Members Blogs

Ive seen this story now twice in the last few days and what a load of pants. So the story being reported that the Referee sent off six players during an FA Youth Cup clash between Newport County and Bath City Academy. The reason being that they were wearing white pants under their shorts whcih could be seen. The Sun rreports this as a little known FA Rule. its not a FA Rule, but a FIFA law. This would then be cascaded down to the FA Rules as a result. This has been in place for many years now. Also there not exactly pants looking at the picture but cycling shorts . However from a practical refereeing point of view. This should have been spotted during the pre match jewelry and equipment checks. If was done and these were not...

Easing in gently ... After stopping training 4 weeks ago because an injury, then being laid up because of a cold/cough and a number of family commitments, I decided to get back out there on Friday. It was time to see just how much my fitness had deteriorated in that time. The answer was LOADS! Neil was also back with us and Paul had a mild strain of his soleus tendon (I know how that hurts) so we decided to jog a lap of our field which is about 670m. We jogged one lap, then took a minute or so rest and repeated the lap. We actually did 6 laps in total and then had a jog/walk to cool down before doing a few calf stretches. Calories 770, average heart rate 86%, maximum intensity 19%, had intensity 43% Continue reading...

My start to the season has been stop-start with various family commitments meaning that I haven't been available on as many Saturdays as I would have liked. They also prevented me from attending Day 2 of a new referee's course back in the middle of August. Professional footballers have suffered from this stop-start nature to their season for a number of years with the introduction of an international window in early September to allow for the playing of "friendlies" and qualifying games for international competitions such as the FIFA World Cup. It seems that the various federations around the world have recognised that no one wants to have an expensive Argentinian international in their team, if he's going to be unavailable for 6...

I was asked elsewhere what my view was on a position being adopted regarding allowing children to wear tracksuit bottoms while playing football. This was my response .. Personally I feel that "child protection" and "health and safety" are often cited not by those who genuinely care about the safety of the child/individual but who have one eye on the possible litigation that may follow if the low frequency/high loss scenario does occur. That is why I support the premise that a child should be exposed to risky situations, but those that can be managed. For example, the law(s of the game) requires me not to allow the wearing of tracksuit bottoms other than by a goalkeeper. If a child wants to wear tracksuit bottoms to play football, I...

It seems that my retirement from refereeing has gone unnoticed in one corner of the world as I got a phone call tonight asking me to referee a pre-season game for a local side. I retired in December 2009! The Secretary of the club was talking to me only a few weeks ago about how it was to be retired from the green stuff, as he is just about done with playing. His phone call came in near the start of the first Sunday League meeting of the new season. He should have been at the meeting so I politely declined his request and suggested he put in an appearance - he did and it saved him £20! Preparations for the new season have gone reasonably well with the fixtures prepared through to the end of the season. Last night saw me make a...

Having spent last Friday and Saturday at Alton Towers, 8 hours walking around on Friday and 7 on Saturday, I turned out early on Sunday to help set up a Basic Course for New Referees. I was providing admin support rather than tutoring which felt a little strange. I still chipped in occasionally and the day went well with a very responsive group. That's more than I can say for many of my colleagues who frequent the Discussion Board of the Referee's Association. Recently there has been an outbreak of disrespect with some posts stepping way over the mark of decency and unlikely to present a good impression of refereeing to any first time visitors. So I'm avoiding the Board and leaving the posters to fight it out among themselves...

Referee’s got a lot to endure during a soccer match. Fans, coaches and players are the biggest critics, even if they’re most of the time not good informed of what actually happened. Dick Jol's twitter photo That’s why the referee organisation of West-Friesland initiated a exhibition match on the 8th of November where former professional referee Dick Jol explains all his crucial decisions publicly via the stadium sound system. “It also forces a referee to declare his decisions in clear and concise terms and, if necessary, give some extra explanation”, says initiator Rodric Leerling in a statement. The referee came up with the idea due to his life in the New York area, where he saw the so-called referee-signal-system in American...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published each Monday on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. Referees deserve it once to get some extra attention in the spotlights. States the Dutch FA (KNVB) because of the week of the referee in the Netherlands. “I play a bit with the referee.” Admits Bosnian player Miralem Pjanic before the match against France after accusations from French defender Adil Rami that Pjanic is a cheat. “There now seems to be two types of officials in the game, those who want to be the centre of attention and those who prefer to stay anonymous.” Says Andrew Cole, journalist at The National, an English newspaper in Abu Dhabi. “I think the goal line can...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published each Monday (due to sickness now on Tuesday) on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. “I was the only girl referee on my course, but I enjoyed it. I’ve not had any abuse in the games I have done so far, but it doesn’t bother me. I am quite thick-skinned and I am not frightened to use my cards.” 17-year-old Nadia Young wants to be a top referee. “We want foreign referees to take charge in our matches against teams that are considered to be subscribed to top places.” Says Bulgarian league leader Ludogrets in a statement on their website. The club thinks referees were biased in their two recent matches “We have come here to improve...

Spanish referee Eduardo Iturralde González tackled Valencia player Sergio Canales in the match against Grenada last weekend. Slide tackle referee Valencia vs Granada door greekgoalsellas Should we give him a card? Continue reading...

