Peter Willems, the former CEO of Oud-Heverlee Leuven, has been appointed by the football association as the new director of the professional referee committee (PRD). He replaces the foreigners Herbert Fandel and Bertrand Layec as crisis manager.
Fandel, the chairman of the PRD board of directors, and Layec, the technical director, “take responsibility” after several difficult weeks in which Belgian arbitration was under fire. It has been clear for some time that they would leave the KBVB at the end of the season. Now the association confirms that Fandel is leaving immediately and Layec’s expiring contract will not be extended this summer.
Peter Willems will be given a new comprehensive position as director and will act as crisis manager. One of the immediate reforms is the reintroduction of a team (or committee) responsible for appointing referees. So far, Bertrand Layec has done this alone and there has been little transparency in the criteria used. The designation team will take more into account objective data such as evaluation reports and the performance of the referees.
The leak of the referee reports two weeks ago in the Nieuwsblad caused a commotion in referee circles because it showed that the referees or VAR referees with the best points did not automatically get the best matches.
Peter Willems and the new national CEO Piet Vandendriessche are now calling on “to show respect for the referees at all levels”. There is a fear that the number of candidate referees will decrease further due to the much negative publicity. There are currently around 4,500 referees active in Belgium, while according to the association there should be 5,500.
