REFEREES from Sweden

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Swedish Referees of all time. This list of famous Swedish Referees is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Ivan Eklind (1905 - 1981)

With an HPI of 54.38, Ivan Eklind is the most famous Swedish Referee.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages on wikipedia.

Ivan Henning Hjalmar Eklind (15 October 1905 – 23 July 1981) was a football referee from Sweden best known for officiating the 1934 FIFA World Cup final between Italy and Czechoslovakia in Rome. He is the youngest referee, to this day, to officiate a FIFA World Cup final at the age of 28.

2. Jonas Eriksson (b. 1974)

With an HPI of 42.47, Jonas Eriksson is the 2nd most famous Swedish Referee.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Jonas Eriksson (born 28 March 1974) is a Swedish former football referee. He was a full international referee for FIFA between 2002 and 2018.

3. Martin Hansson (b. 1971)

With an HPI of 41.27, Martin Hansson is the 3rd most famous Swedish Referee.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Martin Hansson (born 6 April 1971) is a Swedish former football referee. He was a full international referee for FIFA between 2001 and 2013. Hansson works as a firefighter outside refereeing and is fluent in Swedish, English and German. His hobbies include hunting and angling.

4. Peter Fröjdfeldt (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 37.87, Peter Fröjdfeldt is the 4th most famous Swedish Referee.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Peter Fröjdfeldt (born 14 November 1963) is a former top Swedish football referee. Fröjdfeldt was born in Eskilstuna. Originally a first division bandy player, he started refereeing in 1992 after his father-in-law asked him to referee a match in a minor league. He moved up to the highest Swedish league, the Allsvenskan in 1997, and obtained his FIFA badge in 2001. Fröjdfeldt has a friendly disposition while refereeing, and his refereeing style has been described as calm and allowing the game to flow. A relative latecomer to international refereeing, he was in the shadows of fellow countryman and colleague Anders Frisk for many years until Frisk's abrupt retirement in 2005. He was voted best referee in Sweden in 2005, and also works as a stadium director outside refereeing, and enjoys family life and golf. Fröjdfeldt officiated six games during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification in the European (UEFA) zone. Fröjdfeldt was placed in charge of the 2008 UEFA Cup Final, one of the biggest appointments for a UEFA referee. Fröjdfeldt was selected to referee at UEFA Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria, his first and only major tournament, as he would have passed the mandatory retirement age of 45 by the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. At the tournament, Fröjdfeldt was the referee for a Group C game between Netherlands and Italy, a Group A game between Turkey and the Czech Republic and a quarter-final match between Portugal and Germany. He correctly awarded a goal from Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy during the first game, despite protests from general football public. He sent off Turkey's goalkeeper Volkan Demirel near the end of the game for a push on opponent Jan Koller, a decision Turkey's coach Fatih Terim agreed with. For the final, he was the fourth official. He retired internationally after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 45 in 2008.

5. Andreas Ekberg (b. 1985)

With an HPI of 30.41, Andreas Ekberg is the 5th most famous Swedish Referee.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Lars Christian Andreas Ekberg (born 2 January 1985), known as Andreas Ekberg, is a Swedish football referee. Ekberg currently resides in Malmö. He has been a full-time international referee for FIFA since 2013. He became a professional referee in 2004 and has been an Allsvenskan referee since 2009. Ekberg has refereed 185 matches in Allsvenskan, 56 matches in Superettan and 72 international matches as of 2021. Ekberg began refereeing matches in Torns IF when he was 13 years old.