Rune Pedersen (referee)

Rune Pedersen (born 19 May 1963) is a former football referee, representing SK Sprint-Jeløy. He was regarded as the best match official in Norway during the 1990s, and won the Kniksen award for "Referee of the year" 10 times between 1990 and 2000. Only Roy Helge Olsen stood in the way of Pedersen winning the award 10 times in a row, with his win in 1993.

In 1998, Pedersen became the first Norwegian referee to appear in the main tournament of the FIFA World Cup. He refereed the group stage match between Argentina and Jamaica, and the quarter-final between Croatia and Germany where he gave Christian Wörns a straight red card for a foul near the end of the first half. In the first leg of the 2000–01 UEFA Cup semi-finals between Alavés and Kaiserslautern, Pedersen awarded four penalties (three for Alavés and one for Kaiserslautern) as Alavés won 5–1.

Rune Pedersen also won the Kniksen's honorary award in 1998. After retiring Pedersen was the Head of Referees for the Football Association of Norway until 2014.