The Ref Stop

Liverpool - Man City

The Ref Stop
I would join in with their pre-season programme which helped me get fit. Sometimes I even beat a few of the players in running tests and they weren’t happy!

Really? We're meant to be impressed that a top flight official 'sometimes EVEN beat a few of the players in running tests'?

Pretty sure that would be a standard expectation these days! Shows how far we've come I suppose!
 
This is a regular conversation with fixtures like this, and it baffles me. Your suggestion of using MO is a good shout, but there are 2 reasons he wasn’t appointed. He refereed City matchweek 10, and they usually leave 3 matchweeks at least between refereeing the same team. Also, he refereed City vs Arsenal earlier this season, which was also believed to be a massive game, and he ended up being the headline of most of the articles. PGMOL probably just wanted to avoid the same thing happening. CK is perfectly capable of refereeing this fixture anyway.
 
bester said:
Didn't Poll say Halsey used to wear Bolton's training kit?

Did a bit more than just use the facilities https://www.caughtoffside.com/2022/03/30/mark-halsey-column-on-referees-training-with-clubs/
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I take everything he says with a very large pinch of salt. I really liked him as a referee, but since he retired he says the absolute polar opposite of what the referee actually did. Why on earth would a Premier League team want a 50 year old ex-keeper, who plat at best at step 5, messing up their training sessions? Unless it was a one off when someone hadn't turned up and they needed help.
 
RustyRef said:
How many more times does this have to come up? If has absolutely nothing to do with where the officials live, and hasn't for many years, they have to declare who they support and that determines which teams they cannot referee. In the old postcode system you had the ridiculous situation where Mark Halsey could (and did) referee QPR even though he supported them, but couldn't referee Bolton because he lived there but was born in Welwyn Garden City. Had I by some miracle of a lot of luck (and some would say a major ability boost) made it to the Football League, I wouldn't have been able to referee any of the London teams because I have a London postcode, yet I was born in Yorkshire and support Sheffield Wednesday. The whole system was a nonsense.

This is a complete non-story.
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He stopped refereeing QPR after they played Millwall and he gave Millwall two penalties.
 
If we couldn’t referee our “local” sides I’d be done for. My county league has three teams within 10 minutes of me and 20 all over an hour away. About 3 in between that distance.

I do get teams saying “oh he’s local” but I’ve lived here two years and barely care about how the actual team I support does, let alone a county side
 
OnlyUseMeWhistle said:
If we couldn’t referee our “local” sides I’d be done for. My county league has three teams within 10 minutes of me and 20 all over an hour away. About 3 in between that distance.

I do get teams saying “oh he’s local” but I’ve lived here two years and barely care about how the actual team I support does, let alone a county side
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Exactly, I have 4 teams a 10-15 minute walk away (1 ground share plus 2 separate venues). Always get those comments. Don't give a 💩 how they do, frankly. Same issue when you work with people on a team. I've carded my brother as well as classmates. It is entirely possible to just referee a game of football without these issues, but people always try and find a reason they shouldn't have a certain ref.
 
Runner Ref said:
Chris Foy refereed Everton despite supporting them. I think it was just a bit more normal back then, as there was less spotlight on referees
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I'm pretty sure the rule was already in place when Chris Foy was refereeing.

According to this article in the Liverpool Echo, he only refereed games involving Everton before becoming a supporter.

Foy has not refereed an Everton match, apart from friendlies, since 2002 when he declared his interest.
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Everton FC fan Chris Foy to referee FA Community Shield
 
Peter Grove said:
I'm pretty sure the rule was already in place when Chris Foy was refereeing.

According to this article in the Liverpool Echo, he only refereed games involving Everton before becoming a supporter.



Everton FC fan Chris Foy to referee FA Community Shield
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www.premierleague.com

Aston Villa v Everton, 2001/02 | Premier League

Read about Aston Villa v Everton in the Premier League 2001/02 season, including lineups, stats and live blogs, on the official website of the Premier League.
www.premierleague.com www.premierleague.com

He took charge of them in Jan 2002 away to Aston Villa. I’m pretty sure he was 4O on a number occasions as well
 
Runner Ref said:
www.premierleague.com

Aston Villa v Everton, 2001/02 | Premier League

Read about Aston Villa v Everton in the Premier League 2001/02 season, including lineups, stats and live blogs, on the official website of the Premier League.
www.premierleague.com www.premierleague.com

He took charge of them in Jan 2002 away to Aston Villa. I’m pretty sure he was 4O on a number occasions as well
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The article in the Echo doesn't say when in 2002 he refereed an Everton game but I'd be fairly surprised if it was after declaring his interest in them. It also doesn't say he was never an official for an Everton game after that point, only that he didn't referee a game involving them.

