As SVT Sport recently reported, there is a lack of referees in many places in Swedish sports, including in football.

A major reason for this is the vulnerable situation in which the judges act. Many testify that it has become significantly worse. One who can attest to that is Daniel Eckebrant, who is a judge in the local Gothenburg football - which he has been working on for 23 years.

- Violently, it has become much worse. There has always been swearing and such, it belongs. But threats and violence have become much worse over the past ten years, he tells SVT Sport.

Hunted by the crowd

He himself has been exposed. Two years ago, he judged a match on a Friday night. After he blew a free-kick on the midfield, it became menacing. Real protests were expressed, and he handed out a yellow card. Then it all escalated.

One team gathered around him and a player knocked out the yellow card from Daniel's hand and was therefore expelled. Then he turned around and saw how a player in the other team was knocked down, and he then chose to interrupt the match.

- Then the audience came and started filming me and chasing me - and wore masks. I felt very exposed in that situation. But some guys in the other team drove me to town. But later in the evening I got two or three calls, that I was useless, stupid in the head, a pussy and much like that. Had those guys not come forward and helped me it would have been much worse than they did, he tells SVT Sport.

- It wasn't the football I love. It was horrible.

"I was really scared"

Daniel Eckebrant tells me that it was not at all obvious to continue to judge, and that he even feared for his life:

- I was terrified of my life. I thought of my family, they blended in with them and yelled that they would kill me and my family. For a free kick on the middle ground! I do not understand why you should put so much energy into such a thing, I did not even give warning from the beginning, he says.

Looking for escape routes

He continued, however, with the support of referee colleagues and the referee consul at the Gothenburg Football Association. But now he prepares himself differently for the matches, and always looks before the matches where he can escape if the matches derail. And he fears it may end badly for any judge (s) in the future.

- It can end as badly as possible. Two judges were beaten last year ... It can end as badly as possible, he says.

See the entire report below, where we hear, among other things, how it sounds during a match, and see when he looks where he can escape if things go bad

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Reportage: Daniel, 43, talks about the vulnerable situation