UEFA Women’s Champions League – Round of 16

First Leg, 9-10 November 2016

Manchester City – Brøndby
Referee: Teodora Albon (ROU, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Petruta Iugulescu (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Catalina Nan (ROU)
Fourth Official: Cristina Bujor (ROU)

Bayern – Rossiyanka
Referee: Sandra Bastos (POR)
Assistant Referee 1: Vanessa Dias (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Andreia Sousa (POR)
Fourth Official: Diana Soares (POR)

Lyon – Zürich
Referee: Esther Azzopardi (MLT)
Assistant Referee 1: Juliette Bakker (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Lucia Abruzzese (ITA)
Fourth Official: Sofia Karagiorgi (CYP)

Barcelona – Twente
Referee: Bibiana Steinhaus (GER)
Assistant Referee 1: Katrin Rafalski (GER)
Assistant Referee 2: Christina Jaworek (GER)
Fourth Official: Karoline Wacker (GER)

Brescia – Fortuna
Referee: Pernilla Larsson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 1: Annica Johansson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Anna Nyström (SWE)
Fourth Official: Linn Andersson (SWE)

Eskilstuna United – VfL Wolfsburg
Referee: Cristina Dorcioman (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Patricia Samsudean (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Alexandra Apostu (ROU)
Fourth Official: Iuliana Demetrescu (ROU)

Kazygurt – Paris St. Germain
Referee: Olga Zadinová (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Lucie Ratajová (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Zuzana Špindlerová (CZE)
Fourth Official: Lucie Šulcová (CZE)

Slavia Praha – FC Rosengård
Referee: Lina Lehtovaara (FIN)
Assistant Referee 1: Tonja Paavola (FIN)
Assistant Referee 2: Nina Hammarberg (FIN) 

Fourth Official: Ifeoma Kulmala (FIN)

Second Leg, 16 November 2016

Brøndby IF – Manchester City
Referee: Carina Vitulano (ITA)

FC Twente – FC Barcelona
Referee: Efthalia Mitsi (GRE)

Fortuna Hjørring – Brescia Femminile
Referee: Kateryna Monzul (UKR)

FC Zürich – Olympique Lyonnais
Referee: Marte Sørø (NOR)

FC Rosengard – Slavia Praha
Referee: Anastasia Pustovoitova (RUS)

FC Rossiyanka – Bayern München
Referee: Stéphanie Frappart (FRA)

VfL Wolfsburg – Eskilstuna United
Referee: Esther Staubli (SUI)

Paris St. Germain – BIIK Kazygurt
Referee: Lorraine Clark (SCO)

Greek federation suspends leagues after referee's home burnt

The Greek Super League has been postponed until further notice following the incident at the holiday home of Georgios Bikas, the new head of Greek referees.

A federation statement says the cause of Wednesday's blaze at Georgios Bikas empty holiday home was ''suspicious.'' It says the federation will take further action once the fire department issues an official report. The Head of the Central Referees Committee saw his house in Halkidiki burnt in the early hours of Wednesday as the attacks against people involved in Greek football go on. It remains unknown who is behind this incident, however it is another sign that the criminal organisation which has tarnished Greek football over the years is still acting. This incident follows up the attack against the member of Central Referees Committee, Ioannis Tsachelidis last week. Following this new attack, the Greek Super League is postponed until further notice. Kostakis Koutsokoumnis, FIFA's delegate in Greece, ordered for the postponement as he is expected in Greece on Thursday.

Source: SDNA

UEFA U-21 Euro 2017 Play-offs (First Leg)

11 November 2016

Serbia – Norway
Referee: Michael Oliver (ENG, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Simon Bennett (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Adam Nunn (ENG)
Fourth Official: Stuart Attwell (ENG)
Referee Observer: Bertrand Layec (FRA)

Austria – Spain
Referee: Benoît Bastien (FRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Hicham Zakrani (FRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Frédéric Haquette (FRA)
Fourth Official: Jérôme Miguelgorry (FRA)
Referee Observer: Haim Jakov (ISR)

International Friendly Matches

9-15 November 2016

Italy – Germany
Referee: Artur Soares Dias (POR, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Rui Barbosa (POR)
Assistant Referee 2: Paulo Santos (POR)
Fourth official: Hugo Miguel (POR)
VAR: Manuel De Sousa (POR)

Netherlands – Belgium
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Pawel Sokolnicki (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Tomasz Listkiewicz (POL)

