Members Blogs

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...

Just seen this on the guardian site, and made me laugh.. FIFA 12 demo fail compilation!

On Sunday while presenting the procedure for a penalty shootout. I was asked the following question. If one of the first five named players becomes injured what happens? Does the team Have to name a new taker and does he replace the existing taker or become 5th? It's a good question. The response we had was the team would have to name a 5th taker. However it's up to the team where he slots in. Expectation. Would be he would be 5th choice. What do you think?

‘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?

You may remember a few years ago Cameroon were meant to wear the below kit. However FIFA decided to spoil the fun and made them wear a black shirt underneath as the Laws of the Game say there must be sleeves Yesterday while working on a new referee's course, there was a lady's match taking place at the same time. It was spotted very quickly that one of the players was wearing a sleeves shirt. What appeared to be the case was that she had in fact rolled them up and the shirt wants sleeveless. However it caused a bit of debate about the right thing to do. Opionin was that there should be sleves so the player should be asked to roll them down. How would you have handled it?

Check out the ball spinning antics of this Assistant Referee. Always good to keep a low profile!

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.

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 seconds).

A lesson about the mental skills of the referee. Really worth watching.

A crafty attempt to distract an opponent during the Flamengo vs America Mineiro game Seen via Off the post

As part of Mars tie up with the FA as part of the Just Play initiative they have released the following video

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...

You’re never too young to start whistling. He needs to work on a better sound, but he still got a long refereeing career in front of him.

‘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. “There’s a lot of work to do, because no Russian referees was at the recent Europe and World cups.” Says Roberto Rosetti in an interview with Russian Oggi about his career as head of refereeing in Russia. “The system in place at the moment doesn’t provide them with a full-time working relationship.” Kilmarnock coach Kenny Shiels calls for full-time referees after controversioal decisions in the Scottish league. “From the bottom of my heart, I am very sorry.” The words of former World Cup referee Byron Moreno after he was sentenced for 2.5 years of jail time because of...

Ive just been preparing the indoor session for next weekends new course, that I am tutoring on. The session I need to deliver (and be assessed to get my tutor level 1 status) is Law 8, the Start and Re-Start of play. I was looking around for any footage of a coin toss and found this Pepsi ad from the 1990's. It struck me as my very first game, I forgot the coin! As it was a u12's game I hid the whistle in a hand and said guess the hand!!