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The Ajax fan who entered the pitch and attacked AZ goalie Esteban will spend four months in prison. Dutch court punished him with six months jailtime, with two months of conditional release. The 19-year-old ignored his stadium ban of three years and went to the cup match, where he invaded the pitch in 36th minute. The goalie defended himself and then kicked the attacker twice, while lying on the ground. Dutch FA’s prosecutor has rescinded the red card and will not punish the AZ goalie. The judge punished Wesley van W. for grievous bodily harm with premeditation, because he made bets about attacking the goalie. He also took into account that the boy has been sentenced before. The court holds Wesley responsible for the fact that people in...

‘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. “He’s really looks better than the last time I’ve seen him.” Says lawyer Sven Menke after visiting Babak Rafati, who’s recovering from an attempted suicide. “Oh yes, of course I miss it. It’s like a player, when he finishes playing. I miss it a lot, but on the other hand, it’s good because you are still involved, still hungry and can explain better to the referees what they need to do.” Massimo Busacca misses refereeing now he’s the head of Fifa’s refereeing department. Read full interview on Fifa.com “I’m very happy. It’s a nice appreciation and a good...

Dutch public radio station 3fm had collected 8.621.004 euro’s for mothers all over the world who are victims of war. The money goes to the project ‘This one’s for mama’ from the Red Cross to provide these women a shelter, food and medication. Three dj’s moved into a house of glass for a week without eating, just drinking some shakes with necessary ingredients. This year was the seventh edition. But the final amount of money is not reached yet. There’s an ongoing online auction with items from famous people. One of the items is a set of cards, referee clothing and a match ball from referee Bas Nijhuis. You can buy it via eBay. Highest bid so far: 157 euro’s. Your bid should be at least 160 euro’s. The auction stops at 5pm (CET) next...

Goalie Esteban from AZ Alkmaar got karate kicked in the back by an Ajax supporter. He recognized it just before the fan was close behind him. The man fell down and the goalie kicks him while lying on the ground. Referee Bas Nijhuis gave the goalie a red card. AZ coach Verbeek took his team off the pitch because he doesn’t feel safe anymore. The match is abondoned. Referee Nijhuis, who got promoted to Elite Development this week, after the match: “I couldn’t do anything else then apply the rules and give a red card.” What do you think the Dutch FA will do: punish Ajax for fan doing karate kick on goalie or AZ for leaving the pitch? Rematch? Let me know what you would decide. Embedding the video was impossible, so watch the highlights on...

German referee Manuel Gräfe let a penalty kick being retaken in a penalty serie. Twice! The cup match between Fortuna Düsseldorf and Borussia Dortmund ended goalless after 120 minutes. In the penalty serie Blaszykowski from Dortmund thought he made the 2:2 (after 4), but Gräfe was resolutely pointing to his whistle, demanding the Polish player from Dortmund to re-take the penalty kick. Immediately after that Andreas Lambertz from Düsseldorf misses. He walks away, head in his hands. But what he did not realize is again the call for a re-kick by the referee. Goalie Weidenfeller and a field player who came running from the middle line heavily protested and got both a yellow card. But I think the referee’s decision was correct (no replay...

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...

“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...

‘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 ‘**** 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...

It’s in the rules how to restart play when a ball bursts. But it’s more theory than practice. Tonight, I saw for the first time that a ball actually bursts during play. It happened in the match between Bayern Munich and Cologne in German Bundesliga this Friday evening. Laws of the Game about bursting balls: “If the ball bursts or becomes defective during the course of a match: • the match is stopped • the match is restarted by dropping the replacement ball at the place where the original ball became defective, unless play was stopped inside the goal area, in which case the referee drops the replacement ball on the goal area line parallel to the goal line at the point nearest to where the original ball was located when play was stopped.”...

A Bahia player had the ball and after play has been stopped due to an injury he expects the ball back after a dropball. But that’s not what Figueirense striker Pottker decides. The attacker kept the ball, runs towards the goal and scores. So far, nothing wrong according to the rules of the game. But Bahia players experienced it, to put it mildly, pretty unfair. That’s also what Pottker realises after some cheering. For him it was too late, because referee David Baquini da Silva gave showed him a red card for this. The Brazilian FA is considering if they need to punish the referee for not handling according to the Laws of the Game. Will be continued. Continue reading...

What doesn't kill me can only make me stronger ... Harumph to that statement. I'm currently on day 5 of taking oral antibiotics (phenoxymthylpenicillin 250mgx2 anyone? Maybe a flucloxacillin 500mg is more to your liking?) to continue the treatment of my sore elbow. A lot of people would love to have time off work at this time of year but for me it detracts from my own preparations for Christmas. I don't need time to go out shopping. After last year where I spent unhappy hours tramping from shop to shop on the trail of an elusive present, I gone back to shopping online. Online shopping certainly fits in with my "Not fit for work" lifestyle. The strength of the antibiotics make me fatigued and unable to concentrate, often drifting away...