Greece – Belarus
Referee: Craig Pawson (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Stephen Child (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Gary Beswick (ENG)
Fourth Official: Anastasios Papapetrou (GRE)

Qatar – Russia
Referee: Cristian Balaj (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Mircea Orbulet (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Alexandru Cerei (ROU)

Poland – Slovenia
Referee: Björn Kuipers (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Sander van Roekel (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Erwin Zeinstra (NED)
Fourth Official: Bartosz Frankowski (POL)

Austria – Slovakia
Referee: Kevin Blom (NED)
Assistant Referee 1: Mario Diks (NED)
Assistant Referee 2: Hessel Steegstra (NED)
Fourth Official: Richard Liesveld (NED)

Czech Republic – Denmark
Referee: Manuel Schüttengruber (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Roland Brandner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Roland Riedel (AUT)

Russia – Romania
Referee: Aleksey Kulbakou (BLR)
Assistant Referee 1: Dmitry Zhuk (BLR)
Assistant Referee 2: Aleh Maslyanka (BLR)

England – Spain
Referee: Ovidiu Hategan (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Octavian Sovre (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Sebastian Gheorghe (ROU)
Fourth Official: Cristian Balaj (ROU)

France – Cote d’Ivoire
Referee: Radu Petrescu (ROU)
Assistant Referee 1: Mircea Grigoriu (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Valentin Avram (ROU)
Fourth Official: Sebastian Coltescu (ROU)

Hungary – Sweden
Referee: Paolo Valeri (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Gianluca Cariolato (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Fabiano Preti (ITA)
Fourth Official: Davide Massa (ITA)

Northern Ireland – Croatia
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Jake Collin (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Simon Bennett (ENG)
Fourth Official: Andre Marriner (ENG)

Ukraine – Serbia
Referee: Martin Strömbergsson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 1: Daniel Gustavsson (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Joakim Nilsson (SWE)
Fourth Official: Anatoly Abdula (UKR)

Malta – Iceland
Referee: Arnold Hunter (NIR)

From World Cup AR to war refugee

Hamdi Al-Kadri used to referee soccer matches with players as big as Ronaldo. Now, forced to flee his native Syria, he oversees amateur matches as a way to integrate into his new home country, Germany.

The 51-year-old former FIFA assistant referee fled the Syrian civil war in 2012 after his house in Damascus was destroyed in an air raid, first heading to neighboring Jordan and then making it to Germany with his wife and four children. The last time he was here was in very different circumstances - as an assistant referee in the 2006 World Cup. "I remember how well organized it was in Germany. For me it was the best organized very high-level tournament of all time," he said. Now he is back as one of more than a million migrants who have arrived in Germany this year and last. While the general mood toward migrants has soured, Al-Kadri's new club - SV Postbauer - could not believe its luck when the former full-time referee turned up. On Sunday he refereed for them for the second time, handing out seven yellow cards. Al-Kadri got a refereeing license from the Bavarian Football Association (BFV) in September - a small piece of paper that gives him a lot of hope. "I want my children to finish their studies and then to do whatever they want at university," he said.

Source: Reuters

The new Greek Referees Committee quit after violent threats

Turmoil in Greek football took a chilling new turn on Saturday when all three members of the Hellenic Football Federation’s new Referees Committee quit following threats towards one of their number by unidentified thugs.

The Committee, set up by the Normalisation Committee introduced by FIFA last month to take control of Greek football, only met for the first time on Thursday. Yet, according to an exclusive report in the independent Greek football website SDNA.gr, little more than 24 hours later the senior referee Ioannis Tsachilidis (photo) received a visit at his home from strangers who persistently rang his doorbell. When he emerged on his balcony to talk to them, the two men became intimidating, reportedly saying: “We will fuck you, you won’t escape – wherever you go we will find you.” Tsachilidis contacted his colleagues on the CRC – committee chairman Georgios Bikas and Dimitris Kalyvas – late on Friday, informing them of his intention to resign over the intimidation. Upon receiving the news, the pair agreed they would also step down. Tsachilidis has lodged a formal complaint with the Greek police, whose specialist sports-violence unit has been requested to offer protection to the three men in anticipation of further attacks. The explosive development creates an administrative headache for FIFA, whose appointed Normalisation Committee reacted by issuing a statement on Saturday warning that if there is a repeat of the incident it would not hesitate to put a stop to domestic Greek football competitions. If it does, Greek teams would risk being expelled from all international competitions. The statement read: “Last night’s complaint from a member of the Hellenic Football Federation’s Interim Governing Board [Normalisation Committee] and the President of the Central Referees Committee, Mr. Georgios Bikas for the unethical and intimidatory treatment of a CGC member, an act which has already dealt with the Greek police, is repulsive and is condemned in the most categorical terms. “This targeted attack eventually resulted in the submission of resignation of all the members of CGC. UEFA, FIFA and its representative in Greece Mr. Kostakis Koutsoskoumnis have already been informed of the development. “The Normalisation Committee has been appointed by FIFA to normalise the operation of Greek football and the processes of its administration. We warn that if there are attempts in future from any side, the operation of all national football tournaments will be suspended for as long as necessary, even if this entails subsequent disqualification of our teams from international competitions.” The incident came less than 48 hours before one of the most incendiary matches of the Greek Super League season, when the top-two-placed teams, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, faced off on Sunday night. That fixture has previously been abandoned over fan violence – an incident that prompted a moratorium on Super League fixtures last season – due to fan perceptions of questionable refereeing decisions.

