Members Blogs

A brilliant short film talking to Francisco López a 69 year old Spaniard who has dedicated his life to the game The Sunday Ref (Spanish with English subtitles) from Kauri Multimedia on Vimeo. Continue reading...

Barry Cook has been a talented goalie, even got 27 caps as youth international. This season, ten years after he stopped with goalkeeping, he has been promoted to Scottish top refereeing category. Barry Cook in the SFL Division 3 match between Berwick Rangers FC and Queens Park FC. Photo privided by referee. “My first season refereeing at the top category in Scotland has gone well so far”, says Barry Cook to Dutch Referee Blog. “I have been refereeing since the age of 17 – I am now 32 years old – but combined my playing and refereeing until the age of 22. At this point I made the decision to concentrate on trying to get to the top level of refereeing.” Name: Barry Cook Date of Birth: 6th June 1979 Referee since: 1998 Admitted to SFA...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published at the beginning of the week on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. “The referee had a broken nose and was bleeding like a cow. We punished Luis heavily and told him it was the end.” The technical director of Nacional, Daniel Enriquez, about an incident with Luis Suarez when he was just 15. “If you have confidence in yourself and have good attitude, I’m sure you will be successful in this programme.” AFC Referees Director Yoshimi Ogawa at the start of the Project Future Referees. “It’s very good that players and referees meet eachother in a different setting than around a match.” Dutch FA organized a meeting with trainers...

The weather put paid to last Saturday's assessment when a severe frost forced the postponement of every game in the league. The weather forecast for this week suggested that the snow would start falling on Thursday and would continue until Sunday, meaning the chances of any football being played were remote. My pre-match call to the referee and e-mail reply from the home club did little to allay my fears as both were less than optimistic. As a precaution I contacted both of my assessment co-ordinators for Saturday games and got a similar glum response from them. My usual league ended up with another complete wipeout, while my other league had one game not covered. The co-ordinator was sure it would be off and asked me to contact a...

And all these years I’ve studied and tried to apply the offside law! It used to be a bit easier some years back than it is now. What with being in an offside position but not being offside, and being active and not being active, it’s all very confusing at times. Then a player might look onside but the ball rebounds and he’s offside now because he was in an offside position earlier! He used to be offside if he was level, but not now. He could at one time be played onside if the ball touched an opponent as it was passed towards him. A mate of mine says it’s easier to understand a solicitor’s letter than the offside law! And suddenly we hear that it’s not complicated at all. I’m not sure who said so, but some bright spark has decided that...

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Randomly heard Parklife by Blur this morning on the way to work. Why dont we see ad's as good as this anymore? Continue reading...

Just seen this on the Guardian and its amazing. Its a time lapse video of Barca vs Osasuna. I suggest you open it to full screen to get the full benefit. Continue reading...

One of the first things I learnt at the beginning of this journey was; if the pitch aint right, there won’t be any football played. Obviously, this weekend saw a host of games across the country postponed due to the snow (below is a photo taken of a pitch near my house) - as a player I would have been quietly dreading the end of season onslaught – Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday fixtures, nursing of grass burns and the decent possibility of being hospitalised by a cricket ball. As a referee, I’m rather relishing the evening run out… Continue reading...

I've noticed in the last few days search queries leading to this site for fitness tests. I'm guessing It's promotion candidates looking up fitness tests. Something to be aware of The FA have increased the level 4 test, to a minimum of 2600 metres to be covered in a continuous 12 minute run. Continue reading...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published at the beginning of the week on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. “You are there as the pitch policemen to make sure that things are being done in accordance with the Laws of the Game. Try also to act in a preventative manner – don’t wait until something happens, try to stop it before it happens.” Hugh Dallas, Uefa referee instructor. “The consensus was that there will always be tackles that are borderline but it’s important to return to the message that the players have consistently had over the last three years. That message is that if you commit to a tackle that’s at speed and with intensity, typically with both feet off...

The general reaction on telling people that I am training to become a qualified referee is; “Why would you want to go and do a thing like that”. So, before you all judge me as some power mad saddo, these are the reasons: Primarily, it is because my playing days have pretty much come to an end – old injuries and 18 years of being kicked with alarming regularity have led me to take the decision to hang my boots up – before that decision is made for me. Believe it or not, referee’s have to be pretty fit and becoming a referee will mean I at least have to retain some sort of fitness level Having played and watched football for the best part of two decades, I think I may have a decent enough understanding of the game to be quite good at it...