Polish referee people Pawel Gil did something in Europa League last Thursday I’ve never seen before. He gave a second yellow for wasting time to a player who was wasting time during his substitution. The situation: In the match between Malmö and Austria Wien the away team leads with 1-2. Grünwald from the Austrians has scored one of the goals, but also got booked in second half. He was about being replaced, substitute was ready. Grünwald applauded to the fans one more time, just before Gil runs to the sidelines and gives him his second yellow card. The substitute already ran into the field, but he had to go back to the bench. It’s pretty difficult to find a website where the situation is shown, but I finally found it here (last 12...

As I'm a complete clown sometimes, i managed to delete all of the RSS feeds in my admin panel and didn't realise. These have now been fixed so normal service is resumed

Ive just been reading this great article on When Saturday Comes. The article talks about the how players are allowed to exploit the "relaxed" approach of referees when dealing with set pieces. It uses the recent Inter vs Napoli fixture as a case in point when players were encroaching at the penalty kick. The problem how I see it though is that the media expect the game to be played at such pace, that if the Referee slows it down, he is going to get slaughtered. So those small things get neglected, however its still wrong that this is the case. I like the idea in the comments, that if a team fails to score from a penalty kick during open play the game is restarted with a goal kick. This way there is no need for encroachment as there...

This weekend will see a Referee exchange between Malta and Northern Ireland. This will see a team of four officials travel from Malta to take charge of a Dungannon Swifts FC–Donegal Celtic FC. Its an interesting idea and I wonder if this would ever come to the Premier League. If you consider the merseyside derby the other week. Rather than putting Martin Athkinson or Howawrd Webb in charge. Why not have an exchange with Spain and one of their referees come to England. This could then be returned with say Howard Webb taking charge of Madrid vs Barcelona? What do you think? Continue reading...

I missed the Spurs game last night, however the fan who sits next to me in the office was just showing me the Pavlyuchenko goal from last night. Maybe the referee in me that meant I missed the goal and noticed the man who stands in front of the keeper. Now this isnt the first case this week of this. @willpare pointed out to me on Sunday watch Suarez against Man United at the weekend, although in this case he is further from the keeper. I think the Suarez one given the distance etc, for me this you wouldn't call for Offside. However the Spurs one, is an interesting one. The player moves away before the ball is kicked so while the keeper sees it late, eh does see it. It just made me think its interesting that there has been two...

I've been out to two games today, the first was a promotion assessment before I headed off to watch a new referee who I am mentoring through his first six games. At the first game, I had to work hard at suppressing a giggle as a player's girlfriend explained the reason she had missed kick off was that she had gone to the wrong ground. Apparently on following her boyfriend's directions she had spotted a ground where a game was taking place, thinking it was his game, she stopped following the directions and headed for the ground she could see. The players had seemed small from a long way away, but she was convinced she was going to the right place. It was only on pulling up at the field that she realised the reason they looked small...

Things haven't quietened down since the start of the month with another handful of Supply League assessments, along with a FAWPL assessment and a mentoring trip, as well as launching a course for new referees keeping me out of mischief. I've witnessed my first mass confrontation of the season as well as a spectator assaulting a player with a pole marking the halfway line and attending a Safeguarding Children Workshop to renew my Child Protection certification for another 3 years. Today is a rest day before heading out tomorrow for a promotion assessment and then heading on to another mentoring trip. Next week is quietish as I turn out in a support capacity on the third session of the new referees course and then a District FA meeting...

No posts for nearly 4 weeks as I've packed in a few things ... Went on holiday to Rhodes for two weeks, gave my daughter away at her wedding in Kalithea, attended her UK wedding reception, completed my first assessment of the season for a promotion candidate, attended an FA "Have Your Say" event at the County HQ, did a Supply League assessment, prepared for a new referees course starting on Monday and attended a Supply League Assessors training game in the sunshine. Each one deserves their own post and I might get around to it later ... its nice to be back. Continue reading...

With the thought of the sea gently lapping against my toes as I polish off another ice lolly, I agreed to Paul's hint that we should train tonight. It was supposed to be yesterday morning but holiday shopping took preference. Good job really as I was still a pair of decks shoes, some spending money and sun cream short of packing. Packing started last night after I sat ironing t-shirts and shirts. It was only after 2 hours that I decided to count how many I'd done and found I had enough t-shirts to stay 3 weeks, so some went back in the cupboard. I wish I could have hidden with them tonight as Paul and I decided to replicate our session from Friday but with a little bit of extra warm up work. We did our 6 laps of our field under...

Back in May, I was Course Leader on Basic Course for New Referees and the local ITV news programme (Calendar) wanted to film the course for part of a short series of specials on refereeing in grassroots football. I was interviewed for part of the programme and the interview was broadcast on Thursday. The clip can be seen here. Thanks to Umar for finding the clip. On Friday I was advised that my application for the role of Moderator on the Referee's Association Discussion Board (Forum) had been accepted, so that's something new to look after. Also on Friday I was notified of a late addition to our lowest division in the local Sunday League. As Fixture Secretary, I had to revise the division's fixtures for the season. This came on the...