It is not the first time a Greek Super League referee has suffered violent intimidation. In 2012, the then-FIFA referee Petros Konstantineas was allegedly asked to favour one team in a match he was due to officiate in. He refused; a month later the bakery he owns was blown up by a bomb, prompting his retirement. That incident forms part of two separate criminal investigations into match fixing in Greek football which are currently before the Athens criminal courts.

Source: InsideWorldFootball

Zhukov pleaded guilty of accepting bribes of $650 and a bottle of brandy

The Central Court of Minsk started proceedings against the former head of the Belarusian Referee Department, Andrei Zhukov (photo). He is charged under article 430 (bribery) of the Criminal Code of Belarus. The defendant admitted his guilt in full.

Zhukov is accused of taking bribes in the amount of about $650 and a bottle of brandy in the following episodes:
1. On 4 October 2014 received from $100 from referee Andrei Soroka for the appointment to the match Smorgon – Gomelzheldortrans;
2. On 8 June 2015 received from $100 from referee Andrei Divakov for the appointment of Cup matches and national championship;
3. On 27 September 2015 received from referee Oleg Murashkevich 50 rubles ($28 at the exchange rate of the day) and a bottle of brandy for the appointment of Cup matches and national championship, including Smolevichy - Smorgon;
4. On 12 May 2016 received $200 from referee Vadim Panchenko for appointment to the Belarus Cup final Bate - Torpedo, as well as other Cup matches and the championship;
5. On 25 May 2016 received $100 from Andrei Divakov for the appointment to matches Slavia - Slutsk, Vitebsk - Slutsk, Granite - Torpedo, Neman – Vitebsk;
6. On 7 June 2016 received 100 euros from Nikolai Rindiuk for the appointment of referee Andrei Soroka to the game Smorgon - Orsha.

On the basis of evidence, Zhukov is charged with bribery and accepting a bribe repeatedly, according to the Criminal Code of Belarus. According to article 430, bribery is punishable by restriction of freedom for a term of three to five years, with disqualification to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, or imprisonment for up to seven years with confiscation of property and deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities. Zhukov was arrested on 8 June 2016, in his office at the Belarusian Football Federation.

Source: Pressball

UEFA Europa League – Group Stage (Matchday 4)

3 November 2016

SC Braga – Konyaspor
Referee: Alexandru Tudor (ROU, photo)
Assistant Referee 1: Vasile Marinescu (ROU)
Assistant Referee 2: Vladimir Urzica (ROU)
Additional AR 1: István Kovács (ROU)
Additional AR 2: Cristian Balaj (ROU)
Fourth Official: Mircea Orbulet (ROU)
Referee Observer: Pascal Garibian (FRA)

Fenerbahçe – Manchester United
Referee: Milorad Mažić (SRB)
Assistant Referee 1: Milovan Ristić (SRB)
Assistant Referee 2: Dalibor Djurdjević (SRB)
Additional AR 1: Danilo Grujić (SRB)
Additional AR 2: Nenad Djokić (SRB)
Fourth Official: Nemanja Petrović (SRB)
Referee Observer: Marián Ružbarský (SVK)

Zorya Luhansk – Feyenoord
Referee: Jakob Kehlet (DEN)
Assistant Referee 1: Henrik Larsen (DEN)
Assistant Referee 2: Heine Sørensen (DEN)
Additional AR 1: Michael Tykgaard (DEN)
Additional AR 2: Peter Kjærsgaard (DEN)
Fourth Official: Lars Rix (DEN)
Referee Observer: Cyril Zimmermann (SUI)

