Members Blogs

What is the big picture of your refereeing career? Are you just enjoying your games every weekend or do you want to get more out of it? If you want to achieve your goals as a referee, you need to answer this this question for yourself. At the start of 2017 it’s a good moment […] Continue reading...

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has defined the first eight officiating teams who will oversee the first group stage matchday of this year's Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) kicked off in Gabon's Libreville tomorrow evening. Olympic Games 2016 referee Ghead Grisha of Egypt has been chosen to take charge of the opening game between Gabon and Guinea-Bissau, with Sidi Alioum from Cameroon Continue reading...

The Euro 2020 training preparation for referees is crucial to set a top performance during the tournament. And according to Werner Helsen it is, amongst other things, due to covid a season that we will not soon forget. With competition stops, preparations with restrictions and furthermore a packed schedule with postponed matches to be played […] Continue reading...

Anthony Taylor fitness tips and exercises for you in this blog post. The Premier League match official has given some insights in his training sessions on the Premier League website and below I’ll explain them to you Referee training exercise 1 One of the drills involves running four lengths of a football pitch continuously. “You […] Continue reading...

Half a year after the revision of the Laws of the Game, UEFA and the IFAB are considering some subsequent adaptions to the topic DOGSO / SPA. In future, stopping a promising attack inside the penalty area with the possibility and clear intention to play the ball will not be penalized with a yellow card anymore. UEFA's Referee Committee teach their referees to refrain from issuing yellow cards Continue reading...

The IFFHS have released their annual referee ranking having chosen Mark Clattenburg as The World's Best Referee in 2016, followed by Nicola Rizzoli and Viktor Kassai. "Selected editorial offices and experts", as the IFFHS writes, have made their votes resulting in the following list: 1 – Mark Clattenburg (England) 141 points 2 – Nicola Rizzoli (Italy) Continue reading...

So what have I been able to achieve this past year? Personality Now, I don’t mean my personality on the field. I mean my personality off the field. To a surprising extent, I’ve noticed qualities of refereeing that I’ve been working on in the field come to life in my personal life. This was certainly […] Continue reading...

Which Laws of the Game changes do you suggest? The IFAB will have a meeting on March 3rd where last year’s major revision of the LOTG will be discussed. I am really looking forward to your ideas in how to make football rules better, more interesting or easier to implement as a referee. Please share […] Continue reading...

Great to see you’re still taking part of the Laws of the Game Quizzes in 2017. Thanks for participating. In this week’s quiz you will find two difficult questions from a day organised by my referee association last weekend. Q1 and Q 5. Please let me know how you performed on one of the social […] Continue reading...

Aberdeen FC recently won their appeal to have a yellow card shown to James Maddison for simulation rescinded. It highlights the lack The post Hackett’s Verdict: Time for the FA to follow Scotland’s lead appeared first on You Are The Ref. Continue reading...

The following referees will officiate the quarterfinals of Men's Tournament. Men's Quarterfinals (13 August) Brasilia, 18:00 CET Portugal - Germany Referee: Walter López Castellanos (Guatemala) Assistant Referee 1: Leonel Leal (Costa Rica) Assistant Referee 2: Gerson Otoniel López Castellanos (Guatemala) 4th Official: Fahad Al Mirdasi (Saudi Arabia) FIFA Referee Assessor: Lee Harmon (Cook Continue reading...

UEFA has appointed the following officials to handle the second legs of Europa League's Play-off Round on 25 August 2016. 25 August 2016 Baku, 18:30 CET Qarabağ FK (AZE) - IFK Göteborg (SWE) Referee: Vladislav Bezborodov (RUS) Assistant Referee 1: Valeriy Danchenko (RUS) Assistant Referee 2: Maksim Gavrilin (RUS) Fourth Official: Kirill Levnikov (RUS) UEFA Referee Observer: Continue reading...

Creating uniformity while maintaining an adequate and situation-based judgment is a task every referee instructor knows when training his or her match officials. This particularly counts for handballs that are undoubtfully one of the blindest spots in terms of consistent Laws of the Game application and that are often judged diametrically different from one referee to the other. Although Continue reading...

The amount of work and sacrifices these individuals make to reach the pinnacle of international football are unbelievable. These referees have dedicated their lives to one of the most hated and controversial jobs in sports so that 3.5 billion people could enjoy football. I have spent over 10 years doing that same job in Italy and Australia’s domestic leagues. I started my adventure in Milan, Italy, circa 2008, and since then I have turned into a completely different person. Back then I was quite shy, very self-conscious and lacked any type of real confidence. Today I’m the exact opposite of that 19 years old, and I owe it all to football refereeing. This is what I learned. Permalink Continue reading...

The following officials will complete the appointments for 2016/17 Champions League's Group Stage Matchday 1. E| 14.09.2016, 20:45 CET BayArena, Leverkusen (GER) Bayer Leverkusen - CSKA Moskva Referee: Daniele Orsato (ITA) Assistant Referee 1: Riccardo Di Fiore (ITA) Assistant Referee 2: Lorenzo Manganelli (ITA) Additional Assistant Referee 1: Paolo Silvio Mazzoleni (ITA) Additional Continue reading...

The following match officials will be in charge of next Wednesday's play-offs for Champions League 2016/2017. Ludogorets Razgrad -:- FC Viktoria Plzeň UCL Play-Off, 1st Leg, 17/08/2016, 20:45 CET – Sofia (BUL) Match Officials Referee: Mark Clattenburg (ENG) Assistant Referees: Jake Collin (ENG), Simon Bennett (ENG) Additional Assistant Referees: Andre Marriner (ENG), Lee Continue reading...

Have you seen this week’s penalty kick after nine seconds? The referee news of 5th of December 2016 with the latest stories, interviews, links and more. With a video of that quick penalty kick decision, the latest Champions League appointments and more. The lastes referee appointments Tuesday’s CL games Wednesday’s CL games Thursday’s Europa League […] Continue reading...

Referee Advent Calendar - Door 5: On next Thursday, UEFA's Referee Committee are going to define the new Referee Categories for the 2nd half of the 2016/17 season. In former times, the category allocation (promotions and demotions) were partly criticized for being politically motivated or at least influenced by the members of the Referee Committee - by us as independent observers, by you as our Continue reading...

The following match officials have been selected to take control over the matches played in Europe's top leagues in Matchweek 3. Feel free to ... - ... share appointments with us (writing them as a comment in the manner below) - ... share appointments from your national leagues other than those listed below with us, specially if you consider the game as significant (e.g. a derby, a top clash or Continue reading...

Week 25 Laws of the Game Quiz 2020-2021. Video for question 1 Got 'em 😎#DOOP pic.twitter.com/b0q4MWU9LI — PhilaUnion🛡 (@PhilaUnion) April 4, 2021 Laden… Continue reading...