Wednesday 30 May 2018

Jonas Eriksson will retire

According to some sources, Swedish Elite referee Jonas Eriksson will retire after having officiated the friendly game between Iceland and Norway, to be played on next Saturday.

It is reported that the Swedish has lost his motivations and he has been disappointed by both UEFA and FIFA. In a interview, he has stated that there is  nepotism and transparency is missing.

Sources:
https://www.expressen.se/sport/fotbollsvm/toppdomaren-slutar-gladjen-har-forsvunnit/
https://www.sportbibeln.se/fotboll/bomben-jonas-eriksson-slutar-som-domare-och-riktar-hard-kritik-mot-fifa/

36 comments:

  1. Good choice; I think it's time for him to retire

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  2. He has confirmed it in an recorded interview in swedishpubkuc service

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  3. It's the right time to go... So now Vincic might be promoted to Elite in his place!!

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    1. I think that committee already knew that this was possible to happen... at the same time, difficult to think that they didn't expect that. Vincic was not planned, otherwise he would have been promoted even without Eriksson's retirement.

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    2. Since Eriksson frees a space up, the next most likely promotion candidate is most certainly Vincic for me!

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  4. Sad end to a great career!

    Collina pushed the Swede from 2010 surely because he was one of the referees with a strong personality. He was always getting better from that point, but ever since he got EL Final (not CL Final) in 2016 he was on a downward trajectory in terms of his motivation, and honestly I like FIFA's decision for him not to attend WC.

    His final interviews seem like an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect in practise, he cannot perceive the change in his performances.

    A nice visual retrospect of his career can be found here:
    https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/jonas-eriksson-referee?groupbyevent=true&family=editorial&phrase=jonas%20eriksson%20referee&sort=oldest#license

    In any case congratulations for a career where he achieved very much.

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    1. Fully agree with you, Mikael.
      It seems as for some reasons he can't realize that the level of his recent performances (we can talk about the last 2 seasons, at least) has been very, very poor.
      But congratulations to him must be made in any case because he has been for sure among the top UEFA Elite referees for many seasons!

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    2. On the other hand: Performance on the pitch is not the sole criterion for World Cup nomination. Four years ago, the communication between some Referees and Fourth Officials seems to have been a big point for improvement when one of them couldn't SPEAK English accordingly and the other one couldn't UNDERSTAND English accordingly. I remember Jonas Eriksson as a non-native English speaker with an absolutely perfect command of English and think that he could have been very valuable as a Video Assistant Referee in Russia.

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    3. @Peter what about Austria?
      I'm sorry for this demotion... now another attempt with Schüttengruber at U19 in Finland?

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  5. Sad news. A great referee by all accounts.

    It's true that he has lost his motivation those last 2 years but his overall presence was that of a great referee.

    Sorry to see him retire.

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  6. Sad that he wasn't picked for the WC 2018 this summer.
    He's without a doubt better than most referees that have been picked by UEFA/FIFA.

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    1. He was in 2014. I don’t think one can credibly claim that in 2018. His performance level has dropped.

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    2. Maybe his level is not the same like in 2014-2016. But for sure he's better that all the referees from (at least) Oceania, Asia and Africa.

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    3. To suggest that Eriksson is better than Sato, Irmatov, Faghani, Gassama or Sikazwe is simply laughable... Not even close to these referees... There is no reason to think that Oceania, Asia and Africa don't produce good referees... Ignorance doesn't help!!

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    4. Completely agree. I'd entrust and choose Irmatov (9 WC Matches), Archundia (8 WC Matches), Larrionda (8 WC Matches), or M.A. Rodriguez (7 WC Matches) over Eriksson any and every day. And surprise surprise, they are all referee's from other confederations other than UEFA. Yet they are all in the top 5 for World Cup matches officiated. Simply being from a certain confederation does not automatically make you a good referee or put you higher in the pecking order.

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    5. The only reason that M. Rodriguez went to a WC was that he was from Mexico. The first 2 WC's totally confirm that.

      @Soham

      Eriksson is by far a better referee than Gassama. At least he has personality.

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    6. @Sheriff

      I said Ericksson is better than any current referee from Oceania, Asia and Africa. Archundia, Larrionda, Rodriguez are former referees from South and North Amercia.

