A&H

Honest Appraisals

The Referee Store
Would it be accurate to say Clattenburg is the most succesful and decorated English football personality of all time?

possibly even, British?

Also have no doubts had he went to WC Russia, he, barring a catastrophe, would have got the final.
 
Webb has to be up there because he did the WC final, surely?

Obviousky no Olympics but Did Webb do the UEFA cup?
 
Webb has to be up there because he did the WC final, surely?

Obviousky no Olympics but Did Webb do the UEFA cup?

Without checking, he must have. Am giving Clattenburg the WC final by default though and ranking him higher because he effectively was sacked as a professional referee and then made a return

Webb should hand back his WC medal after his embarrassing display, so technically, he has no WC final in my record books!
 
Without checking, he must have. Am giving Clattenburg the WC final by default though and ranking him higher because he effectively was sacked as a professional referee and then made a return

Webb should hand back his WC medal after his embarrassing display, so technically, he has no WC final in my record books!

Ha that's certainly one way of looking at it!
 
Without checking, he must have. Am giving Clattenburg the WC final by default though and ranking him higher because he effectively was sacked as a professional referee and then made a return

Webb should hand back his WC medal after his embarrassing display, so technically, he has no WC final in my record books!

He made one key mistake in a game that was incredibly tough with one team trying to kick the other off the park. Unless he had developed x-ray vision it was clear he couldn't see the extent of De Jong's tackle and his colleagues didn't bail him out. A mistake but an understandable one. Some criticised him for being lenient, but I struggle to understand that given he had 14 yellows and a red.
 
He made one key mistake in a game that was incredibly tough with one team trying to kick the other off the park. Unless he had developed x-ray vision it was clear he couldn't see the extent of De Jong's tackle and his colleagues didn't bail him out. A mistake but an understandable one. Some criticised him for being lenient, but I struggle to understand that given he had 14 yellows and a red.


In his defence, he was refereeing well that season, and indeed in the tournament and was worthy of the final
On the night itself though, he appeared to loose all the positive traits and management and personality that he had displayed previously.
Tough game? Its the World Cup final, on paper, the best two teams in the world and you have been selected as the best referee in the world, Your mindset should be, this is a tough game.
If one team is trying to kick the other team off the park, in our Sunday league game, what do we as referees do? We deal with it accordingly,
If we as plebs are aware of this, then the gent selected as the world finest referee is surely aware of this also.
Holland took him for a mug that night, they undermined him, and he let it happen, in front of a global audience, on the biggest stage.
If that were you or me in our schools cup final, we would look back embarrassed at our display. All things equal, this was his schools cup final.
 
We'll all never know the pressure of that game, no one here has ever gone through any game and made zero mistakes. Didn't Michael Oliver re-referee the Chelsea v Leeds game recently and pull out 11 red cards or something???
So much coverage and two teams plying Sunday league rules, it was always going to end badly!!!
 
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We'll all never know the pressure of that game, no one here has ever gone through any game and made zero mistakes. Didn't Michael Oliver re-referee the Chelsea Leeds game recently and pull out 11 red cards??? So much coverage and two teams plying Sunday league rules, it was always going to end badly!!!

Its not about making mistakes, thats a given for any referee or player on the night
You are hand picked for that occasion not because you wont make a mistake ( although we hope you make few mistakes and minor ones), you are chosen because you have the ability, personality, fitness, and temperment for the occasion.
You have dietary experts, personal fitness coaches, psychological experts, 15 year top level experience, you have all the ingerdients required.

all he was asked to do was bake an edible, if not Bake Off winning, cake with them

he produced a rotten egg.

I go as far to say it was so rotten, it ended his career. He was a visible shambles in the matches he took charge of after that.
I think I even read him say that himself

right man for job, wrong night
 
In his defence, he was refereeing well that season, and indeed in the tournament and was worthy of the final
On the night itself though, he appeared to loose all the positive traits and management and personality that he had displayed previously.
Tough game? Its the World Cup final, on paper, the best two teams in the world and you have been selected as the best referee in the world, Your mindset should be, this is a tough game.
If one team is trying to kick the other team off the park, in our Sunday league game, what do we as referees do? We deal with it accordingly,
If we as plebs are aware of this, then the gent selected as the world finest referee is surely aware of this also.
Holland took him for a mug that night, they undermined him, and he let it happen, in front of a global audience, on the biggest stage.
If that were you or me in our schools cup final, we would look back embarrassed at our display. All things equal, this was his schools cup final.

How did he let it go if he issued 14 yellows and a red, almost certainly a record in a WC final by some distance? That doesn't sound like letting it go to me. There is an argument that he could have cracked down earlier, but then he might have faced criticism for ruining the game when Holland inevitably would have gone down to 9 or less players. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, and if you speak to the vast majority of senior referees they will tell you that they will try to let finals breathe as they don't want it to be all about them.
 
How did he let it go if he issued 14 yellows and a red, almost certainly a record in a WC final by some distance? That doesn't sound like letting it go to me. There is an argument that he could have cracked down earlier, but then he might have faced criticism for ruining the game when Holland inevitably would have gone down to 9 or less players. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, and if you speak to the vast majority of senior referees they will tell you that they will try to let finals breathe as they don't want it to be all about them.


agree we dont have hindsight or crystal ball.
The final, through Webbs tactics, did become all about him though, and for the wrong reasons.
If the games ruined by Hollands fouls, then the game is ruined by Holland
If you as referee let them do it, them you take your share of the blame

refereeing is like riding a horse, you establish control, then if the horse is behaving, you let the reigns go loose a bit
If horsey is not under control, you keep the reigns tight

Webb never established control. And got kicked off the bucking bronco,
 
Interesting to see Gary Speed listed at number 5
Still surprised and mystified by his unexplained death
 
He made one key mistake in a game that was incredibly tough with one team trying to kick the other off the park. Unless he had developed x-ray vision it was clear he couldn't see the extent of De Jong's tackle and his colleagues didn't bail him out. A mistake but an understandable one. Some criticised him for being lenient, but I struggle to understand that given he had 14 yellows and a red.
To be fair, I criticised him for being lenient for the majority of his career, bottling a big red card struck me as entirely consistent with his usual refereeing style. Being big, a police officer in his day job and usually finding a soft early yellow seemed to give him a reputation for being a disciplinarian, which I generally felt hid the fact that he tended to try and coast through games without making any important decisions - such as the De Jong kick.
 
I'd much rather hear his other top 5!

Clearly bellamy would be on it
Bellamy was one of those pest players, chirp, chirp, chirp, it’s no wonder he got in a bit of bother with defenders. He knew where the goal was but one of those problem child players.
 
To be fair, I criticised him for being lenient for the majority of his career, bottling a big red card struck me as entirely consistent with his usual refereeing style. Being big, a police officer in his day job and usually finding a soft early yellow seemed to give him a reputation for being a disciplinarian, which I generally felt hid the fact that he tended to try and coast through games without making any important decisions - such as the De Jong kick.

Apart from he couldn't possibly have seen it, unless he had x-ray vision at the time. You can't bottle something that you can't see.
 
Apart from he couldn't possibly have seen it, unless he had x-ray vision at the time. You can't bottle something that you can't see.


Agree with Graeme. Webb career was based on the English Collinia, fit and bald
Ask them both to make the big call? No diff to anybody else

i have since rewatched the final

i get to 7.3 max

Not great.
 
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