Referee boss Martin de Wilde of ice hockey association NIJB admits that the goal that Danny Kerstholt thought he scored for GIJS HEPRO Groningen on Sunday evening should have counted. The Groningen ice hockey players buy little for it: the decision will not be reversed.
The Groningen ice hockey players, fully engaged in the play-offs for the championship of the Eredivisie, the second level of the Netherlands, were furious on Sunday evening with the referees Brock and Sterkens, who did not respond to the many protests of GIJS players and staff and remained in their decision not to count the goal. As a result, it remained 3-2 and with that result Tilburg Trappers 2 forced a decisive match, which will be played next Saturday in Sportcentrum Kardinge. Had it become 3-3, an extension and possibly penalty shots should have brought the decision.
‘All very unhappy’
Now that Groningen anger appears to be justified. Martin de Wilde, the national boss of the referees, who lives in Zuidbroek, admits this in an email to team manager Jacob van Gelder. “I had my most experienced head referees on the ice in Tilburg, but they missed a crucial moment,” writes De Wilde, who is happy to explain by phone what went wrong. “If you look back at the images, you see a confusing situation in which all sorts of things are happening. There are four or five players on the ice at the goal and Danny gives the last tap to the puck.”
,,On the camera that hangs on one side, you can indeed clearly see that the puck has crossed the line and that a goal should therefore have been counted”, continues De Wilde, who, before becoming a referee 16 years ago, head coach was van GIJS. ,,But at that moment my first referee Adam Brock is mainly busy getting into a good position on the other side of the goal, while a player skates past him at that moment and thus partly obscures his view. It’s all very unfortunate, but it happened.”
‘Clubs have sold their goal-line cameras themselves’
Why no goal-line technology is used at this level? De Wilde: ,,We did have that. We had that about seven years ago, in the then Eredivisie. But that premier league went bankrupt and the clubs, including GIJS, I think, decided to sell the cameras they had at the time to mostly foreign clubs. They could get a few thousand euros for that back then and they could use that money. Well, I really don’t want to say: own fault, big bump. That’s way too cheap. But partly because of this, we must all accept this kind of human error. And that’s this. Ice hockey is the fastest team sport in the world, the puck often goes over the ice at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour, so it is sometimes difficult to see. I deeply regret what happened, that’s for sure. But such things are inherent in ice hockey.”
Kardinge already sold out for third game
Jacob van Gelder, former chairman and now team manager of GIJS, cannot remember whether GIJS also sold its own goal line cameras. “I really don’t know.”
The current vice-chairman of GIJS is happy with De Wilde’s email. ,,It’s nice of him to take some steam off the kettle, but I still find it quite incomprehensible that those referees all hand out penalties, but don’t give in at crucial moments like this. This is what ice hockey is all about. Anyway, we have turned the button and are especially looking forward to Saturday with great pleasure. Then we have to do it on the ice. Kardinge is already completely sold out, until the last one seat . We are excited.”