Members Blogs

The second referee in ‘Life after refereeing’ is Carlos Eugenio Simon from Brazil. Use of Simon’s Twitter with his permission. Name: Carlos Eugenio Simon Born: 1965 Country: Brazil Career: Fifa badge in 1997; World Cups in 2002, 2006 and 2010; Copa America in 2001 and 2007; Copa Sudamericana finals in 2003, 2004. What do you do now for a living? “I am commentateur of soccer matches at Fox Sports Brazil. I analyze the match and the referee.” How do you look back on your career and what is your best experience? “I worked in 1.198 soccer matches, lots of decisions, one olympiad and 3 world cup’s which are my best experience. It’s hard keep a career in high level in Brazil because we don’t have much incentive. The fact that I worked in 3...

This summer has been a strange one for me, it’s the first time since 1994 that I have not started a season as an active referee. I am still registered and hope to do a few games, but I have not actually registered with a league. After last season taking the decision to step down to level 5 due to family and work commitments, I have changed jobs but further extended my family so time has not increased. That is not to say that I wont be involved at all. This season for me it will be assessing on the supply league and for the county, while also developing as a Tutor for the FA. Unfortunately I have not been able to be involved in the summer courses the county have been running as I don’t have the holiday to take the time of from...

When I get this fixture I think oh it's only down the road as Homesdale school is close by. As always I ask for directions - the match is in bromley. After a very stressful and tiring 10 days at work and some very sad family news on my girlfriend side I leave home at 12.30. Mr TOM TOM says it will take 45 minutes to get there. PERFECT for a 3pm KO. I get to the ground at about 1315. The ground was slightly off the main road but the big road sign helped. There a few people already there so I put my bag in the changing room and take a look at the pitch, nice pitch and clearly just cut, lets hope my hayfever is not affected. I notice a bonfire in the corner of the pitch, lets hope the smoke does not affect the game - I doubt it with...

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. First on this blog: the German top referees will all be dressed in the Euro 2012 Adidas outfits, sponsored by DEKRA, a comany ‘providing safety, quality and environmental protection across many sectors’, as their website says. If you know the new referee kit in your country, please let me know. Referees are Peter Gagelmann (Bundesliga) and Benjamin Cortus (2nd Liga). Continue reading...

Ex Premier League Referee Peter Walton is now head of the North America’s Professional Referee Organization. He recently was on the Pitch Invasion Podcast talking about his role. I havent had chance to listen yet, but its an excellent podast and I am sure it will be a great interview. Link to Pitchinvasion Filed under: Uncategorized Continue reading...

FIFA have released the latest laws of the game. You can purchase a copy but to be honest you do struggle to get hold of these, so the best bet is downlaod them from the FIFA Site. You can follow this nice link to the FIFA site or to save searching the site use this tinyurl i have created which will take you straight to the PDF http://tinyurl.com/2012LOTG Related Articles It’s Settled: No Yellow Card if You Curse at FIFA’s Referee [Video] (kotaku.com) Filed under: Laws of the Game Tagged: FIFA Continue reading...

Spotted this on Dutch Referee’s blog this morning, I used to love Playmobil as a kid! I considered getting these to go in the Tutor kit box, but to be honest they look like they are wearing high viz vests. Related Articles Playmobil Toys Summer & Holiday 2012 Preview (mommyfactor.net) Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Lego, Misc, Officiating, Playmobil, Shopping, Sports, Toy Continue reading...

The summer break takes too long, at least for some referees. I’m happy season starts soon. For me on 8th of August with a friendly and 18th with the first cup match. All good luck with your new season. Continue reading...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published at the beginning of the week on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. “Yet there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of her. And that’s a good thing because Seitz is a referee, and for an official, anonymity is often the reward for a job well done.” Los Angelos Times journalist Kevin Baxter about Kari Seitz, US referee in her third consecutive Olympic soccer tournament. “It’s my hope in my lifetime that we get some women referees in the World Cup (for men, jth).” Kari Seitz realizes that things ‘don’t happen overnight’, but she hopes that female referees will be equal to men’s referees. Read the full article on LA Times sports...

All of a sudden a female voice sounded from my left upper arm during the referees training. I was pretty surprised. I turned the audio volume of my smartphone off, but the Endomondo audio-feedback is apparently able to keep talking. The idea of the coaching is nice, but I felt a bit stupid that my phones was making noises during the training session. Last week, I asked you for suggestions for good running apps. Thanks for your mentions on Twitter, Facebook and this blog. Thanks all for your suggestions for the running apps. You suggested: Endomondo, Runkeeper, MapMyFitness and Adidas miCoach. I already used the free version of Runtastic. The Endomondo app I used last week is good, but I’d like to know what the time interval is for the...

