Frisk retires following death threats.

Chucky the tree

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish referee Anders Frisk announced his retirement following death threats from Chelsea supporters after their Champions League match against Barcelona at the Nou Camp last month.

Chelsea went on to win the last 16 clash with a 4-2 home victory after their 2-1 defeat in Spain on February 23 when Chelsea fans threatened to kill him in messages by telephone, e-mail and the post.

"The game is just not worth all that," 42-year-old Frisk said on the Swedish football federation website. "The safety of my family is more important than anything."

He told the Aftonbladet newspaper: "I received threats by telephone, e-mail and the post. I have a big family and I am very worried. Anything could happen."

Frisk, one of the top-rated referees in the world, had given Chelsea striker Didier Drogba a second yellow card in the 56th minute, effectively sending him off, while Barcelona were 1-0 down.

The Swede decided he raised his foot too high in a challenge on Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes early in the second-half though Drogba later claimed he had not touched the player.

Drogba's dismissal aroused the anger of Chelsea fans and of manager Jose Mourinho who claimed Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard had entered Frisk's changing room during the break.

"I have so much experience that everyone should understand that I would never let a coach enter my changing room during a match," Frisk added.

Frisk said he did not understand how a correctly given second yellow card and a friendly handshake with the home coach could bring about such drama.

In September last year, Frisk had also been in the middle of an incident during the Champions League match between AS Roma and Dynamo Kiev.

Frisk abandoned the match while the Ukrainian club were leading 1-0 after being hit by a projectile thrown from the stands during the half-time break at the Olympic stadium in Rome.

Roma were later handed a 3-0 defeat by European football's governing body UEFA and ordered to play two home matches behind closed doors.

Frisk has refereed 132 international matches and appeared at three European championship finals (1996, 2000, 2004) and one World Cup finals (2002). He also officiated at 214 Swedish first division matches.

Not suprising from Chelsea fans. Not known for there friendlyness.(sp?)

MrJoeSoap

Some nice generalizing there Chucky, good riddance Frisk.

KdjaCL

MrJoeSoap wrote:

good riddance Frisk.

UEFAs top referee maybe they should get you to pick refs for the top games obviously you know more about it than them.

Good ref shame this happened.

kdjac

mike65

It feels like an over-reaction. I suspect its Chelsea "supporters" after the
Roma/Dynamo Kiev game thats proberly done it. Had the earlier incident not happened he'd proberly have shugged the threats off.

Mike.

MrJoeSoap

KdjaC wrote:

maybe they should get you to pick refs for the top games

One can but dream...

ozt9vdujny3srf

Yet again the small element of scumbags that support soccer damage the game.

Tis not the best.

Chucky the tree

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Some nice generalizing there Chucky, good riddance Frisk.

cheers.

DapperGent

What a pity. He's a very good ref.

I think he was the one that reffed Ireland Vs Spain in the World Cup (could be wrong) and gave Ireland a very late penalty for Hierro pulling Niall Quinn's jersey. It was a definate penalty but one a lot of refs would be unlikely to give due to it generally being seen as a minor offence. Very brave decision.

I thought he was good in just about every game I saw him ref.

DapperGent

MrJoeSoap wrote:

good riddance Frisk.

This is your reaction to someone being scared away from doing a job they probably love because of fear for their family's safety?

You have the soul of a jackal.

theCzar

It's very sad really, he's a decent referee with a lot of experiance, and few hooligans have chased him into retirement.

people who do that aren't football fans, they're hateful thugs who use football as an excuse for hating other people.

LegacyUser

he was one of my favourites! god damn!

PHB

I wouldn't say it was because of this entirely, but noe the less, I hope they catch the ****ers and put them in jail.
I liked him, he had balls to make the tough decisions

Third_Echelon

Yeah i liked him as a ref as well. Plenty of experience and not afraid to make decisions and stick by them. Its a shame that he has had to leave the game in such a horrible way...

I hate it when scumbags win, but i dont blame him for making this decision. Hopefully they catch the fcukers and lock them up... :mad:

ella minnow pea

He was the ref in the ireland-spain game, i think he did the russia or switzerland games last year as well maybe?

great ref always had a good tan, so important these days

not like that pasty muppet Collina....


Shame, I always like Frisky since he gave us that peno against Spain...

gandalf

Shame that he was forced to retire by cowardly thugs who sent in threats. He is a damn good ref, one of the best in the world. He looked like he enjoyed doing the job as well when he was on the pitch.

Like others I hope they catch the "heroes" that sent the messages.

DoctorEdgeWild

At least he can now follow his dreams to the catwalks of Milan.

I didn't rate him that highly as a referee personally but we are talking about a man being forced out of his job by thugs. Absolutely disgraceful.

Hopefully some good can come out of it, Im sure this kind of thing has happened alot before, just not to someone as high profile.

TwoShedsJackson

Next on the list: Mike Riley and Uriah Rennie.

wheres me jumpa

yeah thats a shame he was a good ref. considering refs are getting so much stick these days i think comments like "good riddance frisk" is a bit short sighted. when a good ref is forced to retire its bad for the game and the fans who will probably be disgusted by a decision a less experienced ref will give!

growler

I doubt this is anything new for referees at the top level, you're always going to have some "fans" upset by results that don't go their way , I thought he was wrong to send Drogba off, but I haven't got his home phone number to make the point personally. It's not as though Chelsea has hired a hitman, bit of an over reaction by Frisk I think, but that's his perogative. And before everyone points the finger at Chelsea fans, the Sun was happy to publish the email of Meier (sp?) after he disallowed Campbells goal in Euro 04, inviting the same reaction , no doubt they'll be on their high horse tomorrow about this shameful behaviour of chelsea thugs.

