Tom Henning Øvrebø has announced that he is retiring from international refereeing after this current season. Born in 1966, Øvrebø would have been eligible to referee internationally to the end of 2011. He will continue to referee domestically, a task he may continue until he reaches the age limit in 2016.
Øvrebø has had a very successful international career. He was promoted to Fifa in 1994, and has since refereed over 100 games internationally. In 2008 he was given the honour of refereeing in Euro 2008, where he was appointed to two group stage matches. The next year he was assigned to the Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona, a game where he received criticism for his handling of it from Chelsea. In total he refereed 25 Champions League matches, with two quarter-finals and the aforementioned semi-final on his record. He was selected to referee semi-finals in the Uefa Cup in 2006, 2007 and 2008. He was the fourth official when Terje Hauge refereed the Champions League final in 2006.
Domestically Øvrebø has been one of the most valued referees, and he has won the award for best referee five times, second only to current Head of Referees Rune Pedersen who’s won it ten times.
The 2010 World Cup will go on without Øvrebø, as him and his team was omitted from Fifa’s 30 referees announced in February. Ovrebø had been on the list of preselected referees since 2007, but missed out in the final selection.
With Øvrebø’s international retirement, Norway will be left with no referees in the Elite category in front of the 2011 season, as Terje Hauge will be forced to retire by the end of 2010.
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