As I say, I'm pretty sure the rule was already in place - which would be the reason (unless the article is incorrect) why he never refereed them again after declaring his interest.
 
Peter Grove said:
The article in the Echo doesn't say when in 2002 he refereed an Everton game but I'd be fairly surprised if it was after declaring his interest in them. It also doesn't say he was never an official for an Everton game after that point, only that he didn't referee a game involving them.

As I say, I'm pretty sure the rule was already in place - which would be the reason (unless the article is incorrect) why he never refereed them again after declaring his interest.
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It proves how amateurish it was if someone didn’t bother to think to ask referees who they support…..

But the main issue is that he was a referee registered with Liverpool County FA, but was still getting Premier League clubs from that same city. It was probably a bit easier to get away with it back then as there wasn’t as big a spotlight on officials.
 
I don’t support the team from the city I was born in, nor the team from the city I live in, or the city I went to university in. Can I get a few of these PL games going spare? 😂
 
Salah claims to be fouled just before 45th minute right in front of assistant. As he is "kicked" he starts to limp as if his leg is really hurt.
No flag from asst or whistle from ref and he then puts leg down and goes full on mental at the asst. Clearly not that hurt then.
OK, he is seemingly having to put a boot back on. But the fact players act like he does pretending to be hurt when not is the reason why officials are second guessing challenges.
 
ladbroke8745 said:
Salah claims to be fouled just before 45th minute right in front of assistant. As he is "kicked" he starts to limp as if his leg is really hurt.
No flag from asst or whistle from ref and he then puts leg down and goes full on mental at the asst. Clearly not that hurt then.
OK, he is seemingly having to put a boot back on. But the fact players act like he does pretending to be hurt when not is the reason why officials are second guessing challenges.
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I thought Lewis’ dissent by action was more blatant.
 
ladbroke8745 said:
Salah claims to be fouled just before 45th minute right in front of assistant. As he is "kicked" he starts to limp as if his leg is really hurt.
No flag from asst or whistle from ref and he then puts leg down and goes full on mental at the asst. Clearly not that hurt then.
OK, he is seemingly having to put a boot back on. But the fact players act like he does pretending to be hurt when not is the reason why officials are second guessing challenges.
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santa sangria said:
I thought Lewis’ dissent by action was more blatant.
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This is because the higher powers simply don’t care about anything that can be considered grassroots/amateur. The elite can get away with ignoring stuff like this and they’ll be perfectly fine, but that then filters to grassroots. This isn’t necessarily a PGMOL or English issue, it’s a general ‘elite’ issue. But football these days is all about money and keeping sponsors/TV companies happy.
 
Nothing to see here as far as I'm concerned, yes there was perhaps a bit of dissent but nothing over the top and Chris Kavanagh and team managed the game very well. If I was going to pick up on any dissent that should have been penalised it was at the penalty and the Man City players refusing to move away. It was a nailed on penalty, they had absolutely zero grounds for complaint, and he could easily have cautioned one or more for their behaviour.

For the Salah one, the opponent trod on the back of his foot and popped his boot off. Completely accidental, but I know from experience that hurts, he had a mini rant after it but I can kind of see why he was a bit annoyed.
 
RustyRef said:
Nothing to see here as far as I'm concerned, yes there was perhaps a bit of dissent but nothing over the top and Chris Kavanagh and team managed the game very well. If I was going to pick up on any dissent that should have been penalised it was at the penalty and the Man City players refusing to move away. It was a nailed on penalty, they had absolutely zero grounds for complaint, and he could easily have cautioned one or more for their behaviour.

For the Salah one, the opponent trod on the back of his foot and popped his boot off. Completely accidental, but I know from experience that hurts, he had a mini rant after it but I can kind of see why he was a bit annoyed.
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So we’ve now identified 3 fairly obvious acts of dissent that were ignored……

Agree with you on the penalty. How neither of the 4 crowding him was booked is mind boggling.
 
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