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Uefa have confirmed the appointments for the opening set of games for the Euro’s. Spains Carlos Caballo will take charge of the opening game between the Hosts Poland and 2004 winners Greece. The 2010 world cup final referee Howard Webb will take charge of the evening match on the opening day between Russia & the Czech Republic. Match Referee Assistant Referee 1 Assistant Referee 2 Additional Assistant Referee 1 Additional Assistant Referee 2 4th Official 8 June POL – GRE Carlos Velasco Carballo (ESP) Roberto Alonso Fernandez (ESP) Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez (ESP) David Fernandez Borbalan (ESP) Carlos Clos Gomez (ESP) Gianluca Rocchi (ITA) 8 June RUS – CZE Howard Webb (ENG) Michael Mullarkey (ENG) Peter Kirkup (ENG) Martin Atkinson...

With the Euro’s kicking off on Friday, Graham Poll has put together a rundown of the Referee‘s who will take charge of the fixtures doing the tournament. With some new names its worth a look, and with the first set of fixtures due out tomorrow. It’s a chance to learn a bit more about the man who the English press will slaughter when a decision goes against England. Link to the run down. Related Articles #Euro2012 Match Officials (the-referee.com) Video: Spanish ref does a Graham Poll (Villarreal 1-1 Real Madrid) (offthepost.info) Filed under: Euro2012 Tagged: Graham Poll, referee, soccer, UEFA Continue reading...

This is not an accurate description of the British weather as we move into Day Two of a 4 day weekend to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, who is a matter of months away from being declared the longest reigning monarch in British history. It is intended to describe the warm up I have developed over the last 4 years or so of training for refereeing games at my level. The comments below are not an expert view but they have been gleaned from working with others who have benefited from professional fitness coaching Regular readers will know that I trained hard a few years ago, in an attempt to pass the FA's fitness test so I could be considered for assessment and perhaps recommendation to officiate at Level 4...

With the start of the London 2012 Olympic games only 8 weeks away, the first round of fitness tests only 9 days away and the start of my pre-season fitness training less than a week away, I began considering how I can avoid the type of injuries which plagued my seasons before I "retired" back in December 2009. I've received advice on my running style before from Andy Madley who refereed on the Football League last season. I also reviewed my style myself by trying to avoid the "landing on my heel and rolling the length of my foot before pushing off" method as a means of avoiding hamstring and Achilles injuries. The problem I have is that carrying around 110Kg means there's a lot to propel around the field ... So I am planning on taking...

Just spotted this on refereeforum.net, what a great example of a lack of basic knowledge with some pundits. If anyone knows who the pundit is, would be interesting to know how it was recived. The clip is from the 2010 world cup and the opening game between South Africa and Mexico. Related Articles BBC pundits on Euro 2012 (bbc.co.uk) Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: 2010 FIFA World Cup, Competitions, Mexico, pundit, soccer, South Africa, Sports, World Cup Continue reading...

When I arrived this morning at the backword game I had been given on Friday, I saw the nets weren't up and the home team, who are usually changed and warming up sometimes as early as 45 minutes before kick off, were standing about in the car park, still in their "day" clothes. When their manager gave me a "cutting the grass" signal, I didn't think he was suggesting anything about my gardening prowess and it was with dismay that I found out my season was finishing, as it had started back in January at the same ground, with a postponement. I decide not to insist they collected up all their subs and paid me in 10p pieces, but reported the facts to the League Secretary when I got home. Well the truth is that I got halfway through the...

For a bit of fun during the Euro’s I have set-up a fantasy competition on the UEFA site. If you want to enter its free. To join the league the pin is 68443-16303 Filed under: Uncategorized Continue reading...

I posted last night about my season finishing with a late pickup of a game on Tuesday after the appointed referee didn't turn up and the Ref Appts Sec was on holiday in Ibiza. He's back home now and one of the referees for the 3 remaining games in the local Sunday League has been taking advantage of the good weather to get some golf in. That wasn't a problem until he either stood on a ball or was hit by one which left him with a bruised foot/ankle meaning he can't do his game on Sunday, so with nothing riding on the game, I'm looking after my 2nd Premier Division in 5 days (and 2 1/2 years if I'm honest). There are no more games left after Sunday and football shuts down on June 1st (apart from the administrators and international...

During FIFA’s medical conference in Budapest the topic of drug testing Referees for performance enhancers was discussed. I’ll be honest im surprised the FIFA officials aren’t subject to this already. Given the pressure on the officials and the physical demand I wouldn’t be surprised if one failed such a test. FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak told delegates on the second day of the FIFA medical conference in Budapest. ‘We have started to discuss this and this is something for the future which will be discussed to include possibly an anti-doping programme for referees. ‘We do not have an indication that this is a problem but this is something we have to look at. Related Articles FIFA prepares to select anti-corruption officials...

This time last week I fulfilled my appointment as 4th official for the local Sunday League Cup Final. It was a busy night as I brought the referee's attention to a caution, missed getting his attention to dismiss a player, saw a game which involved 12 penalties (11 scored), no goals from open play and the best celebration I have ever seen. The game included another dismissal which the referee dealt with and as often happens the team reduced to ten men held out to win the trophy. Sunday saw me watching the team defeated last Thursday take out their frustration in another cup final and win that one comfortably 8-2. On Tuesday, the 'phone rang a little after half six and the captain of one of our Premier Division teams told me their...

