Pieter Vink

Vink began refereeing in 1987, and was elected to the Eredivisie C-List in 1993, progressing to the competition's B-List in 1996 and then becoming a referee on the country's A-List in 2001. dec.^[4]

Internationally, he has been a FIFA referee since 2004,^[1] also debuting as a referee in the UEFA Cup in the same year,^[2] and then being appointed to the 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship Final^[2] at Windsor Park, Belfast, on 29 July 2005, when France defeated England 3–1.^[5]

He was given the considerable honour of handling the first official match to be played at the newly rebuilt Wembley Stadium on 24 March 2007, a 'friendly' between England Under-21 and Italy Under-21 which finished 3–3.^[3]

In 2007, he refereed his first match in the UEFA Champions League,^[2] a qualifying tie between Steaua Bucharest of Romania and BATE Borisov of Belarus,^[6] having been promoted to UEFA's Elite list in July.^[4] He went on to handle three more games in the Group stage of the competition in that year.^[6] Vink was referee for the Euro 2008 qualifying match between Scotland and Ukraine on 13 October 2007 at Hampden Park, Glasgow, when the Ukrainians were effectively eliminated after a 3–1 defeat.^[7] Subsequently, he took charge of Northern Ireland's 2–1 win over Denmark at Windsor Park, Belfast, on 17 November 2007.^[8]

Vink refereed the all-English Champions League quarter final first leg between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on 2 April 2008.^[9]

On 19 December 2007 it was announced that Vink would head the Dutch team of officials selected for the Euro 2008 competition proper, held in Austria and Switzerland in summer 2008.^[10] He refereed the third match of the competition between hosts Austria and Croatia.^[11]