Members Blogs

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...

Omid Djalili, British-Iranian comedian, does a funny sketch with himself as a referee and player from the blue team at the same moment. Continue reading...

Funny video of the FA’s respect campaign which stresses that a football match can’t be played without a referee. Continue reading...

‘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. It’s unbelievable here. Said Bas Nijhuis in preparation of his first Champions League match Olympiakos – Dortmund on Voetbal International Radio. Last weekend he also got his first Ajax – Feyenoord classic, which he handled pretty well. “You’ve to give the red card, but you feel that yellow and a penalty kick is severe enough.” Again Bas Nijnhuis about tackling a player in a goal scoring position. To give a penalty kick and possibly a yellow card is quite sufficient. A plea for change of the Laws of the Game from German referees in the same week. “The correct taxation of the...

Most remarkable red card of this week of European football: a player from Maccabi Tel Aviv shoots his shoe against the assistant referee. Yoav Ziv got this red card in the 55th minute of the match against Stoke City for the Europa League with already 3-0 on the scoreboard. Referee Anastassios Kakos had also send of Camerone Jerome in the first half after the second yellow for Stoke’s player. The player himself spoke with journalist about the incident: “It was just bad luck. It’s only a second red card in a long career.” Continue reading...

The walk from the dressing room probably took longer than the time defender Rashed Al Hooti from Bahrein was on the pitch. Australian referee Peter Green send him off after about 40 seconds (but some media do have different watches: 34, 39, 40, 43, 49 were mentioned) in the World Cup 2014 qualification match against Iran. This is probably the fastest red card in an international country match. But it definately is the fastest red card ever. Have you ever seen Preston Edwards (Ebbsfleet United) in the match versus Farnborough? Take a look at the video below where referee Neil Hair sends of the goalie after ten seconds. Ebbsfleet United v. Farnborough (5.2.11) from MyFootballClub on Vimeo. Continue reading...