Referee Bas Nijhuis handed out two penalty kicks on Thursday during the match between FC Emmen and sc Heerenveen (3-1). He gave the first on his own initiative, after Ibrahim Dresevic hit Michael de Leeuw with a high leg. Nijhuis, however, would rather not have given the second penalty kick – because of a handball by Jan Paul van Hecke – but he ‘had to’ say he did.
With fifty minutes on the clock, Nijhuis was called to the screen by video referee Edwin van de Graaf. Nijhuis had indeed established that Van Hecke got the ball against the arm, but initially let play continue. Van de Graaf intervened and called Nijhuis to the side, where he decided to give a penalty kick, visibly irritated and shaking no. Afterwards, Nijhuis emphasizes that he would rather not have given a penalty.
“It’s so much against your feelings, because the defender can’t help it. Although I didn’t want to give a penalty, I had to. There is no feeling at all in the new rules. Then you know: I have to whistle now, but I really have a lot of trouble with that ”, it says Algemeen Dagblad from the mouth of Nijhuis. Last Friday, he let an apparently clear handball from Adil Auassar run into the penalty area during the game between Sparta Rotterdam and Vitesse for this reason.
The conscious handball of Jan Paul van Hecke.
“Then I let my feelings speak a bit more, but that also leads to commotion. We just have rules. If I don’t give it, I’ll make it difficult for my colleagues ”, Nijhuis says. Now Nijhuis apologized to the Heerenveen players for giving the penalty kick. “I also told them that there is nothing I can do about it. I already had the feeling that the VAR would come, but it is still really sour to give such a penalty. ”