New toys for referee’s boys (or girls): the playmobil referees. You can buy them for 9,59 US dollars at Amazon.com. Continue reading...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published at the beginning of the week on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. “It really is something that is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Sean Hurd, Olympic football referee in London. “We had this minor panic when that came in, thinking, what are we going to do?! But ultimately, the referees in Fifa don’t make goal line mistakes so we’ve really already got it.” Says Fifa 13 lead producer Dave Rutter to The Guardian. Immediately adding: “That’s a cheat answer, I know!”. Read more about the new Fifa 13 on the Guardian Blog. “It’s time for my family and my undivided attention. God bless all future endeavours of my ref colleagues...

Fitness test, check. FA Contrib Meeting, check. Supply League Meeting, check. So, having done almost 250 miles, it's official. I am now a Level 4! Chelmsford for my fitness test, Dartford for my Contrib meeting and Tring for Supply meeting. The past 6 weeks have been harder and more stressful than the whole of the previous year trying to achieve promotion. The season is only 3 weeks away, although due to prior commitments, including my cousin's wedding, I won't be officiating on either Contrib or zsupply until September! So, how should I as an official (and any officials reading this) prepare for the upcoming season? Lots of people do it differently. I know guys who do 10 or more pre-season 'friendlies' (that's a WHOLE other blog!)...

I just bought this armband for my smartphone. Reason: I want to get an idea of how much I run while practising and maybe even when officiating a match. Hopefully you can help me. Does anyone of you have experience with running apps? I’ve used Runtastic (free version) once, but would like to try other alternatives. Which app has been useful to you? Does someone know if there are running stats of professional referees? I’ve found many of Champions League and Europa League players, but not of the officials. Would be nice to have a look at that stats too. Continue reading...

I was desperate to do more matches. I got an e-mail about pre-seasons friendly but I learnt quickly that referees are very quick off the mark and as soon as they get an e-mail about a pre-season friendly they reply within seconds. I missed out on a few - gutted!! I decided to "advertise" the fact I was looking for pre-seasons games on Twitter in my local area and asked Kent FA and other people to re-tweet it. Within a couple of days a manager made contact with me asking if I was willing to do Under13games. 100% yes. Any game is always good for me. We exchanged a few tweets and direct messages and numbers. He phoned me up and I still didn't catch the teams names but that didn't really matter to me, I got a game. I remember speaking to...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published at the beginning of the week on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. Because of my honeymoon an overview of the last four weeks. “I think in the future we will not stop the match, but we will give information to the referee, the (match) delegate and the clubs, and say that we suspect that this match has been fixed, and that we will be monitoring this match even more closely.” Norwegian FA president Yngve Hallen told Reuters about informing a referee when they suspect a match result is going to be fixed. As Reuters wrote: “The FA then took the unprecedented step of cancelling the game between Ullensaker/Kisa and Ham Kam. “I am...

Got this via a Dutch referee forum: a referee who sends a ball boy (pretty old one though) away. The match between ABC and Vitória in Brazilian Serie B was stopped by referee Wagner Reway to talk with a militarian and his fourth official. The latter walked around the field and summons the man to leave the pitch. See the video of the incident here: Continue reading...

The Dutch Referee Blog has been inactive for a few weeks. Good reason: my wedding and honeymoon Both were great. The blog is now back online, suggestions for interviews or articles are always welcome. I wish everyone a good holiday and preparation for next refereeing season. For who’s interested: more pics here from our photographer. Continue reading...

My 1st game of the season (2012/2013) was a pre-season friendly. I would be the asst ref for the game. I was told it was Bearstead Youth v Maidstone Utd. I assumed it would be Maidstone utd youth team - but I later found out how wrong I was!! On Saturday 7th July I woke up and had a relaxing morning. I then look in my diary on my phone and see 1300 game. Its 1130 and I start to panic thinking it's a 1300 KO and not, as I later found out, be there for 1300!! I start to rush round the house getting changed and getting my bag by the front door. I cant get hold of the referee and I start to panic even more. I get in my car and notice I have enough diesel to get me to the end of the road and that was it. PANTS!. I quickly fill up with the...

Hi all, I have just completed my 1st blog on my game on Saturday. I plan on doing this for every game (hopefully) for the rest of the season. I am doing this to pass pm hints and tips to other referees that I pick up and also to see how I progress during the season and to look back at games and remember things and how i have improved (hopefully!). I hope you enjoy reading it. http://thematchoffical.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/my-1st-pre-season-friendly.html