      All the people should agree that, these days, level of european football is much higher than everywhere:
      - european club teams won last 10/11 FIFA Club World Cup finals
      - in last 3 editions of World Cups, 9/12 semifinalists came from Europe

      The level of refereeing is proportional with the level of football, this is an obvious thing for me. Europe has only 10/36 referees in Russia 2018 which is too short.

      PS I say once again that would have been important for young referees like Collum, Kralovec, Hategan, Sidiropoulos to be in Russia as VARs (maybe for Kassai or Ericksson wouldn't have been such important because they already have enough big tournaments in their palmares). Keep in mind that all these young guys were already VARs in FIFA competitions. Don't tell me they are not capable to be VARs. It would have been perfectly possible thinking that FIFA organized a lot of courses and trainings for VARs. We will have VARs from Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil or Qatar, countries without VAR technology in their domestic leagues. Btw, cam someone confirm that Dankert had only 1 game as VAR in the moment of his selection for Russia 2018 ?

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    7. @anonymous Leaving aside one Confederations Cup match, where have you seen Gassama as not impressive?? He got one game in 2014 WC and he was good there... Now with all the more practice with VAR I expect him to do much better than Confed Cup... That was more lack of practice with VAR so current form wise one would pick Gassama over Eriksson any day!!

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    8. And I would take Irmatov over Eriksson any day also. 9, yes 9 World Cup Matches isn't a fluke. The man is a great referee, and he's from Uzbekistan. He doesn't officiate in the UCL or the UEL. But he doesn't need to, because he is a great referee.

      In 1998 Said Belqola was entrusted with the Final between France and Brasil. Yes, a Moroccan referee from CAF was rewarded with a World Cup Final.

      @Anonymous
      M.A. Rodriguez much like Armando Archundia achieved a level of trust from the Ref Comm to be entrusted with many major and sonorous matches. You are not selected to 3 World Cup's as a main official without actually being a good referee. FIFA had a situation in 2006 and 2010 in which it selected 2 Mexican referee trios. Something unheard of in recent history. So why not only choose Archundia and another trio from CONCACAF?

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    9. @petschovschi

      Why didn't that high Euro level help Velasco Carballo (ESP) in 2010?
      Why didn't that high Euro level come to the rescue of Valentin Ivanov (RUS) during "Battle of Nuremberg" in 2006?
      Why didn't that high Euro level help Graham Poll keep track of cautions he had shown Simunic in 2006?

      Bad referee's exist in all confederations. Just like great referee's exist in all confederations. It doesn't matter if a referee officiates in the Uzbek league on a weekly basis. The Law's of the Game are the same for all referee's in all four corners of the World. So if said referee can step up on the biggest stage and perform. More power to him and they should be rewarded.

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  7. In terms of control snd not getting media attention Eriksson was great in WC 2014 and Euro 2016. He was a great country tournament referee.

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  8. My opinion about Eriksson: the period from 2011 until 2016 has been for sure the peak of his international career. He has been among the best and top reliable Elite referees with excellent performances especially in terms of players management. Three major tournament (EURO 2012, WC 2014 and EURO 2016) were for sure the evidence of that. He officiated many top clashes in Champions League, and also national teams in important games.
    But a key moment occurred when he got EL final instead of CL final in 2016. I think that this was a big disappointment for the Swedish. We all expected him as referee for CL final, but committee decided to appoint Clattenburg.
    Despite of a quite good EURO 2016, Eriksson started to make crucial mistakes in almost every game he officiated from 2016-17 season. However, committee gave many chances to him, by going on in appointing the Swedish for quite important matches in CL (you can't deny that). Results were not good. Even the last appointment in Europa League, Arsenal - Milan, had been a very good one, considering that on previous game he had officiated also in CL KO stage. So, you can see, in case of good performances in all these games in two seasons, Eriksson would have definitely achieved more and more success. CL final would have followed for sure, considering the reputation he had gained by committee.
    So, sad to say, but it is merely his fault if he hasn't managed to get CL final or to be selected for WC 2018. He can't blame UEFA and FIFA. He must blame himself. Other referees would have been demoted without hesitation. One must be honest.
    The point for discussion is about the disappointment, following the missed chance for CL final in 2016: but, is a referee allowed to lost motivations for that?
    We can mention Skomina, committee did even something "worse" there, two seasons of top officiating without CL final assignment, so? The Slovenian should have made the same, blaming FIFA, UEFA and so on?
    So in an overall context, Eriksson in my opinion got already everything he deserved, you can discuss about CL final in 2016, but this can't justify all what happened later, a more than poor form by the Swedish.