I have been playing and watching football for as long as I can remember – I am a fan, not only of the team I support (I think referees are allowed to support a team), but of the game in general. Appreciative of what the sport offers, I completely understand why millions of people across the globe give up their time every week to either play or watch the beautiful game. But why are we constantly hearing that there aren’t enough referees – surely everyone wants to give it a go? Don’t they? On the 18th January 2012 I took the plunge and started an FA referee’s training course. This is my story about swapping goalscoring glory for a book, cards and whistle. A no frills journey about becoming a fully qualified referee. A bit about what...

As a former Premier League Assistant (1994-98) and Football League Referee (1998-2004) Lee Cable, now a National List Assessor and Regional Referee Coach, has much experience and wisdom to impart. The advice he gave us at a recent meeting of Kingston Referees’ Society was relevant to all levels of the game. Pre-Match Preparation • Know the Laws, including Interpretation and Guidelines • Be fit enough for the game you’ve been appointed to • Deal with admin efficiently • Look good: kit and personal appearance Selling Decisions Ideally, there are no surprises, with nobody saying, “What was that for?” Effective communication will enable others to understand your decisions. • Confident body language • Clear, positive signals • Use whistle...

This week it was announced that the Premier League are going to be working with clubs to talk to them about the run of dangerous challenges we have had recently. While its a positive move, I would also like to see the FA use the various media outlets (Sky, BBC, Web) to explain and share the DVD they will be using.This is a crucial step and will help educate everyone. Unfortunately it will kill the debate and Sky & BBC would never take part. This weekend we had the Robert Huth sending off. Which according to MOTD wasn't as his feet were on the floor and it wasn't two footed so it wasn't a sending off. ********!! Stoke City v Sunderland by kevnido Stoke City v Sunderland by kevnido It doesn't matter if a player is taken out by a foot...

Some how the fact that ESPN was free this weekend in the UK escaped me until this afternoon. On finding this out I quickly turned over and caught the back of Genoa vs Lazio. Amazingly the first thing I saw on turning on was this challenge. (Not the greatest video in the world ill admit) Now I don't get to see a lot of Serie A but how the heck was that not a red card. Now you can argue the Referee didn't see it, but he decides to play the advantage so in effect acknowledges there was contact. The rest of the highlights if you want to watch Continue reading...

A collection of news links that explain themselves! ROBERTO MARTINEZ claims referees see Wigan as an 'easy touch.' Nigel Pearson isnt happy with Referee Gavin Ward Retired French FIFFA Assistant Stéphane Duhamel has been found hung Uefa say there are 3 key elements to being a succesful Referee Scottish Referee's have taken to Boxing Training Steve Mclaren is on the look out for a ghost! Continue reading...

You cant help but to have heard of the shocking news from Egypt, where 73 people have been killed with a further 1000 injured. This happened after Al Ahly vs Al Masry and after the Arab spring has grabbed the worlds attention. Games in Egypt can be so voliatile that they quite often bring in European referee's. Former Scotish Referee Stuart Dougal has talked to the BBC about his experinces. Link to Video Continue reading...

FIFA have released the Agenda for 126th International Board meeting to take place in March. There are a few interesting points on the agenda, however Im not sure how many of these will be approved. One of the main things is a fourth sub maybe used duirng extra time. An interesting idea, however can we make sure its not a defender! Also if a player uses tape on his socks, it has to be the same colour as the sock! One addition, which I think is a good idea is if a goal is scored direct from a drop ball there is now provision for this. If a dropped ball is kicked directly into the opponents’ goal, a goal kick is awarded If a dropped ball is kicked directly into the teams’ own goal, a corner kick is awarded to the opposing team...

I thought I'd seen everything in last week's game but it seemed that football still had a few old tricks up its sleeve. The falling temperatures meant that the game was in doubt but the early morning sunshine saw the white coating melting away but the top layer of the field was crusty. I did have to laugh when one of the players told me we could play as it would "take a stud". It was the perfect opportunity to trot out my one liner "... yes mate but when you weigh as much as I do, everything takes a stud ...". I didn't expect to see sparkling flowing football from the bottom team in the league against the team 4th bottom. I wasn't disappointed in that respect but what I did see was generally honest endeavour from two groups of players...