Fifteen -year -old Levi Kortekaas stares in front of him along the line at FC Lisse. It is Saturday afternoon, one hour. A few girls from his class play football on the field. But Levi has no eye for the competition. In his head he plays what happened earlier that day, even though he would rather not think about it.
Levi is a club referee at FC Lisse. This morning he whistled the match of the under 13 against VV Katwijk. Jochies still, yet it went completely wrong. So much, he says, that afterwards he hid for half an hour for his own safety in the first aid room of the club.
Five people who were present at the competition have opposite NRC described how things got out of hand. In addition NRC Being able to see statements that FC Lisse has submitted to the KNVB football association about the incident.
It started with hard tackles, eating, holding. Levi whistled a number of times, resulting in his address such as ‘cancer’ and ‘gay’. After Lisse had reached a 3-0 lead, the atmosphere became even grim and at some point jungle sounds and a racist remark when a Lisse player fell to the ground. Levi said something about it, but that had no effect. Supervisors of VV Katwijk did not intervene, some parents say after the competition.
According to the bystanders, one of the coaches of VV Katwijk encouraged to play his players even more physically. In the second half things got out of hand. The reason was a situation in the penalty area of FC Lisse for which Levi did not whistle. A Katwijk player gave the young referee a push. Levi wanted to send the player away with red, but he pulled the card out of his hand. “I cut it,” he thought, and he whistled the game.
When Levi wanted to walk down the field, he saw one of the coaches of Katwijk storming from the corner of his eye. “Who don’t you think you are?,” The man roared, who wanted to know what he was called. A father jumped in between the two to keep the coach away. With tears in his eyes and under supervision, Levi left the field.
Youth chairman Corleen Hoek of VV Katwijk fights this description of the incident on various points when asked. According to him, there would be no scolding and not pushed and the red card would not have been grated from the referee’s hands. In the other points, Hoek does not accept content.
Trend of violence
The incident at FC Lisse fits into a trend of Increasing violence in amateur football. The KNVB reported this as a result of figures for the previous football season: 1,864 games were stopped due to ‘disorder’, an increase of 11 percent compared to the season before. The number of disciplinary issues – ranging from kicking to serious threats – rose by 10 percent to 3,500. The highest number ever.
Reason for the union to tighten the policy. Players must be in possession of a rule of game, only suppliers may consult with the referee and are postponed to the arbitrator for a certain period in verbal and/or physical violence towards the arbitrator.
In addition, the KNVB launched a national campaign: ‘Week of the referee’. During this week, the union wants to thank all referees en masse for their efforts. She also started a recruitment campaign.
Ambulance
Exactly a week earlier it got out of hand in Alphen aan den Rijn at another youth competition. The 15-team of the Leiden football club Lugdunum played against ARC. After a conflict with the referee, the Leiden trainer took out to him. The referee was so injured in his throat that he had to be transported to the hospital by ambulance. There he was operated on his larynx.
The 40-year-old youth coach from Leiden was arrested a day later and is suspected by the Public Prosecution Service of serious abuse, resulting in serious physical injury, according to a spokesperson for the OM opposite it Leidsch Dagblad.
That a week after the incident in Alphen aan den Rijn a referee at FC Lisse is also attacked by a team counselor, Paul Heister calls “deeply sad.” Heister (60) is also a referee at FC Lisse. All the more, says Heister, because his youthful colleague Levi Kortekaas is “so young and enthusiastic.” “Referees are really needed, both at our club and in national Dutch football.”
According to the KNVB, the sport has been struggling with a shortage for years. In 2016, the union still had 34,000 arbitrators, In 2024 there were still 27,000. About 32,000 games are played every weekend. With each cancellation, a logistics problem is immediately created, at every level.
Paul Heister whistled the game of the girls under 17 on Saturday afternoon. The whistling of the ladies and youth is a well -considered choice. Five years ago he himself was a victim of violence. The game he whistled ran out in the last ten minutes on a fight. Heister tried to stop one of the players. “I should never have done that.” He suffered injuries on his face and avoided the football field for a month. Now he only whistles what he calls “nice” competitions. “There is usually less hassle in the ladies or youth competitions.” He advises Kortekaas to do the same, “but yes, even in youth things go wrong.”
It is not yet known what consequences the incident has at FC Lisse for those involved. It is certain that Levi will “just whistle again this Saturday,” says Yolanda Richter, chairman of the arbitration committee at FC Lisse. The club will submit an official complaint to the Disciplinary Committee of the KNVB against VV Katwijk and ‘look’ critically at which matches Levi will now whistle. “We can’t do more than that.”
VV Katwijk does not want to respond how to follow this incident at the club. Lugdunum also does not want to share what the concrete consequences are after the attack on the referee at ARC in Alphen aan den Rijn.
In response to the complaints FC Lisse has submitted, the KNVB will assess whether a disciplinary case is being set up, according to a spokesperson for the union.
Unavoidable
After the earlier case of aggression in Alphen aan den Rijn, the KNVB announced that incidents on the football field cannot be prevented. “Every incident is one too many,” the union wrote in a statement, “but with 1.2 million football players and hundreds of thousands of volunteers and visitors, it is not realistic that we can come up with zero incidents.” When asked how the union wants to act specifically against violence against referees, the KNVB did not want to go into. Director of Amateur Football Designed on X Jan Dirk van der Zee The attack on the referee at ARC as “an insane action”, of which the union “certainly work”. “You always stay away from the referee. If you don’t understand that you have nothing to look for in football.”
Levi Kortekaas agrees. “I hope that these types of figures will no longer be welcome in the future.” That a fifteen -year -old young has to correct an adult man with his behavior, he thinks “the opposite world.”
At the same time, Kortekaas is critical in itself. He pauses for a moment and then says: “I should have given the coach a red card, but I didn’t dare.” Whether the commentary on referees will ever stop, he wonders, but it doesn’t stop him. His dream is to become KNVB referee, a step higher and more professional than a ‘club referee’. Full of conviction, he says: “Let them go dicks, I whistle.”