Members Blogs

There were some very entertaining matches to watch in the Champions League, La Liga and BPL in the past two weeks with the European season coming to a close. That only means that the Canadian season is starting and for this year, so is the World Cup. The weekend was filled with excitement despite being on the other side of the planet for the Nationals! My team began their trip on the Friday and kept me posted on the progress during the group stages. Was glad to hear that all the players were active and scoring especially when we met the eventual winners. It was quite a back and forth and there I was sitting watching the Twitter page for updates watching the score go back-and-forth. Hoping to hear from @larbitreH from the UAE this...

The offside rule is still a difficult one for players, fans and even referees. As an assistant referee it’s sometimes difficult to see if a defender is touching the ball and if it’s a deliberate pass as well. In Saturday’s … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Felix Brych will referee 2014 Europa League final. Uefa just confirmed it. “Brych will be assisted by his fellow countrymen Mark Borsch and Stefan Lupp. The fourth official is Milorad Mažić from Serbia and the two additional assistant referees, Tobias … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Björn Kuipers will referee Champions League final between between Real Madrid CF and Club Atlético de Madrid. Uefa just announced it on their website: “In Lisbon, Kuipers will be assisted by fellow countrymen Sander van Roekel and Erwin Zeinstra. The … Continue reading → Continue reading...

El Shaarawy versus referee: a wonderful video of the AC Milan player. The assistant referee is blocking him from taking a corner kick, so he decides to pass the ball through the AR’s legs. Football humour, I love it The … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Here’s an awesome greeting I received for my birthday. Already received and had my first set of appointments here. I was looking forward to the first set having touch-based with the league assignor for Mens 7v7. It was nice meeting a fully new crew of people running the league with different backgrounds. The first game was played between a set of English teams. This was English football because when the game kicked-off, I didn’t have many decisions to make very quickly but then the challenges started coming in. Soon I was calling fouls but the teams weren’t taking kindly to my perceived lower foul threshold. Almost every decision was contested by either of the teams and sometimes both. Some players disliked this more than...

A delegation of the Italian Referee Association went to Vatican City and gave a shirt to “referee” Pope Francis. The delegation who came to the audience with the pope consisted of he head of the referee organisation Marcello Nicchi, head … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Danish referee instructor Gitte Holm is very happy with the opportunity of a referee exchange in the United Kingdom. A referee exchange in a foreign country has certain benefits for referees. I’ve listed 3 of them in the list below. … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Slow stuff all-in-all for refereeing or at least I thought so. Week 14 Absolutely swamped in the early part with studying for back-to-back exams that I didn’t have any time to think about refereeing or football whatsoever then. At the end of Week 14, our team travelled away for friendly match in the big city. I travelled as the team manager along with them. It was an affair for a lot of behind-the-scenes organisation as the two game times had to be finalised and we had to search for a replacement keeper to keep the game on. One of my friends filled in there and I took him out for dinner as a thank you after the games. It was a full day’s commitment but a lot of fun and interesting to see our team put to the test with our first...

The Dutch King has “his” first party in 2014 because queen Beatrix abdicated last year. There are lot of festivities on King’s Day around the country. But who is king Willem-Alexander? And what can people – and especially referees – … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Afternoon, I've just started a blog not only about refereeing but also about cricket with a brief section about my school work. Hope you'll take the time to give it a read and any feedback is very welcome. http://jackprescott97.wordpress.com/

Hi all, I have started my own blog on refereeing, which is based on my refereeing journey, I would really appricitate it if any of your could regualry read it, give me any feedback and let your colleges know about it. http://therefereesagreatbloke.wordpress.com/

I have a feeling this post will attract a lot of attention. Why you ask? The word FIFA in it of course! I’ve seen a lot of posts from referees around the world about getting stuff/equipment from FIFA and I always wondered how to do it so in a nutshell, here’s what I did to nail this scoop of items. Direct Approach This was trial and error because the first time certainly didn’t work. Simple as it was, I chatted with the referees who did get the equipment and they said it took a simple letter to the FIFA Refereeing Department. I drafted my own letter and sent it in but to my disappointment received a reply letter a few weeks later short of any satisfactory response. I would attach the response I got here but it was...

A strange yellow card givenby referee in the Sweedish football league match between Hammarby IF and Degerfors IF. Jan Gunnar Solli from the hometeam pulls up his shirt just as the ball touches his belly/chest. He pulls the shirt down … Continue reading → Continue reading...

I was watching a FIFA Futuro DVD video on referee fitness and gazed in awe at one particular clip showing multiple back-to-back counter-attacks done by both teams on the field causing the referee to run at full tilt all around the pitch. The amount of running was noticeably exhaustive however, it really opened the eyes of those who didn’t notice right away. Having watched a recent friendly between Germany and Chile, I stumbled upon this clip early in the match under the management of Mark Clattenburg (ENG). Referee Match Fitness from larbitre on Vimeo. These are High Intensity runs and a muscle pull early in the match is all you need during one of these bursts to be out of commission. This video is a great example of the benefits...

The video referee is not (yet) introduced in the biggest footall competitions. But Jamie Carragher wants that to change. The former Liverpool defender says that a video referee needs to decide wether a free kick is inside or outside the … Continue reading → Continue reading...

The back-pass rule in football is sometimes still very difficult for players and even referees. The Laws of the Game say: “An indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, commits … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Tofik Bakhramov is the only referee in the world with a statue. He’s one of the 414 statues from 56 different nations in the World Football Statues Database, published on 7th of April 2014. The website displays databases for all … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Guy Ramos, a Roda JC player, grabbed the crotch of his opponent Aron Johansson. The referee missed the situation in the Dutch Eredivisie match, but the camera’s in the stadium caught it (of course) on tape. If you’d have seen … Continue reading → Continue reading...

It was hard not to look forward to these set of games and hard not to dread it. This was potentially the last set of games I would do for a very long time in both football and Futsal. Sometimes they merge together in my mind because I love officiating both. I was busy with a crazy upcoming week and a lot on my mind earlier on the day but the walk to the Futsal court from home does wonders to help clear my mind and get into game mode. The anticipation is always high for me for these games. I can feel the excitement walking up the steps to the facility. I turned the corner to the corridor with the gym entrance and saw both teams stretching and getting ready. They greeted me as I walked in. One of the perks is that everyone knows I...