The board of the Swedish Football Association held an extraordinary meeting on Sunday. The government dealt with the referee scandal that became public at the beginning of the year.
Now the Football Association reportthat the government has approved Petteri Karin resignation from the referee committee and from the chair of the referee committee.
The board appointed the vice-chairman of the refereeing committee as the temporary chairman of the refereeing committee Styrbjörn Oskarsson.
Petteri Kari, 52, refereed a record 286 matches in the Veikkausliiga. After his career, Kari was a member of the referee committee and a referee observer. From 2022, Kari was the chairman of the referee committee.
The Palloliitto has several committees whose task is, among other things, to deal with rules and regulations, to make decisions regarding their area and to develop the operation of their area, as well as to bring expertise and an unbiased perspective to the Palloliitto’s decision-making.
Heavy accusations
The uproar related to the three referee bosses became public when Helsingin Sanomat reported in January, that the trio is accused of years of arbitrary behavior and abuse of power. In addition to Kari, the accusations have been directed Jouni Hyytää and Mattias Gestranius.
Jouni Hyytiä, 59, has worked in various management positions in refereeing after his extensive career as a referee. He was the head referee of the Football Association in 2017–2021. Recently, Hyytia has been working in Finland as a referee observer.
Mattias Gestranius, 45, ended his successful refereeing career in 2022 and immediately started coaching the top referees in Palloliito.
All three had worked in positions where they had the power to decide on the career progression of other referees and referee positions.
The other referees who were HS’s sources told about the trio’s abuse of power, bullying, nepotism, discrimination, pressure to use alcohol and sexual harassment. According to the sources, the trio had created an inappropriate operating culture, which had driven the referees out of action.
Last week, the Football Association announced having canceled the referees’ spring training session planned for the weekend. Referees and assistant referees of the Veikkausliiga, First League, Men’s First and Second League and National League were supposed to participate in the training.
The cancellation of the training event did not come as a surprise, because Helsingin Sanomat had told, that the referees of the top leagues sent an ultimatum to the Football Association. The Premier Referee Club did not want persons suspected of improper activity to train in the course.
The Premier Referee Club had conducted a survey of its members, based on which three quarters felt that the referee committee and its chairman Kari do not enjoy trust. A little more than half answered that referee coach Gestranius does not enjoy trust.
How to fix trust and operating culture?
General Secretary of the Football Association Marco Casagrande previously told that Palloliitto had already investigated the alleged abuses for more than three months. Casagrande admitted that over the years there has been “more turbulence than average” in refereeing.
The Finnish Football Federation conducted an internal audit, which was completed at the beginning of the year. The internal audit gave the Board of the Football Association its recommendation on measures to develop the referee function.
According to Palloiliitto, the refereeing activity became the subject of an internal audit due to comments received from the management of the Palloliitto, the personnel of the refereeing function, referee clubs and individual referees.
Now the Board of the Football Association discussed the summary of the internal audit made by the management of the Football Association in its meeting. Based on the report and the hearings, the management of the Football Association has planned measures regarding refereeing and the refereeing committee.
The board of the Finnish Football Federation decided to start the process to elect a new chairman of the referee committee at the next meeting on March 21. A board member is responsible for the preparation Ari Murtonen. The goal of the association is to restore trust in the operation of the referee committee.
According to the release, the report of the internal audit and the analysis of the management of the Football Association identified several areas for development in the work of refereeing and the refereeing committee.
General Secretary of the Football Association Marco Casagrande sees that the key to correcting the situation is to support a change in the operating culture.
– The referees are at the center of the game, equally with the players, coaches and teams. Their voices must be heard. History always goes with us, but we have the opportunity to learn from the current situation, and we will start the construction work to repair the trust.
According to Casagrande, the processing of allegations against a person is sensitive and the evaluation of evidence is challenging. However, the Secretary General says that all parties have been willing to cooperate in correcting their actions in order to improve refereeing.
– In the report of the internal audit, in the survey aimed at the referees and in the extensive interviews related to the matter, no crimes or issues were revealed, on the basis of which it would be necessary to initiate other official or disciplinary processes.
– Improper and bad behavior has been identified, and it has been addressed in due course or in this context, and corrective measures are now being taken so that something similar does not happen again. The working atmosphere of referees must be safe at every level.
In the hearing of the referees, the point of criticism pointed to the decisions of the referee committee, the authoritarian way of management, the lack of transparency of the decisions and the lack of equal and equitable treatment of the referees.
President of the Football Association Ari Lahti states in the announcement that the referees’ feedback has been heard and is taken very seriously.
– In addition, I would like to point out that if new information comes to light later in the matter that has an impact on the decisions made now, we will of course take them into consideration. Now let’s start building a new common, equal future for the refereeing function, based on trust and an open discussion atmosphere.
– All of us who work in the industry can do our part to influence this, and especially people in leading positions must show a model and act as an example. Power brings great responsibility.