“THE BEST REFEREES FOR ALL”, Per Johansson praises Olympics level
Olympic Games are a unique event in world of handball where the best referees’ pairs take part in both tournaments – Men’s and Women’s. That is warmly welcomed and praised by coaches of the women’s national team. One of them is Dutch NT coach Per Johansson:
– Finally! I’m so glad the best are here. We don’t want to be a laboratory for experiments as we have been for five or six years. You can’t have Haribo cup judges if you face the best. It’s about respect for the girls and us who work on the women’s side. We train like idiots and have meetings and gatherings and everything. Then we want the best judges as well. It’s not about whether men or women judge. Some of the best couples in the world are female. We want the best. It is logical and the jury should understand that. Now some token has fallen somewhere, says Johansson to AftonBladet.se.
He doesn’t always agree with the verdicts of the best judges either.
– But they lead the matches, there is a clear line and a clear pedagogy. There will be no mess, but they create a good atmosphere and then the coaches who yawn a lot, like me, become calmer, says Johansson.
His colleague in Sweden, Tomas Axnér, agrees with the referee quality in the Olympics:
– It is positive that it is like this. The level of the judges has been really good. You don’t find many mistakes – said Axner.
In the recent time, IHF and EHF have forced gender equality in terms of referees which still causes lower level of performance at women’s events, but also some other pairs who aren’t on the level necessary to judge on Men’s events.
Women’s tournament goes to the quarter-final on Tuesday.
