AMBITIOUS

• He could have been the ref of the CL 2012 final, if not for Pierluigi Collina. The UEFA referee boss didn't like Kuipers giving his opinion after the quarter-final match Barca - Milan. Kuipers had told the press he was satisfied with the penalties he'd awarded and referees are not allowed to say anything. Full stop. In Holland however they do sometimes give an explanation on camera after a match.
• Kuipers watches videos of the teams he is going to referee. He wants to know how players react, how the sides play. Before the 2012 CL quarter-final he decided to take care not to be in the way of Barca's midfielders who like to pass a lot very quickly.
• In a secret report by the Dutch referee commission, Bjorn Kuipers was called good but arrogant, Kuipers thinks too much of himself, according to the referee bosses ("hij loopt naast zijn schoenen" lit: he walks besides his shoes)
• Bjorn Kuipers' (and his fathers') supermarket (C1000) once won the shop-of-the-year contest in Oldenzaal. Actually, Kuipers and his family own three supermarkets and a hairdressers.
• His wife's grand father is Andries van Leeuwen, an international referee from the 70s.
• Bjorn Kuipers thinks that if his father was still active as a referee he would have sent more than half of all players off before the match would have come to an end. Kuipers is strongly opposed to the increasing 'crudeness' on and around the pitch.