Apoel – Young Boys
Referee: Sébastien Delferiere (BEL)
Assistant Referee 1: Yves de Neve (BEL)
Assistant Referee 2: Jo de Veirdt (BEL)
Additional AR 1: Nicolas Laforge (BEL)
Additional AR 2: Erik Lambrechts (BEL)
Fourth Official: Jimmy Cremers (BEL)
Referee Observer: Vlado Slivokos (CRO)

Astana – Olympiacos
Referee: Orel Grinfeeld (ISR)
Assistant Referee 1: Danny Krasikow (ISR)
Assistant Referee 2: Roy Hassan (ISR)
Additional AR 1: Liran Liany (ISR)
Additional AR 2: Guy Berger (ISR) 
Fourth Official: David Bitton (ISR)
Referee Observer: Jean Lemmer (LUX)

Anderlecht – FSV Mainz
Referee: Andreas Ekberg (SWE)
Assistant Referee 1: Mehmet Culum (SWE)
Assistant Referee 2: Magnus Sjöblom (SWE)
Additional AR 1: Bojan Pandžić (SWE)
Additional AR 2: Kristoffer Karlsson (SWE)
Fourth Official: Fredrik Nilsson (SWE)
Referee Observer: Elimir Pilav (BIH)

Qabala – Saint Étienne
Referee: Carlos Del Cerro Grande (ESP)
Assistant Referee 1: Juan Yuste Jiménez (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: Roberto Alonso Fernández (ESP)
Additional AR 1: Juan Martínez Munuera (ESP)
Additional AR 2: Iñaki Vicandi Garrido (ESP)
Fourth Official: Abrahám Álvarez Cantón (ESP)
Referee Observer: Muharrem Aksoy (TUR)

Maccabi Tel Aviv – AZ Alkmaar
Referee: Davide Massa (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Riccardo Di Fiore (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Fabiano Preti (ITA)
Additional AR 1: Paolo Mazzoleni (ITA)
Additional AR 2: Massimiliano Irrati (ITA)
Fourth Official: Filippo Meli (ITA)
Referee Observer: Kyros Vassaras (GRE)

Zenit – Dundalk
Referee: Luca Banti (ITA)
Assistant Referee 1: Alessandro Giallatini (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Matteo Passeri (ITA)
Additional AR 1: Paolo Valeri (ITA)
Additional AR 2: Marco Guida (ITA)
Fourth Official: Lorenzo Manganelli (ITA)
Referee Observer: Hervé Piccirillo (FRA)

Austria Wien – AS Roma
Referee: Javier Estrada Fernández (ESP)
Assistant Referee 1: Miguel Martínez Munuera (ESP)
Assistant Referee 2: Teodoro Sobrino Magán (ESP)
Additional AR 1: Alejandro Hernández Hernández (ESP)
Additional AR 2: Ricardo De Burgos Bengoetxea (ESP)
Fourth Official: Javier Aguilar Rodríguez (ESP)
Referee Observer: Asim Khudiyev (AZE)

Astra Giurgiu – Viktoria Plzeň
Referee: Alon Yefet (ISR)
Assistant Referee 1: Nissan Davidy (ISR)
Assistant Referee 2: Dvir Shimon (ISR)
Additional AR 1: Roi Reinshreiber (ISR)
Additional AR 2: Ziv Adler (ISR)
Fourth Official: Oren Bornshtein (ISR)
Referee Observer: Marinus Koopman (NED)

Athletic Club – KRC Genk
Referee: Martin Atkinson (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Stephen Child (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Stuart Burt (ENG)
Additional AR 1: Michael Oliver (ENG)
Additional AR 2: Paul Tierney (ENG)
Fourth Official: Constantine Hatzidakis (ENG)
Referee Observer: Andreas Schluchter (SUI)

Sassuolo Calcio – Rapid Wien
Referee: Craig Pawson (ENG)
Assistant Referee 1: Gary Beswick (ENG)
Assistant Referee 2: Adam Nunn (ENG)
Additional AR 1: Jonathan Moss (ENG)
Additional AR 2: Kevin Friend (ENG)
Fourth Official: Harry Lennard (ENG)
Referee Observer: Jan Wegereef (NED)

Ajax – Celta Vigo
Referee: Paweł Raczkowski (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Michał Obukowicz (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Tomasz Listkiewicz (POL)
Additional AR 1: Tomasz Musiał (POL)
Additional AR 2: Tomasz Kwiatkowski (POL)
Fourth Official: Radoslaw Siejka (POL)
Referee Observer: Stephen Lodge (ENG)

