AUCKLAND – Three New Zealand football referees will join the All Whites on the plane to South Africa, after being selected as one of eight teams to officiate at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in June.
Referee Mike Hester and assistants Jan Hendrik-Hintz and Mark Rule – fresh from their NZFC Grand Final appointment – will officiate in at least one of the 16 matches at FIFA’s tournament for continental champions.
Hester – a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal New Zealand Navy – refereed two group matches at the Olympics with his Tongan and Vanuatuan assistants and was fourth official for two matches in the knockout phase.
He whet his whistle as a FIFA international referee in 2007 with age-grade internationals, along with Olympic and FIFA World Cup qualifiers throughout Oceania before his selection to Beijing.
Hester has also spent two seasons as a reserve referee in the A-League and is a regular appointee to NZFC and O-League fixtures.
It will be the first FIFA tournament for both Rule and Hendrik-Hintz.
Next on the wish list for Hester is appointment to the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010. Along with kiwi fellow Peter O’Leary, he is part of FIFA development group of officials for the event. The pair’s next assessment comes just before the Confederations Cup at a seminar in Pretoria.
Hester is currently out of the country officiating at the Dallas Cup, an invitational age-grade club tournament in Texas, before heading to the United Kingdom on a three week tour as part of New Zealand Football’s relationship with England’s Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) – the organisation that develops and selects referees for the Premier League and FA Cup.
Story and photo courtesy of NZF Media