‘Successful, but also difficult’: Dutch amateurs play an experimental game without a referee | OneFootball

Dutch amateur sides SV Brandevoort and SV De Braak played a match this week without a referee in an experiment regarding sportmanship and fair play.

Acting on an idea by Ad van Ham on behalf of Helmond Sportief, the two sides saw their coaches keep time while personal discipline was a big focus of the day.

As Van Ham looked on approvingly as the gauntlet was taken up by the players, supervisors and spectators – there was remarkably little grumbling and a lot of mutual understanding. One of the players to NOS:

“That is necessary because we do not always realize how we behave on the field. Without a referee, the players have to solve it themselves, then they are more sporting than if you let someone be the referee.”

Although some players have a near-muscle reflex to look at the referee with a questioning face after a collision (even if he is not there), there were hardly any questionable situations in this practice match. In the first 20 minutes, it even seemed as if the players avoided any duel, and played in a friendly fashion.

Gradually, this changed as proceedings began to resemble real football, yet it also became increasingly clear where the boundaries lay.

De Braak’s captain Larbi Kerkaze admitted that while the match had plenty of positives, it was a real alien experience.

“That took some getting used to, man! It’s difficult in many situations. Was it a corner or not? Did the ball cross the sideline or not?”

The match ended 1-1 and while no one lost and the experiment was deemed a success, Kerkaze still wanted it to remain a one-off.

“This was a practice match, but if it was about promotion or relegation, I don’t know if it’d remain this sporting. I would rather have a referee.”

GBeNeFN | Max Bradfield