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    1. Hope Skomina dont lose motivation. He looked dissappointed in ROMA - LIV.

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    2. Some facts to show that always performances doesn't matter for getting the CL final.

      Rizzoli -> Elite 2009, CL final 2013
      Brych -> Elite 2009, CL final 2017
      Mazic -> Elite 2013, CL final 2018
      Kuipers -> Elite 2009, CL final 2014
      Cakir -> Elite 2011, CL final 2015
      Clattenburg -> Elite 2012, CL final 2016
      Kassai -> Elite 2008, CL final 2011

      So, basically is one of the few "old Elite" that wasn't appointed to a CL final.

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    3. @anonymous you are fully right about this argument, however the problem for Eriksson was the missed form after 2016

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    4. Mazic was promoted to the Elite on June 2013. No doubt about that.

      @Chefren. I think that Eriksson lost his motivation due to a missed CL final. Basically every referee took the CL final after 4-5 years when they were promoted to the Elite. And some of them, were political choices.

      I am not saying that he should go to the WC (even though I would take him as VAR) but erasing someone's career for a few bad performances it's just unfair.

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    5. @anonymous sorry again
      we can't say "a few bad performances", he started with crucial mistakes in 2016-17 season and he never stopped it, one must be honest... before that, no doubts, he had been excellent

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  9. It's interesting to see how old the referees were when officiating CL final and how long the've been in the Elite Group when achieving this top appointment:

    Rizzoli -> Elite 2009, CL final 2013 (Born 1971; 42 years, 4 years in the Elite Group (EG))

    Brych -> Elite 2009, CL final 2017 (Born 1975; 42 years, 8 years in EG)

    Mazic -> Elite 2013, CL final 2018 (Born 1973; 45 years, 5 years in EG)

    Kuipers -> Elite 2009, CL final 2014 (Born 1973; 41 years, 5 years in EG)

    Cakir -> Elite 2011, CL final 2015 (Born 1976; 39 years, 4 years in EG)

    Clattenburg -> Elite 2012, CL final 2016 (Born 1975; 41 years, 4 years in EG)

    Kassai -> Elite 2008, CL final 2011 (Born 1975; 36 years, 3 years in EG)


    Now we come to
    Eriksson -> Elite 2009, EL final 2016 (Born 1974; 42 years, 7 years in EG)
    Skomina -> Elite 2009, EL final 2017 (Born: 1976; 41 years, 8 years in EG).

    Eriksson and Skomina have been in the Elite Group for the longest period (beside Brych) and not have officated the CL final.

    So, whether Skomina gets the CL final in 2019, he would be among the oldest referees (43 years and with the longest period (10 years in the Elite Gropup) to referee the CL final. Taking this into account it's easier to understand his disappointment...


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    1. But Skomina still hasn't lost motivation and doing fine like he has for the last 10 years... That is the difference basically!! :)

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    2. I agree Eriksson deserved the 2016 UCL Final as much as Clattenburg if not more but he can't blame everything on that... He should also take into all his crucial mistakes matches after matches in the last 2 seasons but not once did he mention them... And one can't deny that even after so many errors Committee still trusted him with good games - Chelsea v Roma and Arsenal v Milan in this season itself!!

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    3. Alberto Undiano Mallenco will have his tenth (!) and final season in Elite in 2018/19. Instead, the last of his two CL Quarterfinals was in 2011, so he has always not considered at a really high level by the committee. Personally I would like to see him get the EL Final next season, but I cannot imagine it.

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    4. Soham, it's difficult to keep a motivation on a high level for a prolonged period after being disappointed; firstly not getting CL final this year and secondly after not so good performance in CL semi-final. I hope Skomina will collect himself after this not very pleasent period and show better performance at the WC, which could boost his confidence for the 2018/2019 CL/EL matches.

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    5. Undiano Mallenco certainly deserved sone sort of final in his career... He is a really good referee on majority of the days and largely underrated I think... But the UEFA referee I feel most bad for is Frank de Bleeckre :( Skomina has still managed to get a Super Cup and EL final but FdB doesn't even have a UEFA Cup/EL final in spite of being one of the best referees of his time!!

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  10. And just to add: having the President of the UEFA and the member of the Committee from the same country does not necessary mean the advantage for the concerned referee...

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