Panathinaikos – Standard Liège
Referee: Sergii Boiko (UKR)
Assistant Referee 1: Oleksandr Korniyko (UKR)
Assistant Referee 2: Volodmir Volodin (UKR)
Additional AR 1: Anatoliy Abdula (UKR)
Additional AR 2: Anatoliy Zhabchenko (UKR)
Fourth Official: Igor Aljechin (UKR)
Referee Observer: Kaj Natri (FIN)

KAA Gent – Shakhtar Donetsk
Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (BLR)
Assistant Referee 1: Dmitry Zhuk (BLR)
Assistant Referee 2: Oleg Masylyanko (BLR)
Additional AR 1: Denis Scherbakov (BLR)
Additional AR 2: Viktor Shimusik (BLR)
Fourth Official: Yuri Khomchenko (BLR)
Referee Observer: Alan Snoddy (NIR)

Schalke – Krasnodar
Referee: Slavko Vinčić (SVN)
Assistant Referee 1: Tomaž Klančnik (SVN)
Assistant Referee 2: Andraž Kovačič (SVN)
Additional AR 1: Roberto Ponis (SVN)
Additional AR 2: Nejc Kajtazović (SVN)
Fourth Official: Bojan Ul (SVN)
Referee Observer: Iain Robertson Brines (SCO)

OGC Nice – FC Salzburg
Referee: Hüseyin Göçek (TUR)
Assistant Referee 1: Mustafa Eyisoy (TUR)
Assistant Referee 2: Kemal Yilmaz (TUR)
Additional AR 1: Mete Kalkavan (TUR)
Additional AR 2: Tolga Özkalfa (TUR)
Fourth Official: Serkan Ok (TUR)
Referee Observer: Luciano Luci (ITA)

Fiorentina – Slovan Liberec
Referee: Aleksandar Stavrev (MKD)
Assistant Referee 1: Marjan Kirovski (MKD)
Assistant Referee 2: Dejan Kostadinov (MKD)
Additional AR 1: Dimitar Meckarovski (MKD)
Additional AR 2: Dejan Jakimovski (MKD)
Fourth Official: Goce Petreski (MKD)
Referee Observer: Karen Nalbandyan (ARM)

PAOK – Qarabağ
Referee: John Beaton (SCO)
Assistant Referee 1: Douglas Potter (SCO)
Assistant Referee 2: Alastair Mather (SCO)
Additional AR 1: Steven McLean (SCO)
Additional AR 2: Donald Robertson (SCO)
Fourth Official: Sean Carr (SCO)
Referee Observer: Darko Čeferin (SVN)

Southampton – Internazionale
Referee: Pawel Gil (POL)
Assistant Referee 1: Konrad Sapela (POL)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcin Borkowski (POL)
Additional AR 1: Bartosz Frankowski (POL)
Additional AR 2: Krzysztof Jakubik (POL)
Fourth Official: Krysztof Myrmus (POL)
Referee Observer: Alain Hamer (LUX)

Sparta Praha – Hapoel Beer Sheva
Referee: István Vad (HUN)
Assistant Referee 1: István Albert (HUN)
Assistant Referee 2: László Viszokai (HUN)
Additional AR 1: Sándor Andó-Szabó (HUN)
Additional AR 2: Jozsef Erdos (HUN)
Fourth Official: Gabor Erös (HUN)
Referee Observer: Gudmunder Jónsson (ISL)

FC Zürich – Steaua Bucureşti
Referee: Robert Schörgenhofer (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Roland Brandner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Roland Riedel (AUT)
Additional AR 1: Dieter Muckenhammer (AUT)
Additional AR 2: Rene Eisner (AUT)
Fourth Official: Stefan Kühr (AUT)
Referee Observer: Christer Fällström (SWE)

Villarreal – Osmanlıspor
Referee: Harald Lechner (AUT)
Assistant Referee 1: Andreas Heidenreich (AUT)
Assistant Referee 2: Maximilian Kolbitsch (AUT)
Additional AR 1: Alexander Harkam (AUT)
Additional AR 2: Julian Weinberger (AUT)
Fourth Official: Andreas Staudinger (AUT)
Referee Observer: Edgar Steinborn (GER)

Elite referees can predict where a foul will happen

Scientists in UK and Belgium find less experienced referees are more easily distracted and focus less on contact zones. The proficiency of elite football referees could be down to their eagle eyes, say researchers.

