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Sad news coming out of Italy where Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini has died after suffering cardiac arrest during a Serie B game. All Italian league games have been called off as a result. It’s unfortunately not the first time this has happened however in Italy tests on players are more stringent than in other country’s. After all it was following kanu transferring from Ajax to Inter that a heart defect was found. Link to story Filed under: Uncategorized Continue reading...

This is another in my occasional series of blogs where I look at how incidents in open play can be broken down into elements as can be done with "set plays". For every incident on the field, I run through a series of questions Where is the ball? Where are the players? What infringements may occur or may have just occurred? If an infringement has occurred, what action should I take ... if any? This time around I'm going to look at how I consider challenges on the ground. I may have to stray into differentiating between careless, reckless and excessive force, but I'll try to avoid it (no chance!). Where is the ball? Hopefully if a player is challenging for the ball, he is in close proximity to the ball. This means being within the...

Real Madrid player Pepe has a bit of history with kicking out at players (check the 2nd of the clips). However hes taking things to a bit of different level this weekend when reacting to this foul. This was an incident with Pepe a few years ago which he received a 10 match ban! Related articles DTotD: Pepe kicks teammate thinking he’s someone else (sports.yahoo.com) Mourinho and Pepe banned (independent.co.uk) Filed under: Football Tagged: Pepe, Real Madrid C.F., soccer Continue reading...

We will all have come across a situation when either involved with a game or when watching, when the ball is knocked back to the keeper following an injury. There are then those rare occasions when it goes in causing chaos. Even rarer occasions still the team that has scored the goal will allow the other team to score an uncontested goal. This is what happened in this Turkish game when having lobed the keeper from a knock back to the keeper. I have no idea how this whole orchestrated situation resulted with the keeper taking a goal kick. However the uncontested goal was then disallowed as there were players in the penalty area! Meaning the whole thing had to be done. I have to be hones this maybe one of the most confusing clips...

Back in the day, my Bank Holidays alternated between boredom and enforced incarceration with my parents, usually at a cinema watching a film of their choosing. Occasionally this caused some interesting exchanges between me and my dad as he tried to persuade me that I really, really, would like to see see this cowboy film or that war film, which really he wanted to see. Even rarer events occurred when he forgot to check the age rating and we spent a few embarrassing moments in the foyer as he tried to persuade the manager/chief cashier to admit me and my two sisters (both under age 10) to a film with an AA (14 or over) rating. My Bank Holidays moved on to a new stage when I left home and was still in possession of my season ticket to...

This Arab goal keeper is wasting time on purpuse in the Asian Champions League. Not fair, but a pretty original way to outsmart the referee. Continue reading...

A tough work out today with two teams packed with players at least 20 years younger than me, both playing the offside trap and both fast on the counter attack. Still enjoyed it though. The two graphs below show how hard I was working (click for a larger version of the images). I only started my HRM 4 minutes into the 2nd half as I thought I'd started it at kick off but obviously hadn't so I've only captured 44 minutes (3 minutes of added time!). The dip around the 13 minute mark in the 2nd half was when I suspended the game to bring a player in for a chat accompanied by his captain. He'd already been cautioned and had made a couple of careless challenges since then. The captain did my work for me once I'd explained how things were...

Last Sunday I very rashly said I'd start a series of articles about the set plays which occur in open play, if that makes sense. I made the point that although we look after a series of set plays such as corner kicks, goal kicks and free kicks, the other situations which occur can also be treated as set plays. By treating them in this way, we can break down what we, as referees, can do to ensure we can apply law correctly and in the context of the game. I also said that I consider these situations during the week using the technique of mental rehearsal by visualisation. I break each scenario down so I can answer 4 questions Where is the ball? Where are the players? What infringements may occur or may have just occurred? If an...

‘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. “That we feel good, says enough. The phone is constantly ringing, all with compliments.” Referee Bjorn Kuipers is happy with his decisions in the Champions League match between Barcelona and AC Milan. He has given two penalty kicks to the home team. “I can say with total certainty that the atmosphere took a turn for the worse after we beat them to the rights to host the World Cup. The referees didn’t have much sympathy for us.” Diniyar Bilyaletdinov has claimed that English referees have discriminated against Russian players after Russia won the 2018 World Cup...

