Referee exchange with Referee Abroad in Spain and Portugal

I had the opportunity at the end of June and beginning of July to hang out with Referee Abroad and referee the Ibercup in Spain, Andalucia, and in Portugal, Faro. In this blog post i will write short about my thoughts about it and also a little bit about how my spring season has been and what the autumn season might look like.

To begin with, it has been a long time since I blogged here. Haven't had time as it's been an intense spring and I myself handle all the interviews and other things that are published here at Spintso. The interviews have increased and we have some interesting ones coming in as well.

Before the summer, I was asked by Referee Abroad to come down to Spain and present one of our awards to the Best Referee Talent at Ibercup Andalucia. I replied quite quickly with "A little too long journey for 5 minutes". Referee Abroad, on the other hand, knew that I was both refereeing and observing and asked me instead if I wanted to come down and referee, observe and give our award prize. Of course I answered Yes!

For those of you who are not aware of Referee Abroad, they coordinate referees from all over the world to big and small cups to referee even more in teams, gain experience, see new places, be observed and get feedback and more.

As a referee, I have a fairly high threshold and tolerate a lot, which is both good and bad I think. In Spain and Portugal I was a little shocked at how much comments, gestures and that both players and managers were more aggressive than what I am used to. I refereed mostly youth teams from example Brazil, Portugal, Spain and ages around 15, 16, 17. So, to go through my first match a little bit. The first day i refereed together with two younger referees. One from Germany and one from USA. I was in the circle the first match and we managed to have a match-review, but only for 2 minutes.

Already after 3 minutes I pick up my first yellow card for protest. And after 15 minutes a second yellow card. After 25 minutes comes the third for a tackle and also a yellow card for protesting again. Then we will add here again that my threshold is quite high and these protests would possibly have resulted in a red card at home in Sweden.

Okay, half time. Breathe and think a little about how the match might look in the second half. I have a fairly active role as a referee normally where I talk a lot with players and managers and try to do this as well. However, the language barrier becomes a problem. I speak good English but unfortunately these players and managers do not. I don't quite get there. In the second half, however, there will be "only" two more yellow cards and the match still felt good, even though I may have gone down a little in some color on some card.

During both cups in Spain and Portugal, we had a tight schedule and referees and had to go for some long days, often from 08 in the morning to 20 in the evening. I was there to referee and not have a vacation, so nothing I complained about at all. My brief reflection on being away refereeing is that it was really fun! You got to hang out with other referees from other countries, develop my English, referee lots of matches and see new places. I think that in four days of refereeing, it was upwards of 70 km on the football field. If you have the opportunity to go away and referee with Referee Abroad - do it!

My spring season has been all right but I'm definitely hoping for a better fall season with a couple more challenging matches. A big reason why I became a referee was precisely the planning and being able to schedule training for myself. The spring season and matches that I am added to right now are perhaps a week ahead in time and it will not work in the long run for me. For me, planning is essential if I am to reconcile refereeing with the rest of my life and family. As a player, you have the whole year's schedule ready early in the year and usually not too many changes there. And I understand the problem that we have few referees, which also affects of course. I hope for a change and improvement in the planning for us referees at lower and mid levels. A positive thing is that I have made my debut as an assistant in division 2 men, check on that one at least.

Below you see the referee team that refereed long days together in Portugal. Once upon a time there was a German, a Swede and a Frenchman...