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Biography
Pieter Vink ([ˈpitər ˈvɪŋk], born March 13, 1967in Noordwijkerhout, South Holland,) is a former Dutch football referee, who also officiated for FIFA and UEFA. He was the first referee to take charge of a match at the "New Wembley Stadium" in 2007. His other occupation was as a police officer, eventually giving this up to become a full-time referee. His main other hobby is golf.
Career
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.
Internationally, he has been a FIFA referee since 2004, also debuting as a referee in the UEFA Cup in the same year, and then being appointed to the 2005 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship Final at Windsor Park, Belfast, on July 29, 2005, when France defeated England 3–1.
He was given the considerable honour of handling the first official match to be played at the newly-rebuilt Wembley Stadium on March 24, 2007, a 'friendly' between England Under-21 and Italy Under-21 which finished 3–3.
In 2007, he refereed his first match in the UEFA Champions League, a qualifying tie between Steaua Bucharest of Romania and BATE Borisov of Belarus, having been promoted to UEFA's Elite list in July. He went on to handle three more games in the Group stage of the competition in that year. Vink was referee for the Euro 2008 qualifying match between Scotland and Ukraine on October 13, 2007 at Hampden Park, Glasgow, when the Ukrainians were effectively eliminated after a 3–1 defeat. Subsequently, he took charge of Northern Ireland's 2–1 win over Denmark at Windsor Park, Belfast, on November 17, 2007.
Vink refereed the all-English Champions League quarter final first leg between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on April 2, 2008.
Euro 2008
On December 19, 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. He refereed the third match of the competition between hosts Austria and Croatia.