The latest episode of the Referees World podcast is out. Well worth a listen as always. THe point on the podcast around watches beeping any players knowing when the game is over. This is why I purchased this Casio watch as it has a vibrate feature on it. Well worth it. Related articles Top 5 Podcast Apps for Android (mashable.com) Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Football, Podcast, Podcasts, Referees Continue reading...

During a recent match between Guarany and Sergipe in the Campeonato Sergipano. The Guarany keeper had gone forward in an effort to get a late equaliser. However was caught on the counter attack, step forward the ball boy. Related articles Another setback for gay rights as Colin Clark (Houston Dynamo) calls a ballboy a “****ing faggot!” on live TV (101greatgoals.com) Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Ballboy, Campeonato Sergipano Continue reading...

Just spotted this on Footytubes Facebook page, and thought it was a cracking little fact for this years European Championship Euro 2012 68 days to go. 68 = 1968 was the first and only time a match in the tournament was decided by a coin toss with Italy beating the Soviet Union in the SF and then going on to win the tournament outright. Related articles Euro 2012 Hymn: the last symbol of the championship held in secret (uapl2012tourguide.com) Poznan: The roof for Euro fan (uapl2012tourguide.com) Filed under: Euro2012 Tagged: Euro2012, UEFA, UEFA Euro 2012, UEFA European Football Championship Continue reading...

I spotted this and tweeted it a couple of weeks ago, but the blog was moving at the time. When I first started Refereeing I brought a variety of books from the RA. One of these was by Abraham Klein an Israeli Referee who officiated at the 1970,78 & 82 world cups. It was a really good book and unfortunately I can’t locate my copy or find it online to buy. I was surprised to see that Rob Smyth had written this amazing feature on him on the guardian. Its well worth a read but its a long piece so take the time to print it out and really enjoy it. Related articles “Haptic Communication,” Abraham Klein And Donald Duck’s Role In Income Tax. (cadmefoghlamthainniu.wordpress.com) Assistant Referee Instructions (the-referee.com) Filed...

Weve seen these many times before, however its allways impressive when someone actually pulls one of these off. Filed under: Uncategorized Continue reading...

I turned out this morning to assess a promotion candidate recently accepted on to the County accelerated programme, meaning he is being given the opportunity to progress from Level 7 to Level 5 in one marking season. He has some exacting criteria to fulfil but if he completes them all, then he may well be eligible to be considered for the County Fitness Test and possibly nomination for Level 4. That however is a long way from today when he lost his coin during his warm up. That set me thinking, when we take to the field, why do we need so many of everything? When tutoring new referees I run through the checklist of equipment every referee needs when stepping out on to the field to referee a game. S/he needs ... Two whistles - in...

Some readers may think, well it's just a Sunday League game, but for the players who have worked all week, looking forward to their game at the weekend, it does matter. I have been guilty in the past for refereeing when not at my best. I'm not talking about refereeing with an injury or a below peak (for my age) fitness, I'm talking about when I'm not mentally focused. The mental side of the game often needs as much attention as the physical. Every game deserves you at your best, mentally and physically, but in truth unless you are at the very top of the game AND very lucky, you will always be carrying a niggle into a game. Mentally, it might be that you haven't done your homework, it might be the thought of last week's game when you...

Another case for goal line technology Filed under: Football, Laws of the Game, Premier League, soccer Continue reading...

Premier League referee Peter Walton will be moving to the US next month to take up a position working with the MLS. The MLS Officials do get a lot of grief (sometimes valid) however there has been a drive in the US to try and rule out some of the rough play during games. I have though had the impression that the MLS are quite good at being public about their efforts to work with the officials. For a few years there used to be a weekly podcast where they would talk about key incidents during the week and were not afraid to be critical of officials. Filed under: Uncategorized Continue reading...

Just came across this video on 101 Great Goals. It compares the Maradona goal for Argentina in 86 against England against a Messi goal against Gettafe. Filed under: Uncategorized Continue reading...

This weekends football passed me by due to the little one being ill. So ive just been catching up and completely forgot that it was the IFAB meeting. FIFA have recommend that Hawk Eye and GoalRef continue the test phase on goal line technology. Hawk Eye is a well known system that uses cameras. Where as GoalRef uses a magnetic system and a special ball. Given there has been two incidents recently in Spain & Italy it shows there is a need to look at this in more depth. My only concern is it will split the game further between the have and have nots The other changes that were approved. Clarification around position of advertising boarding Players sock tape has to be the same colour as the sock Clarification around what should...