It took more than 17 minutes before the first violation was made at the Helmond football derby between SV Brandevoort and SV De Braak. But what do you do if there is no referee on the field once? “We just solved it ourselves, it was actually going well,” says Gijs Zoetmulder, player of SV Brandevoort.
The match without a referee was an initiative of Sportief Helmond. A playful duel to draw attention to more sportiness and hospitality on the football fields. Something that was not always the case lately, because in the Helmond region there were recently several incidents in which a referee was mistreated or threatened.
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SV Brandevoort wanted to be the host for this one -off referee -free practice match and took on a class of lowering SV De Braak. The first awkward moment was the kick -off, because there was no referee to start the match. A supporter then decided to copy a whistle very hard. Eventually the rest and final signal was done by someone with a flute on the couch of the Braak.
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After just over 3 minutes, the first small violation followed, but the midfielder of SV Brandevoort decided to continue playing football instead of lying down. After 17 minutes, the first free kick was a fact, but otherwise virtually nothing annoying happened. The most striking moment was a flag signal of the linesman after the visitors’ offside, but that was not noticed by any player.
On the stroke of half-time the guests took a 0-1 lead, the home team tied the stand in the second half. Just like in the first half, filthy violations or arguments were not made. “But it was quite difficult to play football without a referee,” says the Braak captain Larbi Kernen. “There are certain moments in a competition that you need an arbitrator. I like that we have played this pilot, but that is because it is a practice pot and the teams know each other. If there is an important match on the program, then a referee is crucial.”
Initiator Ad van Ham of Sportief Helmond saw a nice game of football for the dozens of spectators. “I thought that all players did not even realize that there was no referee. They will be broken, because the effective playing time was higher than normal. But the most important thing is that we received a lot of attention to think about our own behavior. It is not our intention to change the rules, but just that a game of football can be very nice.”
Along the side was a satisfied Brandevoort chairman Harry Elzendoorn: “If we look at it negatively, we can say that unfortunately there is regularly misery on the football fields. But I am positive and point of it that the vast majority of the competitions are just sporty. I think it is good that we could contribute to the creation of awareness in Helmond.”
Elzendoorn is not afraid that in the future, matches without referees will be played. “I think and hope it is not going that way. But we have to ensure that referees continue to like to whistle. Making mistakes, but players do that too.”