A study of elite and sub-elite referees has found that a greater tendency to predict and watch contact zones between players contributes to the greater accuracy of top-level referees. “Over the years they develop so much experience that they now can anticipate, very well, future events so that they can already direct their attention to those pieces of information where they expect something to happen,” said lead author Werner Helsen from the University of Leuven.

Keith Hackett, a former football referee and former general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, said the research chimed with his own experiences. “In working with elite referees for a number of years I have recognised their ability to see, recognise think and then act in a seamless manner,” he said. “They develop skill sets that enable them to see and this means good game-reading and cognitive skills to be in the right place at the right time.” Mistakes, he believes, often come down to poor visual perception. “Last week, we saw an elite referee fail to detect the violent act of [Moussa] Sissoko using his arm/elbow, putting his opponent’s safety at risk,” he said. “The review panel, having received confirmation from the referee that he failed to see the incident despite looking in the direction of the foul challenge, were able to act.”

Writing in the journal Cognitive Research, researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium and Brunel University in west London say they recruited 39 referees, 20 of whom were elite referees and 19 were experienced but had never refereed at a professional level. Each participant then viewed a series of video clips, filmed from a referee’s perspective, showing footballers interacting on the pitch, either in open play scenarios or taking corner kicks. Of the 20 clips, 17 involved a foul. For each clip, each referee was asked whether there was a foul, whether a player needed to be shown a card, and what colour, and whether a direct, or indirect, free kick or penalty kick should be awarded. By using eye-tracking technology, the researchers could analyse where the referees directed their eyes and for how long - their so-called “visual-search behaviour”. The results reveal that the elite referees were, overall, more likely to make the correct call. For corner kicks, elite referees correctly decided upon whether free kicks or a penalty kick were in order 69.5% of the time, compared with 56.8% for sub-elite referees, although no clear difference was seen for open play scenarios. When it came to decisions about whether to flash a red or yellow card or not, the elite referees outperformed their sub-elite counterparts in open play, correctly showing a card when necessary, and of the right colour, 61% of the time, compared with 45.3% for the sub-elite referees. From the eye-tracking data, the authors found that elite referees spent more time than sub-elite referees during open play scenarios looking at the area of the attacker that made contact than the non-contact zone. The authors add that while no clear differences were seen for corner kicks, the data hint that a similar trend might be at play. “What we now see very clear[ly] is that elite referees anticipate in a very efficient way, and obviously seem to know in advance where the contact will happen, and already focus in that contact zone” said Helsen. “While less experienced referees are much more distracted by other things happening.” Further analysis, taking into account the length of time the referees spent watching the contact zones between players, revealed that mistakes in decisions made by referees appear to be down to both errors in perceiving the situation and in their categorisation of that situation, according to the laws of the game. The researchers say the findings could be useful in the development of referee training programmes, including web-based applications. 

Mike Riley, the managing director of the Professional Game Match Officials, said: “The research demonstrates that the level of training referees at the elite level receive, as well as the fact they are evaluated and assessed, means that they are more likely to make correct decisions more consistently compared to those that don’t receive that level of training at grassroots level.”

Source: The Guardian

Referee Moen punished by UEFA

Norwegian referee Svein Oddvar Moen came recently in focus after the World Cup qualifying showdown between Iceland and Finland. The Finns were leading 2-1 as the match approached the end, but Iceland turned around in extra-time and eventually won 3-2. The winning goal was controversial: Ragnar Sigurdsson headed the ball towards the opposing goal, but it was not clear, even after TV replays, whether the ball crossed over the goal line or not.

The Norwegian referee team chose to award the goal, which led to violent protests by the Finnish players. Finland captain Moisander reacted by grabbing referee Moen’s jersey at the neck height (photo). Moen responded with a yellow card, but UEFA have reacted in hindsight. They believe the decision to not send off Moisander was such a big mistake that he was removed from a planned European Cup assignment afterwards. “When a referee does something wrong, it will affect him”, said Moen to TV2 Sport. The 37-year-old referee has since 2010 belonged to the "Elite" category of the European referees, who figures regularly in the Champions League and Europa League, in addition to major championships and qualifiers. This season, Moen has yet to referee a Champions League match. He appeared in Matchday 1 of the Europa League, Mainz – St. Etienne (1-1), and was planned for Matchday 3, but, in the wake of the Iceland – Finland game, he was removed and he is not assigned any game in Matchday 4 either. Moen will not be in action during the World Cup qualifiers next week. Asked whether he is afraid of losing his “elite” status, he responded “I am not thinking of that right now”.

Source: TV2 Sport