During the World Cup I have been an England supporter (but I have been watching the referees as I am one of us!) This morning I was interested to find that the Columbians were less than impressed with the referee for the match! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44716774 They (the Columbians) thought that the referee – being American – was biased against them.  It is funny that the English pundits thought he was biased against England! So I am left with the questions: who would be a referee and why? I thought the referee was weak (but I’ve never refereed a World Cup match) perhaps he wa ..read more

Today I got a call from a guy called Gavin, I will not give you is surname.  He is a medical man who attends our injured players when they need attention – so I would call him the “Bucket Man” but today they are so much more. On the phone he spoke about referees who caution a player for a challenge and then see if the injured player is ok! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE think all injuries are life threatening and deal with them first! If the player is “having you on” that’s okay because the other side of it is you going home and thinking “if only I’d have called Gavin on sooner…” Below is a blog on ..read more

Imagine on a Saturday morning this referee is watching the Winter Olympics – on second thoughts don’t! I am watching that epic battle called Sweden versus Japan Ladies Ice Hockey.  It is 2-1 to Sweden. Now what I know about ice hockey (ladies or mens) you could write on a postage stamp and still have room to write on it! Are they called referees or umpires in that sport? That is how much I know! Still Japan go on the attack and one commentator wants a free kick for obstruction – seems fair to me. The other commentator thinks the free kick (is that the correct terminology?) is for the othe ..read more

Coached two games this weekend. Both refereed excellently but both referees could improve the selling of their decisions, and notice I have spoken about the officials selling their decisions! Sometimes you can make the incorrect decision and because you’re there everyone accepts the decision as correct. If you think about it every decision is either correct or incorrect! However, you can make the incorrect decision and get it accepted whereas sometimes you make the correct decision and get grief for it because you’re not selling the decision well. Generally, the selling or not selling of the d ..read more

It is easy to talk about the need to be a great communicator if you’re talking about club secretaries or players.  But the most important people on your team are your assistants. Do you ever consider how you speak to them? Do you ensure that all of your communications with them are not only polite but also fun to have (for them) and easily understood? Why is that? BECAUSE If it is the observer’s fault that you have refereed badly you have given control of your career to the observer! If it is the secretary’s fault, you have given control of your career to the secretary! Likewise if it is ..read more

This close season I’ve been struck by the number of referees who do not appear to be willing to referee differently and, in my opinion, will only get promoted because it is their turn. Now this could be because that is the personality of the referee or the personality of their referee coach or they are just scared to put themselves out there for fear of failure. The personality of the referee is important when it comes to how high they will climb in refereeing circles.  If they are scared of failing then they will not risk trying anything new on the field, and this could leave them stuck ..read more

Sometimes I have to see and listen, then I have to allow the seeing and listening to percolate in my grey matter (brain) and then I have clear picture of what I want to say. Now this is okay if you have time to see, listen and think – you do not have that time when you’re refereeing on a Saturday afternoon, so you have got to remember what worked last time and employ it next time the same situation occurs. If another situation occurs you have to rely on the training you’ve been given, sometimes this training is given out of the refereeing arena. Take the Muamba incident at Tottenham’s ground v ..read more

As I grow older and I do more coaching of youngsters (well I call them all youngsters) I realise that refereeing is a without a doubt a thankless task. I knew when I was active as a referee that we could never win; now I know that more than ever. What makes me so sure? Did you see the rugby on Saturday morning on Sky Sports? The British Lions were playing the All Blacks in Wellington, New Zealand.  Right at the end of the show was a real demonstration of the thanklessness of refereeing. At the end of the match – which the British Lions won by 3 points – the former All Black player (Sean F ..read more

Recently a member of the A&H staff published a Law question which I’ve repeated below. “Sergio Aguero takes a penalty. Before the penalty is taken Gary Cahill encroaches. Aguero’s penalty hits the post and Aguero gets to the rebound first. Cahill then clears the ball off of the line, over the crossbar and out of play. The referee must: Award a corner kick Send off Cahill for DOGSO Retake the penalty Award an Indirect Free Kick to the defence for a double touch Now there are two answers to this question! The question is: What MUST the referee do? And the answer is obviously 3) Retake the ..read more

I ended last week’s newsletter with the immortal refereeing words: “I guess the thing that will stand you in good stead is knowing that all decisions need to be sold all of the time.” But that is only the start of it! Two seasons back I went to watch a referee who was in the shake-up to get promoted and at the same ground a couple of weeks later I went to watch a referee who was in the “be careful, be very careful” category. The first referee did get promoted at the end of the season and the other referee was “very careful” and is still on the list. After watching the first referee strut his s ..read more