During the week, Philipp Hüwe is the press spokesman for the police in Cologne. During the weekend, he swaps his uniform for a referee's kit. Then the 34-year-old is on duty as assistant referee to Florian Badstübner or Sören Storks at Bundesliga matches.
Which teams and which stars are on the pitch is of secondary importance to Hüwe. He concentrates entirely on his task of providing the referee with the best possible support. He has a special eye for offside. The flag is his most important tool. "I don't care who is playing against whom," says Hüwe. Although he also enjoys watching soccer in his private life, he is not a fan of any team in the Bundesliga. DJK Coesfeld is his club. Hüwe used to play there himself. Today he is still a referee at his home club. However, he cannot referee their matches for reasons of neutrality.
Matches at the RheinEnergieSTADION are also off limits, as he lives and works in Cologne. In his role as assistant referee, he is therefore always impartial. "I know that from working for the police," says Hüwe. In fact, there are some parallels between his part-time job and his main job. He trains every day to keep fit as a referee. He regularly sends his running data to the DFB. As is well known, good fitness is also required in the police force. As well as cohesion and teamwork.
On the pitch, they are always in action as a team of four: the main referee with his two assistants and a rotating fourth referee. They are in constant communication via their headsets. There are also two colleagues who sit in the Video Assist Center in Cologne and follow the matches on monitors. Both as a police officer and as a referee, you have to enforce rules and punish violations. In both areas, you have to make decisions that have an impact. Even in stressful situations, you have to keep a cool head and act confidently. Hostility is not uncommon.
"As a referee, you have to have a thick skin," explains Philipp Hüwe. "Nowadays, I don't even notice what the spectators shout at me. It's much more blatant in lower leagues. People are close to the pitch and you're exposed to insults in a completely different way. That's why I take my hat off to everyone who regularly referees games like this." Hüwe would therefore like to see a change in people's thinking. There are already far too few young referees and the abuse in the lower leagues does not make the refereeing job any more attractive.
Philipp Hüwe had his first experience as a referee when he was 15 years old. He started at the very bottom, refereeing youth and district league matches. As a referee, you are a lone fighter and often have to assert yourself against older players. The lack of experience quickly leads to uncertainty. Parents shout from the sidelines and the players want to discuss every decision. A tough school. But he mastered it and quickly moved up to higher leagues. "I learned to assert myself and trust my decisions," says Hüwe. "I developed a lot personally as a result. Without these experiences, I wouldn't be where I am today in the police force."
At the age of 19, he finally stopped playing himself and focused entirely on his development as an assistant referee. He is said to have more talent in this area. At every match, he is observed by former referees and assessed according to a grading system. At the age of 26, Hüwe becomes the best assistant referee in the 3rd division of North Rhine-Westphalia and is promoted to the 2nd division. Three years later, he made it into the 1st division in the summer of 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. His first Bundesliga assignment was in the match between Freiburg and Wolfsburg. An unforgettable moment for Philipp Hüwe, despite playing in a ghost match. Even after four years, entering the stadium is still a goosebump moment for him that he consciously enjoys.
Hüwe is one of the 120 best referees in Germany. He is on the road every weekend during the soccer season.
He referees around 35 matches a year. There are also courses and training sessions. "I couldn't do it without the support of my colleagues in the press office. They really have my back and I return the favor on match-free days by being on call," he says. At soccer matches, Hüwe knows exactly what his police colleagues are doing. However, there are no direct points of contact between his two jobs. With one exception: when he was on duty at the Cologne Ringen a few years ago, he checked a player from the 3rd division. It turned out that the two had been on the pitch together in Bremen on the same day. A coincidence that still makes Hüwe laugh today.