It seems that the Spurs fans have confused Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, with Premier League Referee, Chris Foy. Following the recent Stoke Spurs game at the weekend, the Spurs fans went to twitter and gave Sir Chris a bit of grief over decisions during the game. It seems quite obvjous that there not the same person, however this didnt stop this blog getting 200 threats when Howard Webb gave a penalty against Poland at Euro 2008! Continue reading...

I'm not the best of patients. The routine of carefully timed taking of tablets/capsules to ensure they are taken on an empty stomach/full stomach/with food doesn't fit in with my often full days. That isn't a problem for the next week as I'm officially on rest. For the first time in 25 years I have been declared unfit for work and will remain so until I have been reviewed at a clinic later this week. It also means that my plans for pre-Christmas drinks have been put on hold as they interfere with the antibiotics I'm taking (well until Friday at least). Perhaps that's just as well as I have very little energy and a hangover would probably wipe me out. I can drive for short distances but after taking a trip to the County FA to check on...

Umpire Peter Wright caused a lot of confusion among the players during the hockey match between New Zealand and The Netherlands for the 3rd place in the Champion’s Trophy. The video referee got to answer the question whether the ball has touched a Dutch foot, which is not allowed in field hockey. The South African match official took some initiative and also told the umpires on the pitch that the ball was out just before the ball has touched a Dutch foot. And that’s what he wasn’t supposed to do. In field hockey a team can call for a video referee just once and when they got it right, they still keep that opportunity. About the same as the hawk-eye system in tennis, only with less opportunities. The Dutch team should have questioned if...

Around 2:30pm, just as the Southampton vs. Blackpool was coming to an end the doctor came up to check on me for one last time. He was very interested in the score as he does some work for West Ham in the summer, so when Southampton were losing (just before they equalised in the 3rd minute of added time) he was very pleased. He said I could go home dispatched me with two different types of antibiotic to be taken 4 times a day for a week and two different types of painkillers, one to be taken 4 times a day and the other 3 times a time. So a quick phone call to my wife and she set off to pick me up but I still had time to enjoy a Christmas Carol concert in the lobby of the hospital before she arrived. So thank you to all the doctors...

The doctor who came to see me five hours after he originally planned to, explained that my review had been overlooked as the senior ? from day one had been with patients all day, primarily in the operating theatre. I could understand that as a fat bald ex-referee with a red/green elbow being treated by antibiotics by IV was definitely low level priority to what I regarded as people who were properly ill or injured, so hadn't minded too much, except for the extended fast in the morning. I'd managed to contact JDB and he had dropped in to collect the exam papers, Offside DVD and name badges needed for the second part of the new referees course on Sunday, so that had taken away one headache. The doctor was happy that I was making good...

I slept through to around half seven before being woken for another blood pressure test. I was keeping the levels down by resting but got bored. I was told that I had to wear a pair of support stockings. These are to stop patients developing Deep Vein Thrombosis caused by not moving around a lot. I refused and took to wandering around the corridor chatting to the nurses and auxiliaries Everyone has been so very professional and despite the occasional gossip, they appear to be a closely knit and highly regarded team, entirely devoted to caring for their patients BUT occasionally they need a little change of pace to deal with matters and on day three no one appeared to want to demonstrate that for the fat bald man with the infected...

Being woken at 2am for a blood pressure check is not my idea of fun but apparently it was necessary. It came back as 106/64 - I was in good shape but my blood oxygen was 93% so I lost the points gained for the low blood pressure. I was awake and ready for the next test at 6am and my first round of IV. I was told the doctor was making his rounds and he would call in soon. He appeared almost straight away and through my bleary haze I gathered that he had decided on a plan of action but wanted his senior (colleague? consultant? registrar?) to review it. Meanwhile I was on instructions of nil by mouth as I was expected to head out for surgery later that morning. The senior ? arrived and explained that he wanted to avoid surgery and...

So the plans for the week were in danger of being completely wiped out... Wednesday I was continuing to do the preparations for the 2nd day of the latest Basic Course for New Referees at WRCFA HQ, including writing up the marks awarded for the candidates efforts on the practical exercises from the first day (last Sunday). Thursday I was attending my son's school Nativity play where he was part of the "musicians" group playing a number of instruments (mostly percussion!) and singing. Friday I was looking forward to watching my newly upgraded SKY TV channels, having conceded defeat to a nice little Welsh telephone salesman who phoned when I was busy doing something else and allowed him to persuade me that the £5.12 per month...

Apart from colds and the occasional cough I don't do "ill". I got a major surprise on Wednesday of this week when I woke up to find that I couldn't straighten my left arm. I appeared to have acquired a lump the size (and colour) of a small lemon on my left elbow and it was sore. Sore is an understatement. Sore is when you bump your head on a cupboard door. Sore is when stub your toe. Sore is when you graze your knee. Sore is not how you would describe the sense of agony you experience when you hit your thumb (hard!) with a hammer nor when you stand on an upturned electrical plug in the dark nor when you break a glass while washing up and realise that the washing up water is turning bright red. Imagine all of those sensations combined...