Here you’re find older  articles and pieces which might still be of interest

You think you can do better than the ref?

So did I

Writes Jim White in The Daily Telegraph Saturday April 12th

 

   HERE is a statistic that might surprise you. At 16 years .of age, an individual's chances of becoming a Premier League footballer are 100,000-1. However, if a 16-year-ald chooses to train as a referee, his or her chances .of stepping out at Anfield or the Emirates as a Premier League match official are 100-1.

These are the adds being advertised by the FA as part .of a drive to attract 8,000 new referees into the game by 2012: train with us and you have a realistic chance of being out there in the big time, waving your red card at Javier Mascherana and being told how to do you job by John Terry. It is a statistic that appears to have found its target. This season, 67 per cent .of those given initial referee training have been under the age of 18.

"Refereeing does appeal to kids," reckons Ian Blanchard, the FA's head of National refereeing development. "They

find the authority it gives is sexy." Now that’s an interesting word. Sexy not an adjective often applied to Mike Riley. And indeed anyone watching me earlier this week, officiating a game between two under-16 teams in Northamptonshire would not have rushed to use it either. As the teams’ from Bugbrooke St Michael's and Drayton Grange locked studs, "incompetent" might have been more appropriate. Or as one of the players put it to me after I had given a foul against him: "You really haven't got a clue, have you mate?"

   I was there at the invitation of the FA. It was a cunning wheeze: gather together a dozen representatives of the media and give them a taste of quite how challenging it is to officiate a football match. If nothing else, after 10 minutes of making woefully inaccurate guestimates of off-side, we might be less inclined to call into judgment the parentage of the referee at the next match we report on. Though it might take more than this if the ref is Rob Styles.

Before being unleashed on the unsuspecting lads of the John Henry Youth Alliance, a morning sample of the FA's new refereeing course was laid on. Things did not start well for me. It began in the classroom, where Ray Olivier, the erstwhile Football League ref, showed a series of incidents on video and asked us to respond as if we were the referee. I got every one wrong. Including suggesting a yellow card would have been sufficient for a foul. Olivier reckoned "career threatening".

"But he got the ball," I said.

"It doesn’t matter," said Olivier. "The ball was incidental to the intent."

From there we moved outside, where half a dozen former referees led a series of exercises in such things as "how to make the whistle talk". There was a lot of talk making things talk: whistles, flags, even cards can all, apparently, became vocal in the hands of a skilled official.

"At the end of the day, we're sales people," said Blanchard. "You have gat to sell every decision. And to do that, you use the tools of the job."

Take the yellow card. There is a

technique in flourishing it. It should not be thrust into a player's face. A referee should not grimace or scowl as they show it. The card is a tool to communicate information, not a provocation.

The most revealing exercise, however, was attempting to read offside while a bunch of referees played a game of attack versus defence. Not only was virtually every newcomer hopeless, but the referees revealed themselves to be masters of abuse. These gamekeepers turned poachers with relish as they hurled their opinions at putative linesmen ("are you blind?" was the least of it.). All part of the necessary toughening-up process: refereeing might be sprucing up its image, but it remains an occupation requiring rhino hide and cloth ears.

As I was about to find out in my 10 minutes of officiating fame. Though I was not alone out there. Shadowed by one of the proper refs, it was bit like learning to drive in a dual-control car. Alongside me was Olivier, who would suddenly blow for infringements I had missed. Even with an expert in the passenger seat giving advice, it was exhausting trying to keep up with everything.

Still, I did get one decision right. One player went in far too high ball with his feet raised above his opponent’s head. I blew for a free kick "But I go the ball, ref," he shouted. "It doesn’t matter," I said. "The ball was incidental to the intent."

Proof that you learn something new every day. Though the idea that refereeing is now officially sexy might take a little longer to sink in.

Schoolboy gives Ferdinand lesson in good behaviour

 

Henry Winter  in The Daily Telegraph

 

A TALE of one city and two English No 5s. Shortly after Rio Ferdinand lost all control on and off the field at Chelsea, those of us who made the dash from Stamford Bridge to Wembley for the inaugural Bobby Moore Trophy were treated to some sportsmanship by an England Schoolboy centre-half that Moore himself would have admired.

When Scotland's No 10 missed a penalty, England's No 5, Aaron Martin, ran across to console the distraught striker, who had fallen to his knees, head in his hands as Wembley dissolved in laughter. Martin, a student at Itchen College and representing Hampshire County Schools FA, was one of the better players on view, and his reputation was enhanced further by his compassion.

