England vs Sweden referee: Bjorn Kuipers, the man who told Neymar to ‘shut up’, clashes with Jordan Henderson
The self-made millionaire owns a supermarket chain back in the Netherlands and displayed his ruthless streak in handling the Liverpool captain
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Your support makes all the difference.Bjorn Kuipers wasted little time in laying down the law to Jordan Henderson as he took charge of England’s World Cup quarter-final with Sweden, and given his background, it was no surprise.
The Dutch official was handed the third quarter-final in Samara having also taken charge of this year’s Europa League final, with his CV also boasting the 2015 Champions League final and 2013 Confederations Cup final.
Yet it is off the pitch that he has truly excelled, having built a supermarket chain in the Netherlands called Jumbo that means he is worth an estimated £11.5m when he was valued in 2016.
Taking home between £2m and £3m every year in profit, Kuipers clearly has a ruthless streak inside him and it was Liverpool captain Henderson that was on the end of this in the opening minutes of the quarter-final.
The midfielder was angry when Kuipers allowed a blocked quick-free-kick by Sweden to go unpunished. When the next break in play came seconds late, Henderson raged in the direction of Kuipers – and received a fierce ticking off in return.
Henderson continued to fume as England defender a corner, and Kuipers called him over to give him a final warning inside the opening 10 minutes. The dispute between the two was all the more concerning as Henderson was one of the three England players in the starting line-up a yellow card away from missing the semi-final, should the Three Lions reach the last-four.
Kuipers, 45, was born in Oldenzaal and studied business ay university that goes a long way to explaining his off-the-field success. His father was an amateur referee, which led to Kuipers following his footsteps in 2002 and gaining Fifa-accreditation in 2006.
He has been ranked among Uefa’s elite officials since 2009, and the quarter-final in Samara comes as his fourth match at the World Cup this summer, having taken charge of Uruguay vs Egypt and Brazil vs Costa Rica in the group stages and Russia’s last-16 victory over Spain.
It was his incident with Brazil’s Neymar that caused most controversy as his decision to award a penalty when the forward was fouled was overturned by the Video Assistant Referee, leading to a confrontation between the two. When Neymar attempted to confront him, Kuipers told the Paris Saint-Germain record signing to “shut up”.
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