RefPal - BLOG POSTS

August 12, 2022

Referee Abroad Academy powered by RefPal

RefPal is proud to have been part of the 4th edition of the Referee Abroad Academy in San Sebastian, Spain, at the Donosti Cup in July 2022.

12 selected referees and 7 coaches from around Europe participated in an intense week of referee coaching and training. The matches were observed by high level observers and also filmed. In the mornings the debriefs were followed by video learning of the match incidents in the seminars. The innovative RefPal seminar tool provided active live participation which was followed by discussions lead by the coaching group.

June 06, 2022

How did I reach 100% accuracy? - RefPal referee of the year Kristo Külljastinen

Kristo is 37 years old, has been a referee for 11 years and has been officiating Estonian Top League games for 9 years. He is father to one, a former football player, Master of Sciences in Energy Trading from TalTech and is the Head of Project Management in Estonian Railways Ltd.

His season 2021 was unique as he became the first ever Estonian referee to manage 100% accuracy in both his red card and penalty decisions during the whole season (since RefPal started providing this possibility in 2017). He officiated 16 games in the Premium League and managed 10/10 decisions correct in red card incidents and 18/18 decisions correct in penalty area incidents. On top of that his yellow card accuracy was also great at 88%. His exceptional year was also noted by the football monthly magazine “Jalka” who awarded him the title “Best referee 2021”, quite an exception for a non-FIFA referee to achieve this accolade.
Also at the end of an article some video content from RefPal made public for the first time...

May 25, 2022

Is it possible to reach 100% accuracy in refereeing?

Perfect game / season in refereeing is something referees sometimes talk about, but is it actually possible or is it at all sensible to try to measure it? We have built RefPal to measure the accuracy of refereeing decisions throughout a match, a season and even throughout one’s career.

Accuracy in Estonia
So now let’s have a look at the last four seasons (36 rounds & 180 games) of Estonian refereeing to see how we have progressed with our accuracy throughout. Each incident in these three categories is uploaded into RefPal and after the referee team and the community (other TOP league referees + observers) have had their say, the referee committee gives their final verdict at the end of each week...

April 30, 2022

RefPal now operating in 5 countries

As we are starting our second year of international sales we are providing video analysis and referee development platform for 5 countries. There are over 600 users, more than 1500 games analyzed, close to 20 000 incidents in our database and almost 100 000 logins during this quarter.

Spring season in Europe brought two additions with Faroe Islands and Latvia teaming up with RefPal to develop their referees. Both leagues use a mixture of Key Incidents and Learning Points analysis, with their referees becoming active participants from day one of the cooperation. We held several start-up seminars for both referees (Faroe Islands spring seminar pictured above) and observers through ZOOM and also translated the system into Russian for the Latvian refereeing community. Now RefPal is available in 4 languages: English, Russian, Arabic and Estonian...

April 21, 2021

Finland joins RefPal community

Finnish Football Association becomes the first international partner to join the new referee video development system RefPal created and used in Estonia since 2017. Finnish refereeing comes aboard with both men’s and women’s leagues. Altogether over 150 users starting from Finnish FIFA referees and assistant referees, both male and female top league referees, observers and talent referees from first and second league join the Finnish referee department in analysing, evaluating and discussing both Veikkausliiga and Kansallinen liiga matches and incidents each week...

April 15, 2021

Growth mindset in refereeing

Why do we need to change our mentality towards making mistakes? Why is the true measure of a referee the way he deals with errors and how can we at RefPal help the refereeing community to change their mindsets?

To start I will take you back to my first ever 8,5 as a referee in UEFA competitions. It happened in a 2012 Europa League qualifier in the Netherlands with a Scottish observer. We managed the game well, got lucky with some decisions, and came away winners. The observer was pleased and during the aftermatch dinner described me as a natural referee with enormous talent. God, it made me proud and my self-confidence skyrocketed. To be fair I got another 8.5 in the spring of 2013, possibly flying on the wave of self-confidence created in Twente. The next one took 5 years and arrived in 2018 - so what happened...

December 05, 2019

Welcome to RefPal!

Like its name indicates, RefPal is built to be a referee´s friend.

True friends know every small detail about you. They are honest and open with you. True friends will praise you, but also point your mistakes out to you. They help you grow and they grow with you. You think about them daily and want to spend time with them. They can be crazy and fun with you, but when it comes to things you consider important in your life, they are there to help you achieve them.

With no need to overexaggerate, this what RefPal does...

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