Martin will never venture close to the lucrative, medal-winning heights of Ferdinand's career, but then neither does he look the type to sink to any petulant depths. The conduct of these Under-16’s schoolboys was largely exemplary. No dissent, no diving, no bad challenges. Wembley couldn't believe it

If Ferdinand wants to venture close to the heights of Moore, whose life and shining example were celebrated by this welcome fixture, then the elegant ball-playing centre-half schooled at West Ham must remember what it means to be a captain.

Scrapping with opponents and kicking walls were hardly the signs of a leader. Anyone watching events at Stamford Bridge would have concluded that the peace-making John Terry, not the warring Ferdinand, is favourite to be Fabio Capello's long-term captain.

Most England observers were waiting until Ferdinand returned unscathed from Wayne Rooney's stag jaunt to Las Vegas before assessing his credentials. Saturday was laced with particular sadness because Ferdinand appeared to have learned that the footballing public had tired of millionaires behaving badly, that standards matter.

As he is briefly placed in the public stocks, it needs remembering that few footballers do more for assorted charities and inner-city initiatives (knife crime, streetfootball, Prince's Trust etc). If he learns to channel his passions better, then Ferdinand really could become a decent England captain.

Football thrives on emotion, and it is good to know that Ferdinand cares about his team's fortunes, but few cared more than Moore and he never went around grappling with opponents or kicking female stewards. Ferdinand crossed the line from competitiveness into aggression. On the weekend that the latest rich-list was published, Ferdinand picked a particularly strange moment to risk damaging the feet that have taken him to No. 3 of footballing 20-somethings with £28 million. Ferdinand once pulled a muscle watching Coronation Street, so he has previous for odd injuries, but assaulting a wall was singularly daft.

United know they are in trouble when Chelsea can legitimately claim the moral high ground. Those United players warming down should not have reacted so obstreperously to the Bridge ground staff, although if Patrice Evra was racially abused then Chelsea clearly need to launch an internal investigation. Their guests should certainly not have been ordered to stop running on the pitch.

United clearly feel aggrieved by their treatment and will request a copy of the CCTV footage from Chelsea before deciding whether to complain. Old Trafford officials yesterday contacted Mike Foster, the Premier League secretary, to clarify the rule on warm-downs. It should be clear: as long as the players keep out of the goalmouths, they have every right to shake the lactic acid from their legs.

Ferdinand, however, has no right to rid his bile so belligerently. The FA should send Ferdinand a discreet warning, a reminder that Capello is staging captaincy auditions and a copy of Jeff Powell's book on Moore.

PFA Chief says: Abuse of referees must stop
By Henry Winter

 

 ASHLEY COLE, Javier Mascherano and all those professionals who have raged at referees this season were last night warned by their union chairman, Colin Powell, to clean up their act.

The chairman of the Professional Footballers Association, Powell has noticed standards of behaviour decline markedly during his 20 years in the game. He was particularly distressed to watch recent shows of petulance. "We had Ashley Cole's stand-off with Mike Riley and then Javier Mascherano's running battle with Steve Bennett," Powell said. "What happened with them was a watershed. We've had lots of these incidents over the season but these two things happened in the space of four days, just after the FA started talking about respect. This was the moment that told me: 'We've got a problem.'

"What happened showed a lack of respect for authority figures. You have to respect the referee - if he doesn't turn up, you don't have a game at all.

"They are scrutinised and have to make split- second decisions, and so we have to help refs. We're asking our members to cut out the reckless tackling, the simulation and the surrounding of referees."

Powell would like to see the rugby-style rule, where only the captain can talk to the referee, used in the Premier League, saying:

"Whenever you see players surrounding a referee it looks awful".

I feel the captains of each club have a serious, serious responsibility. Look at the England situation. Fabio [Capello] is looking for the right man to be captain and he's obviously saying, 'I want this man to be not only a leader of men and the team, but also someone who acts responsibly on and off the field'. All captains should ·be like that.

Graham Poll has called for referees to receive three-match bans if they fail to clamp down on the abuse from players.

The former Premier League official said:

"It's either going to be the player guilty of the abuse or the referee who doesn't punish him. For the referees it will be their choice, you or them."

Graham Poll Talks with FA cup final referee Mike Dean

 

                                                                                                                                                                         (The Daily Mail)

 

Can you imagine the joy of being told you are going to referee the FA Cup Final