Winter season and probably the last match for this year, for me

I will not sum up the 2021 season properly yet. may appear another match. I will therefore save a summary for the next post, I think. However, it buzzes in my head, sometimes and a few more times compared to fewer times - Should I be a referee next year? Why?

You know that classic question, why do I really referee football? I always answer "Because I think it's fun". I thought I would write down a little bit more around that question. And thank you Anastasia Oberlauf for the tip about writing down why I referee football. Read Anastasia's post here: Interview with Anastasia Oberlauf.

In other words. Why do I referee football?

• It is good training. I run at least 10 km as head referee.
• I train more between matches on my own, to pass running tests but also to maintain and / or become even better at my physique.
• Compared to being a football player, I plan my time myself - roughly.
• I literally love the psychological aspect of being a referee, how to deal with different emotions in different types of people in lots of different situations.
• I am part of the fantastic football family.
• I get to meet lots of people. Both players, leaders, referee colleagues and the audience. I meet people I know and haven’t seen in a while, but also get to know some new ones.
• I get a small penny for something I think is fun and works like a hobby for me.
• I like the aspect of the refereeing role that is a bit broader, not just out on the match. There is so much more with referee equipment, clothing, logistics, passing times, match reporting, match review and so on.
• Love the talks I have with leaders, players and many around the match.

This is what I come up with at the time of writing. We should not focus on the negative points at all and I do not even choose to address them. I can guarantee that the positives above outweigh the negatives!

There are a couple of matches this year where I have thought more about the question "why do I do this", but I do not think about it so much at all. Matches where I have made mistakes, situations that players and leaders do not buy or do not know the rules or any of us who just had a bad day. I release these situations pretty quickly and move on, it's not something that stays in my head. Maybe some more time if I've done something wrong, these are things that can stay for a couple of days. Because we do wrong. We football referees make mistakes every match. The nice thing is that players also make mistakes every single match. And even nicer is that we are all humans and we make mistakes - we are all part of the football family.

Enough about my thoughts on my refereeing role.

Last weekend and the weekend that was now I had two matches in ladies div.1. Relatively simple matches and we as a referee team could focus more on small things and details. Last match I also used a headset which every time is an "aha-experience", because it will be both much easier and more fun to referee with a headset. I use this headset, which I can only speak well of: Headset Twistlock 4-set.

However, I have only used my headset a couple of times this year, but I have fixed it so that my referee club and other colleagues can use it. I think I have had at least three or four colleagues who have tested it this year.

Now I go into winterseason, and training. I like the air, autumn and winter and always have a tendency to increase running and number of workouts from now until March. I have signed up for a race of 10 km for New Year and also a trail race for spring. Just get on with it Ted!

Now we hope for good news and that I can take a small step to next year's season.