A Finnish judge opens the secrets of the rules on social media. It developed into a small idea, which he is now working on seriously.
Number one in the Veikkausliiga match statistics Jan-Peter Aravirta47, was forced out of the top judges’ lists last fall.
The referee committee of the Finnish Football Federation removed from its composition a referee who worked during his long career in World Cup and European Championship qualifying matches and in all UEFA top tournaments up to the Champions League.
Aravirta tried to get the union’s decision overturned at the Sports Legal Protection Board, but lost.
However, the fire towards the sport and refereeing did not go out.
Now the man has a new iron in the fire. He has founded an online referee training, which started from rules education videos uploaded to Instagram.
– That idea came from social media. I realized that no, I can train and help people with this, Aravirta says with enthusiasm in her voice.
Act as an example Oskari Partonen maintained by the Elitefootballsquad account focused on coach and player content.
– I talked with him for a long time, and then it started. That’s where it grows little by little, says Aravirta about his Referee Academy.
Properly and in a big way
The service developed by Aravirra is a forum where people can join Teams meetings led by a Finn to analyze situations of their own choosing.
Situations are tried to be broken down into parts from different points of view by means of discussion.
– Let’s think about how the judge handled the situation. How could it have been handled? What could have been done better and what was done well? Not just in the way that this is a yellow card or a red card. We think about many other things, such as people management, says Aravirta.
A recording is made of the conversations, which can be returned to later. Aravirta also compiles a written version of them.
Aravirra’s videos serve as the only advertisement for the Referee Academy, in which he shares his own views on telling situations from the fields in Finland and around the world.
The clips are popular and collect almost exclusively good feedback. He has clearly found a niche that has an order.
– I have been shocked by the coverage. There, one video has 1.7 million views, several more than a million. Pretty wild in itself, Aravirta puffs with satisfaction.
– Even the Finnish speakers are doing well. Note that the crowd is interested.
The whole thing is only at the hobby level, but there is potential.
He primarily chose English as his language in order to reach a wider audience.
– I thought that Finland was too small a market. If we do it, we do it properly and big.
Shame on the union
Line referees Mikko Alakare (left) and Jan-Peter Aravirta (right) with head referee Mattias Gestranius photographed before the international match between Switzerland and Lithuania in 2021. Gestranius currently works as a referee expert for the Football Association. PDO
The Referee Academy is “just a hobby” for Aravirra at this point.
The Veikkausliiga is in full swing, but it hasn’t made him want to get back on the field.
In its current situation, Aravirta enjoys being able to work in an environment that emphasizes transparency
– I myself have always tried to get better by sharing information and talking with people. There [liitossa] it’s just the other way around. All information should be kept to yourself, because information is power. When you don’t share it with others, you are better and wiser than others, Aravirta describes his own experience of the union’s operating methods.
He thinks that being a judge in itself is such that it might attract narcissistic people. That’s what he believes happened on the side of the Palloliitto referee.
He says the end of his own career started due to TV expert work in 2022, because the union was hampered by the visibility of the “wrong man”.
– There are a lot of smart people who are not involved in the activity at all because the atmosphere and people are the way they are, Aravirta laments.
Model from Spain
In Arajärvi’s opinion, the development of Finnish football and refereeing requires more discussion and different perspectives than at present. Jan-Peter Arajärvi’s home album
Aravirta reviews the past only at the journalist’s request, because the man’s own thoughts are firmly in the future.
Aravirta envisions that with a larger number of top referees, the conditions to compete internationally will improve both for the referees and for the Finnish teams.
With his own training and social media activities, he wants to open up a bolder discussion culture on the local football field, which could be taken as an example from the Spain of endless football debates.
– Whenever there was a new trend, it came from Spain. The Spanish teams invented something that no one else had in terms of how to stretch the rules.
Aravirra’s thesis is that it would be in the interest of Finnish referees and football as a whole if more cooperation could be done.
– Sharing information is related to the fact that we, as a small country, come from the past. If we want to succeed, information must be shared.