With the completion of the J. League first stage on Aug. 17, two foreign referees returned home to Europe, having made an impact on Japanese soccer officials.
Knud Erik Fisker of Denmark and Lucilio Cardoso Cartez Baptista of Portugal were the 38th and 39th refs to have been invited by the J. League to come over here and officiate in league games as part of an educational project that the J. League has run in an attempt to improve the standard of Japanese referees since its inaugural season in 1993.
Fisker and Baptista refereed in eight and seven J1 games, respectively, which, with the notable exception of Leslie Mottram who officiated here for six seasons, was more or less the same number of games as their predecessors. What was different however was the number of yellow and red cards they issued.