Members Blogs

A fellow referee and I, went to play some FIFA. Needless to say he was destroyed the first game since he wasn’t used to the console. He improved over the last few games but I was the overall winner! After the games, it was time to officiate some real games. I was doing some recreational womens games over the long weekend. It was a fairly quiet game overall. It was one of those games where I needed to maintain a high level of focus and concentration to ensure I didn’t miss anything because a minute switched off is all it takes. I also worked with a personable crew. Tuesday and Wednesday were break days so I used Wednesday evening for some light jogging. On a side note, my running loop was meant to drop off gamesheets in the...

I think were all having a bit of withdrawal at the moment. So a good way of spending the summer months is hitting some of the Forums. There are four main Referee forums. FootballReferee.org This is the Forum of the Referee's Association RefereeForum.net This was ran via Official Sports. Its been going a while and is a good forum. With members from all over the place. Rate The Ref Started off as a site for people to pass comments on Referee's. However is good for checking things such as appointments and sometimes a bit of gossip. RefChat. A new forum and one that already is developing into a great forum. Also you can view the site via the ForumRunner IOS app, so its easy to dip in. Continue reading...

To give you a bit of a teaser/backstory, have a read of Third Blind Mouse’s piece on this situation. https://thirdblindmouse.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/dogso-h-or-offside-i-cant-decide/ People may think that the laws/rules of sports are simple. This scenario can show just how mind-boggling a scenario in football can be. I thought the natural thing to make this clear is to draw […] Continue reading...

I have added a new feature to the blog to make it easy to comment. I find that while posts get decent hits, that the comments left are non existent. One reason maybe that it was a bit of a pain to use the system. I have though added Disqus comments. Basicaly they allow you to comment using your social network type accounts as well as just using the standard comment system. So if this has worked if you click on comments, you should see a new box below. Continue reading...

The traditional curtain raiser to the new season will be this year refereed by Kevin Freind. The match between Chelsea and Man City will take place on the 12th August. Kevin will be assisted by Assistant Referees Michael McDonough and Richard West. Fourth Official will be Anthony Taylor (Cheshire CFA) with Reserve Assistant Referee Charles Breakspear (Surrey CFA) Filed under: Season 2012/13 Tagged: Anthony Taylor, Assistant Referee, England, FIFA, referee Continue reading...

Week 23 Laws of the Game Quiz 2019-2020. Curious how you’ll score. Good luck! NB: you can always find the quiz archive on this specific quiz page. The questions Laden… Continue reading...

Week 30 Laws of the Game Quiz 2018-2019. I’ll focus on some penalty kick questions, as you may need this when officiating a play-off game or cup final. One of the questions: During kicks from the penalty mark a penalty kick is taken. There’s an offence by both the goalkeeper and the kicker. The kicker […] Continue reading...

Always interesting news when a kit supplier shows the new outfits. Check out the Nike referee kits for 2016-2018. There’s of course a black outfit. The yellow one is much lighter than before. There’s also again a green one. And the new colour is purple. What are your thoughts on the different colours? The picture […] Continue reading...

Hi All, I have started putting together monthly LOTG quizzes for our RA members. I though of making it available to the wider referee community after it is done by our RA. You may see some questions in there you have seen before. Give it a go: https://form.jotform.co/90548957009871 You will see your score once you submit. If you put a correct email address in, all questions, your answers and correct answers are auto-emailed to you. Your email is not used for anything else but if you don't want to use your email and message me the name you used, I can message you back with the content of your quiz result.

German referee Manuel Gräfe let a penalty kick being retaken in a penalty serie. Twice! The cup match between Fortuna Düsseldorf and Borussia Dortmund ended goalless after 120 minutes. In the penalty serie Blaszykowski from Dortmund thought he made the 2:2 (after 4), but Gräfe was resolutely pointing to his whistle, demanding the Polish player from Dortmund to re-take the penalty kick. Immediately after that Andreas Lambertz from Düsseldorf misses. He walks away, head in his hands. But what he did not realize is again the call for a re-kick by the referee. Goalie Weidenfeller and a field player who came running from the middle line heavily protested and got both a yellow card. But I think the referee’s decision was correct (no replay...