I feel quite sorry for many of the ref's these days, like many other I spend thousands each year following my team, when decisions in important matches go against us I am naturally pizzed off and when a ref is obviously wrong he's the only legitimate target for fans' frustrations. I don't condone taking it any further than post match analysis in the pub, but there are always a few nutters with no sense of perspective.

Perhaps Mourinho was wrong to make his allegation re the Frisk Rikard conversation at half time public, then again if Frisk was unprofessional in his contact with managers then he should have been sacked by UEFA.

The only way to way to protect the refs would be some form of 3rd party / video analysis etc (discussed here many times) but that would entirely change the game.

Mountain of of a molehill, any wrongdoing by Frisk will be erased from Chelse'a collective memory when we win the CL , or replaced by the next poor reffing decision that puts us out of the race. Thats football.

Chucky the Tree is off my Christmas Card list now

RuggieBear

seemingly most of the threats came from england....maybe some came from russia too.....

theCzar

RuggieBear wrote:

seemingly most of the threats came from england....maybe some came from russia too.....

oooh goody, intrigue!

somebody call the Herald, story for page 1!

yop

Shame a good ref, loved the tan as the lads said

Not suprised really it was Chelsea with their merry bank of Ultras to spear head it, some of them must have been working as stewards on Tuesday nite.

Chucky the tree

growler wrote:

Chucky the Tree is off my Christmas Card list now

i'll be crying myself to sleep tonight so

growler

yop wrote:

Not suprised really it was Chelsea with their merry bank of Ultras to spear head it, some of them must have been working as stewards on Tuesday nite.

Chelsea don't have Ultras they have Headhunters.

growler

interesting perspective in the Times on this today " whenever a person feels compelled to abandon their livelihood because they fear for their safety and that of their families it is sad and should give cause to reflect"..... and goes on to say .... " the problem is that you cannot manufacture a star referee unless he also happens to be a good referee. Wherever he (frisk) went controversy and choas followed".... ."Frisk conciously chose the limelight, opting for a certain look and style, but it ws not enough to paper over his shortcomings as a match official, which is why the way he left the game is far more tragic than the fact that he is gone".

There is no doubt that he did seem to generate controversy, usually because of wrong decisions, so just because UEFA think him the next best to Collina doesn't mean he his good enough at his job to deserve such standing.

Perhaps we're better off without him.

jank

Growler come on for **** sake and stop making excuses for the few scumbags who forced a man from a job he loves. Nobody is perfect, even collina missed the tug on the barca keeper to let terry score the winner.

He was a damm good ref who had balls and yes drogba's sending off may have been harsh but it wsa his fifth foul of the match and in that derseved to be sent off for persistent fouling.

I think mourinho has some questions to answer and he might get away from it this season but it will all come back to haunt him the the english press will then have him for breakfast lunch and dinner!

Managers are professionals too remember and this is the second time that he questioned a ref's motives becuase he said "HI" to the manager. That itself puts extra pressure on the refs and any decision will be scrutinized much more

He is a good manager but he is going to step over the line one of these days believe me!

growler

I don't condone what supposed chelsea fans did to Frisk , i'm just drawing attention to an article in a repsected newspaper that offered the view that Frisk wasn't up to the job and that perhaps the game is better off without him.

Chucky the tree

growler wrote:

I don't condone what supposed chelsea fans did to Frisk , i'm just drawing attention to an article in a repsected newspaper that offered the view that Frisk wasn't up to the job and that perhaps the game is better off without him.

he was no worse then any other ref. I have seen ref's make worse decisions in the Premiership(probaly during a chelsea match aswell) yet they havent been given so much abuse.

Name some of his other bad decisions barring then chelsea match?(which is even very debatable wether it was a bad decision)

growler

obviously "bad" decisions are subjective , but , from the same article:

Wherever he went, chaos and controversy followed. In 1995, he lost control of a match in the normally placid Swedish league and was karate-kicked by a pitch invader. In 2002, the Champions League match between AS Roma and Galatasaray that he was in charge of erupted in a mass brawl involving police, players and officials. That same year, in Sweden, Bengt Madsen, the Malmö chairman, ran on to the pitch during a match and accused Frisk of “ruining football” by needing to “always be the centre of attention”.

It takes a special person to drive the usually placid Swedes over the edge, but Frisk seemed to have a way of attracting trouble. In September, he was forced to abandon a Champions League match between Roma and Dynamo Kiev after he sent off Philippe Mexès. Frisk was then struck in the head by a coin thrown from the stands at half-time. In his next match in charge, the Swedish league game between Helsingborgs and Landskrona, he again had to leave under police escort as enraged supporters pelted him with coins and bottles. In December, he lost control of the Valencia versus Werder Bremen match in the Champions League, a game that ended in a brawl.

Chucky the tree

Not really highlightening any shocking decisions he made though is it? It all says how they eneded badly, but does it say due to his bad refing? Or a terrible decision he made? No it doesnt, and that should tell you something.

He was certainly spot on in the Roman and kiev match.

PHB

Yeah, he made the right decisions in most of those matches.
The media made a story of him because he sent people off and gavce the penos, but they were meant to be given.
Whether you like it or not, Drogba could easily have been given a yellow for that tackle of Valdes, it might have been harsh, but it was still valid, and many people would agree with it.

Chucky the tree

I think it was harsh, but thats because i mainly watch the premiership. I think most European refs would of given a yellow for it.

GuanYin

It seems Chelsea aren't backing down here and UEFA are pressing ahead with the matter.

Between this and the Cole incident, Chelsea may lose out on silver for matters off the pitch...

Pigman II

Can't say I'll miss him. He seemed to love being the centre of attention and adjudicated liberally in order to achieve same (can't remember anyone else ever awarding us two penos in a game for example).

Still, I guess he can now get back to his career as a porn star.