Norwegian backing for Ovrebo

THE head of Norway’s refereeing union, Rune Pedersen, is confident Tom Henning Ovrebo, the referee blamed for Chelsea’s Champions League exit, will ride out the storm of criticism and not cave in to demands that he quit his job.

Four years ago, referee Anders Frisk gave up his whistle two weeks after Chelsea claimed the Swede’s decision had cost them a Champions League tie against Barcelona, but Pedersen has said that Ovrebo is made of sterner stuff and is not prepared to quit.

“He will cope with this. It helps that he is a qualified psychologist who runs his own firm, but he showed that by staying calm under provocation,” he said.

Pedersen also rubbished reports that death threats had forced Ovrebo to change his hotel plans after the game.

“That was just an exaggeration, there were no problems on the way to the airport,” Pedersen said.

At Euro 2008, the 42-year-old enraged the Italian FA after incorrectly ruling out a goal by Luca Toni in Italy’s 1-1 draw with Romania. He later admitted his mistake and did not referee again in the tournament. After that experience, he insisted he could handle the pressure from the media, but would consider quitting if any of his decisions affected his family.

There is already major security surrounding Ovrebo: his house is reportedly under police protection, while he was smuggled out of Oslo airport on arrival there yesterday morning. Ovrebo’s wife and three children have been moved from their home in Oslo and their whereabouts are unknown.

A poll run by Norwegian paper VG, whose headline over their match report read, “One mistake too many”, showed that 50% of readers felt he gave a poor performance while the other 50% thought he was not responsible for Chelsea’s exit. Twenty five per cent of the latter group were impressed by his self-control after the late rants of Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba, and among them might have been columnist Esten Saether, who wrote: “By going off the rails both on and off the pitch, the Chelsea players have to a large extent lost their case. On the other hand, Ovrebo’s complete calm in the middle of it all proved that he is a top international football referee.”

The consensus in Norway was that Ovrebo did get it wrong on the night, but that Chelsea’s reaction was unacceptable. “There is sympathy for Tom here, and the key point of interest for us is that he is not forced to quit like Frisk was,” explained VG sports editor Boert Erik Fuglem. “It was not an easy game for him but he is still a good referee. Anyone can have a bad night, it’s just a pity it was in such a big game.”