There is very little to mention for this week. Snow snow snow. My football flats enjoying a mouthful of snow. Want to see the same view in 2013 same day? I was wearing thermals for most of the week but the snowstorm day after day was relentless. In the middle of the week, I got my shipment of Dolfin whistles. A little later than I hoped because now it’s a little too late to be blowing a whistle out on a football pitch. I think I heard from someone that it doesn’t work indoors. Other than that, plenty of work as it’s getting closer to term’s end. Saturday evening was High Intensity running at 30/40. The warm-up was a good place to start because I was inactive for the 7 days prior. My ankle/leg felt a little shaky but...

During a match in China a supporter ran on the field of play to attack the Referee. Clearly no laughing matter. However what is funny is he may be the worst pitch invader ever! Continue reading...

Football referees on national top level will all appear in their new outfit the next weeks. Brands made all some new referee kits for the 2012/2013 season. The Scottish referees will use the Adidas Euro 2012 referee kits, like the German Schiedsrichter. German referees posed with the traditional black kit, but I kind of like the yellow and silver ones from the Scottish FA, sponsored by Specsavers. Photo with permission of www.scottishfootballdirect.com. Continue reading...

David Beckham Retires Legendary English soccer player David Beckham, who perhaps owns the most recognizable face on the planet, announced on May 16 that he’s going to retire at the end of the current season. Beckham currently plays for Paris Saint Germain (PSG) in France’s Ligue 1. The 38-year-old midfielder managed to win a league championship in four different countries recently when PSG won the French title. Beckham is under contract with the team until June and is donating his salary to a children’s charity. Beckham said he thanks PSG for giving him the chance to continue his career this season after he left the Los Angeles Galaxy of North America’s Major League Soccer (MLS), but believes the time is right to hang up his boots. PSG...

New for football match officials: the Nike 2014-2015 referee kit. You can find them already in the Nike brochure for the 2014-2015 season. The kits have different colours compared to the previous Nike referee kits. Black, yellow and grey will … Continue reading → Continue reading...

The cold weather arrived in Europe. But how do we dress because of the low temperature and icy wind? I normaly try to write down the scores with my cold fingers. I tried gloves once many years ago. It helped a little against getting cold fingers, but writing down info about cards and goals wasn’t any easier. Last week I saw special ‘referee gloves’. They’re for sale for 24.95 euro at RefereeWorld. They look pretty normal compared to other gloves, so I’m still wondering what makes them ‘referee gloves’. The post Gloves designed for football referees appeared first on Dutch Referee Blog. Continue reading...

I started this week doing a massive load of laundry. The season was over so “cross-contaminated” jerseys from using the same uniform holder could be cleaned and put into storage now. I was relieved to find that none of my adidas 2014 jerseys lost their velcro patches (I hadn’t stitched them this year). Clothes were hardly the focus of this cleaning. Shoes too! A good brushing and cleaning got all the artificial dirt, turf-dust and any mud off them. I also decided to retire my old pair of mundial team shoes since seams were beginning to tear. I may save them just for playing now. My current plan is flat shoes for turf (underarmour) and my pristine mundial team shoes for grass. These are the flats I have been talking about for...

Week 29 Laws of the Game Quiz 2020-2021. Video for question 1 Laden… Continue reading...

Going out the door to excercise is so important. Just the fact you're going out proves you have motivation for it, says Abdelkader Benali. He is a Dutch writer and amateur runner. In the new blog section "Tips from the sidelines" I'll share useful info and thoughts from sports people, players and coaches that will […] Continue reading...

What do players think when they approach the referee while shouting, protesting and making crazy gestures? That question crossed my mind a couple of times the last few days. This awful behaviour of players against referees has to stop. These actions set the wrong example for the adults and kids you and I have to […] Continue reading...