Hawkeye will take a big step in its testing when it will be used during the England vs Belgium friendly at Wembley on June 2nd. However the Referee will not have acess to the system and will not know the outcome of any responses. This will be used as a real test of the sytem by the scientists behind it. This is a continuation of the Hawkeye testing which was used at the Hampshire senior cup final at St Marys recently. Related articles ENGLISH FOOTBALL: Referees and The FA (rinolee.wordpress.com) Years Too Late (the-beautiful-game.org) Goal Line Technology: Do We Need It? (full-timewhistle.com) Goal-line technology first in UK (bbc.co.uk) Goal Line Technology Finally Set To Be Agreed By FIFA (caughtoffside.com) Carter coy on...

Reblogged from Freebody, Free Speech: Originally featured on FootballFanCast.com in 2011 The talk of referees in football has never been a positive one, especially this season with Sir Alex Ferguson facing a 5-match ban for comments he made about match officials. But the men in black (or whatever colour they’re wearing these days) have a history in the game, without them football games would not be able to work and the rules they are using are in place to make the game better. Read more… 418 more words Great Piece on Ken Aston - Football Legend. Continue reading...

English football (soccer) referee Howard Webb (Photo credit: Wikipedia) This week the England squad was named for the upcoming European Championships. However there not the only english men going to Poland and Ukraine with a second team being named…..the match officials. This championship being the first with Extra Assistant Referees we have 6 english match officials going to the finals. Howard Webb, Michael Mullarkey &Peter Kirkup will be Referee & Assistants respectively, with Stephen Child as backup Assistant incase one becomes injured. The extra assistant referees are Martin Atkinson & Mark Clattenburg. Clattenburg is already in for a busy summer with his appointment to the olympics. Uefa have also appointed four officials...

‘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. “If you had bad luck, the players first needed to remove **** from the field, because the cows were walking there the day before.” Herman Efftink from Dutch town Delden tells about the first years of is long career. He has been honoured by the Dutch FA for being a match official for 50 (!) years. Newspaper Tubantia didn’t mention if he will continue his career after more than 3.500 matches half a century. Als je pech had moesten de spelers eerst de stront van het veld halen omdat de koeien er de dag ervoor nog liepen.” “We have huge problems by finding new...

There is a standing joke among many football supporters that games at the home of Manchester United often seem to go on until the home team scores the goal that wins the game or rescues the draw. This perceived phenomenon even has a nickname - Fergie Time. Today Fergie Time at The Stadium of Light ran to 3 minutes while at the Etihad Stadium, Fergie Time (should that be Mancini time?) ran to 5 minutes. In the 4th minute of those 5, the destination of Barclays Premier League title changed from one side of Manchester to the other, as Manchester City scored the winning goal that preserved their lead (on goal difference) at the top of the division and ensured they ended their 44 year wait for title glory. The joke of Fergie Time aside...

Wrong decisions by referees in Dutch Eredivisie had direct influence on the outcome (win, loss, draw) in 41 out of 174 matches last season. That’s the conclusion of freelance journalists Thijs Zonneveld and Fokko Ebbens, who watched all matches of the top six teams, in newspaper NRC Handelsblad. The journalists focused on goals, (not) given penalty kicks and red cards. Mistakes by the referees in Dutch top would not lead to a different champion. Ajax Amsterdam would have even scored one more point than the team already did. Number two Feyenoord would not change position, but would have been much closer the the champions. That’s because the club from Rotterdam have been denied seven clear penalty kicks, says the journalist’s analysis...

‘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. “I went past an Ild player and then tripped over my own feet. It was unbelievably clumsy of me and when the referee pointed to the spot I felt I had to speak out.” Talat Abunima spoke with local newspaper Sandnesposten after he was send of in Norwegian fifth league after being send of for protesting against a penalty kick he conceived. Referee Nedzad Munjic also gave a reaction to the same newspaper. He still disagreed with the player: “It was a clear penalty. The player got it all wrong – I don’t think the players know the rules properly. And when I’ve blown...

One of the big issues in football is Racism, and the fact that governing body’s don’t take an appropriate view to punishment. Small fines and short bans really don’t get the point across. During the Trabzonspor’s and Fenerbahce match recently, Emre made a racist comment to Didier Zakora. In this case the Turkish FA banned him for 3 games (is that enough?) In the return game the Trabzonspor players decide to make their feelings known! Related articles Didier Zokora v Emre: Let’s kick racism in the balls (offthepost.info) Emre banned for insulting Zokora (bbc.co.uk) Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Didier Zokora, Emre Belözoğlu, Fenerbahçe S.K., Fenerbahce, Trabzonspor, Turkey, UEFA Continue reading...

The recent weather has played havoc with fixtures and at this time of the year this means the honour appointments, which many of us have worked hard to earn, have been displaced within the calendar. So the begging, stealing and borrowing done to be able to take the game on, whether this is at home or at work (to ensure you can stay on the game) starts all over again. Personally I have benefited from a postponement meaning I have picked up a 4th Official on the Sunday League Cup Final. The referee on the Trophy Final was also due to be on a County Final, so when this was postponed and the new date coincided with our Trophy Final, he had to give backword on our game. This meant the Senior Assistant stepped up to Referee and the 4th...

This is from the DC United vs Toronto match in MLS. It’s a poor challenge by Bill Hamid and a decision the Referee gets right. Theres some interesting comments on the youtube clip talking about last man, which really has no relevance to this at all! Related articles MLS: Five things we learned in week eight | Graham Parker (guardian.co.uk) DC United Vs. Houston Dynamo, 2012 MLS: Houston Defense Goes Missing In 3-2 DC Win (sbnation.com) Toronto FC loses again, ties MLS worst start (cbc.ca) DC United vs. New York Red Bulls: 6 Things We Learned from MLS Showdown (bleacherreport.com) Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Bill Hamid, DC United, FC Dallas, Football, Major League Soccer, Real Salt Lake, referee, Toronto Continue...