Marcus Vinnerborg

Karl Johan Marcus Vinnerborg (born August 8, 1972) is a Swedish professional ice hockey referee in Elitserien.

Officiating career
Vinnerborg played hockey for IF Troja/Ljungby, and in 1986 he represented Småland in TV-pucken. He began his officiating career at minor hockey-level in 1987 after having quit playing ice hockey. He was a linesman at Allsvenskan-level for several year before he decided to take the referee education.

In 2006 Vinnerborg officiated at the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Vancouver, Canada, where he was selected as the referee for the bronze medal game between Finland and USA. He was then selected to officiate at the 2006 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships in Riga, Latvia.

Vinnerborg and Thomas Andersson became Elitserien's first professional referees prior to the 2006–07 season. He was again selected to go the World Championship in 2007, and he was selected to officiate the final between Canada and Finland.

Vinnerborg together with Brent Reiber officiated the 2008 IIHF European Champions Cup final between HC Sparta Prague and Metallurg Magnitogorsk, the tournament was one of three trials of the Four Official System which later was introduced at the World Ice Hockey Championships. Vinnerborg was awarded the Guldpipan (the golden pipe) as Elitserien's best referee during the 2007–08 season, voted by the player. After receiving the award prior to game three of the 2008 Swedish Championship final between Linköping HC and HV71, Vinnerborg faced controversy after making a critical error when not awarding a penalty to Linköping HC, after HV71's defenceman Johan Åkerman had intentionally shot a broken stick at the puck while being shorthanded. Linköping lost the game and Vinnerborg was not chosen to officiate the next game. Linköping's coach Janne Karlsson criticised the league since the four-man official system was not in use during the finals. For the third year in a row Vinnerborg was selected to the World Championship, in 2008 held in Canada on small ice. Vinneborg and fellow Swede Christer Lärking were selected to officiate the final between Russia and Canada, making it Vinneborgs second final appearance in a row. They stood for a controversial but correct puck out penalty on Canada's Rick Nash in overtime, which lead to Ilya Kovalchuk scoring the championship winning goal on the man advantage that followed.

Vinnerborg suffered an injury to his neck and head after a collision with HV71's Mattias Tedenby during a pre-season game in 2008, which led to him missing the start of the 2008–09 season. On September 30, 2008, during a game between hosts SC Bern and the New York Rangers, Vinnerborg and Don Koharski became the first tandem of NHL and IIHF referees in an international event.