FIFA referee Jonas Eriksson will end his career on Saturday, after the friendly game between Iceland and Norway. He is one of Sweden's most experienced referees and has totaled 340 matches and six championship finals.
Eriksson, 44, has refereed at the 2014 World Cup as well as the 2012 and 2016 Euros. But this time, he and his team did not get the chance to referee at this summer's World Cup. Now he has decided to finish his career. "I have decided to finish my referee career. My retirement age is 45 and I'm 44 now. Next year I had to retire, but I and my colleagues had decided to stop after Russia. There was no World Cup for us and that was disappointing”, he said to SVT Sport. Eriksson now confirms that he will end his career before the World Cup instead of after. "Football was for me lust, passion, joy and I feel it's slowly getting lost. And if I do not have the same motivation, I choose to stop before I lose it completely", he told SVT. Eriksson is also critical of FIFA and UEFA, which he believes has broken communication. For example, Eriksson had to read in the newspapers that he was not selected to the World Cup. "Communication is completely absent, there is no transparency, but there is nepotism and I cannot accept that. There is a leadership that makes me not want to continue”, he said to SVT.
Eriksson believes that Swedish referees have not had a fair chance of FIFA and UEFA appointments. It's about nepotism, he believes. “Sweden is a small country. I think we do not get the matches we deserve. They go to bigger countries and you can see statistically what they are getting. I think we have a disadvantage and fight in headwinds. I've got matches too, but in the end we do not get what we deserve", said Eriksson. What's happening next time remains to be seen, but now he will spend more time with the family and play football with his daughters.
