Danny Makkelie is disappointed to enter the European Championship without a corona vaccination. The referee would have liked the opportunity to be vaccinated, as the Dutch national team had last week. Björn Kuipers, the second Dutch referee at the European Championship, will be vaccinated by the GGD via the regular route just before the tournament.
Due to his age, 48-year-old Kuipers will be given a vaccine on Wednesday, while 38-year-old Makkelie has to wait for it. The latter had hoped for priority. “I think it’s a missed opportunity”, Makkelie responds during a press moment that took place on Tuesday. “The Dutch national team has been vaccinated and I would have liked to be part of it. I wish I had been offered it. But it is difficult, because there is six weeks between the two injections and you have to have someone in the same place twice. That could certainly have been done in the Netherlands, but that never happened.
Kuipers and Makkelie will stay with their assistants in Istanbul during the European Championship, the base for the referees on the final round. Kevin Blom and Pol van Boekel, who are active at the tournament as VAR, have the Swiss Nyon as their working area. There, the center is set up for the video referees, as it is organized in Zeist in the Netherlands. Blom and Van Boekel receive two injections through UEFA in Switzerland, but it turned out that Kuipers and Makkelie could not organize this.
For Makkelie it will be his first final round, while Kuipers was already active at the European Championship 2012, World Cup 2014, European Championship 2016 and the World Cup 2018. Makkelie calls Kuipers ‘the referee of the century’ in the Netherlands. “It is impossible to overtake him. Björn is not only number one in the Netherlands for me, he is also the best referee in the world. Actually, he had the bad luck that it never came to a final. Björn is in favor of it. An example to me as a referee and person. Especially his leadership, and also the cleverness he has, that tactical feeling.
Kuipers therefore starts his fifth final round, something that he himself had not expected. “I said in 2018 that it would be my last final tournament. We are now in 2021 and I am there, so I will never say never again …”, Kuipers said. “You know, I am 48 years old. I don’t think there has been a referee at a final tournament of 48 before. I feel super fit. After the European Championship I will go on vacation and then I will determine which course I will sail.”
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