Referees Gain Experience at the Dana Cup

In New Zealand rugby is the biggest sport whereas football is not as popular. So even though Calvin Berg and Benjamin O’Connell have refereed football for several years, they still gain a lot of experience by refereeing games at Dana Cup.
Calvin Berg became a referee in 2008, while Benjamin O’Connell started 7 years ago. They are the first referees from New Zealand and they are both very excited.

’We’ll definitely return, but the trip is expensive and we had to travel for two days via Australia and Dubai before arriving in Denmark late Sunday night,’ explains Calvin Berg, who does not really originate from New Zealand.

‘I was born and raised in the USA, but five years ago I moved to New Zealand to finish my education. New Zealand is much more relaxed and unpretentious then the USA,’ he smiles.

‘After the Dana Cup we travel to a tournament in Sheffield in England. We are on a long and expensive journey, so we use the opportunity to gain more experience from European football,’ says Calvin Berg, who has swopped New Zealand winter with temperatures close to freezing with a typical Danish summer.