Bas Nijhuis has given text and explanation about his choice not to whistle for international competitions anymore. The referee came into conflict with UEFA after his performance on the summer talk show The the Dutch Summer, after which referee boss Roberto Rosetti no longer classified him. Opposite The Telegraph Nijhuis says that he has kept the honor to himself. “I have asked the KNVB to remove me from the list,” says the arbitrator.
Nijhuis was a regular at the daily talk show of Wilfred Genee, Johan Derksen and René van der Gijp last summer. “After that summer I suddenly noticed: ‘Yes, Bas, UEFA was not really happy that you were at De Oranjezomer'”, Nijhuis explained on Monday. Veronica Inside. “I said: ‘That’s fine, but if there is something, UEFA will call me.’ Well, so I wait, then the first appointments for the Champions League and Europa League came: no matches.” Nijhuis had to send an e-mail to Rosetti with his exact part in the program, to which he never received a response.
“Then I thought: then they will all send me to lesser competitions with observers who will give me bad grades. I then contacted Dick van Egmond (coordinator referee affairs at the KNVB, ed.). He had to make a new nomination for international referees, because Björn Kuipers had to be replaced.” According to Kuipers, it was better to put Joey Kooij and Sander van der Eijk forward as new international arbitrators.
“Last season, however, I noticed that UEFA would rather lose me than get rich, but just say that,” Nijhuis told The Telegraph. “Had I continued I would have been subtly drained. Then any yellow card not given would be charged to me by the observer, leaving me down another group after this season. I thought it better to do the credit to myself I knew it wasn’t going to get any better after I went down from the Elite group to Group 1. But I whistled my matches in the Europa League nicely.”
Nijhuis suspects that his relationship with UEFA has deteriorated because he has his heart on his sleeve. “I always say what I think and that is apparently not always useful at the European Football Association,” said Nijhuis. “I had the chance to go with Team Kuipers to major tournaments as a fifth or sixth man. But I didn’t like being next to a goal and I believed that Björn should only have motivated people around him. The same was true for my international role as AVAR, the assistant VAR. That’s just not my thing. But if you indicate that, it is not appreciated.”