. Even referees don’t want the rules to change every season, which makes it sometimes more difficult to explain during football games. But I favour new experiments that make football quicker, more attractive and more fair. […] Continue reading...

How to improve acceleration as referee? Being in the right position is crucial for referees. If you want to get there, acceleration is a key physical factor. In this blog post FIFA Fitness Instructor Stephen Oduor and Polish referee and fitness expert Michal Bobrek share some great insights on how you can improve your acceleration. […] Continue reading...

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) has chosen Howard Webb from England als world’s best referee of 2013. Experts from 70 countries and from all the football continents took part in the 2013 annual election for the … Continue reading → The post IFFHS: Webb world’s best referee of 2013 appeared first on Football: Dutch Referee Blog for match officials. Continue reading...

IFAB has launched the Laws of the Game changes 2017-2018. Read the now and be prepared for the next season. Below you’ll find the summary. Check the full document with all changes for 2017-2017. Outline summary of Law changes 2017/18 Herewith a simple outline of the main changes /clarifications. ALL LAWS Replace ‘infringement/infringe’ etc. with […] Continue reading...

The IFAB meeting in Northern Ireland took place to talk about the Laws of the Game. One of the new things they want is rolling substitutes for grassroots football. That means that kids can go off and back on during … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Still get some questions on the IFAB Circular 7. There was a big revision of the Laws of the Game before the 2016-2017 season, but not everything was clear yet. The IFAB has launched a document clarifying the LOTG revisions. I’ve linked to it, but not shared the whole text in a blog post yet. […] Continue reading...

Patrice Evra was simply blocking a shot during a match between Manchester United and an MLS All Start team. But the AR wasn’t prepared for that … … and dropped down. In return he got a big hug from Evra.

Ieva Ramanauskienė was one of the assistant referees during the final at 2017’s Uefa Women’s u17 final tournament. That was about one year after she gave birth do her daughter. The biggest challenge in her career was her pregnancy and coming back top fit. She talks about her final tournament in 2017 and the challenges […] Continue reading...

The Ibercup 2018 in Cascais was a great experience for me, because it showed me so many new sides of refereeing. During my visit to Portugal I observed lots of referees with potential and was happy these (mostly) young lads are willing to improve themselves. This blog story is about my six days in Cascais […] Continue reading...

I usually don’t get nice mail in my mailbox. It’s just bills, taxes or printed ads. This week was different. I opened the mailbox and there was an envelope with the text “By air mail”. I opened and and saw that I got a Premier League badge from Howard Webb. Fantastic! Premier League badge from […] Continue reading...

World Cup final referee Howard has launched launched a new book called The Man in the Middle. This new book will released on the 20th of October. I am really looking forward to read a copy. Howard asked me to write his publisher to get a review copy as referee blogger. I’m hoping that one […] Continue reading...

Howard Webb retires from refereeing and becomes Technical Director at PGMOL. His retirement is announced in a statement on the website of the Premier League. “I am very excited to start this new chapter in my career after a wonderfully … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Referee Howard Webb stresses that reaching the top is not just smooth progress for future Premier League referees. “Ups and downs are all part of the journey, and that ‘bouncing back’ from disappointments, or mistakes, is really important, as long as we learn from them.” That says Howard Webb in an interview with Dutch Referee Blog. The top referee from England is speaking on ‘Belgian Referee Day’ for a group of young referees on Thursday evening in Brussels. Howard Webb on FA tv screenshot. Howard Webb: “I’m looking forward to visiting Brussels, and to meeting up with some really good friends from the world of Belgian refereeing. I’m also looking forward to having the opportunity to speak with some young Belgian referees and sharing...

“I’ll come down when I can. I’d love to be involved in the first game, a pre-season friendly. That would be magnificent for me te be involved in that”, says referee Howard Webb about Rotherham United, his favourite football club, which is building a new stadium at the moment. Watch the rest of the interview here. Continue reading...