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A New Chapter

Eighteen months ago I lost my dream job as a professional football referee due my own regrettable, naive and stupid actions. I am delighted however that I have been given the opportunity to return to referee in the professional game in England  The public response to my story was incredibly humbling. I never sought sympathy my actions nor for the resulting decision taken by my previous employers and that was not the purpose of the post, it was purely to help myself to move forward mentally. The messages I received from people I don’t know who used that platform to share their own stories with me were incredible. I found myself in tears reading them because it was clear that many of these messages were done with the same intention as my own, to help themselves mentally move on from a difficult period of their own lives and to just talk about it.  I have learned so much about myself over the last 18 months but I have also found out just how important friends and family are in t
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VAR - Six Months Review...

So we are into the sixth month of VAR and so far it seems to have gone under the radar! Or maybe not.  Even when I was in the group VAR was something the PL referee group were working on for over a year. It was constantly called for by the tv pundits and it felt like every Saturday night we heard the same thing, "this could be cleared up in 5 seconds with VAR!" The fact was every one of us knew it couldn't. Games finish at around 5pm...by 10.30pm it is very obvious which camera angle showed the best view of a decision. Even when discussing at half time the guys behind the scenes would be preparing the videos and showing the best angle. This luxury of time is not afforded to the VAR during a live game. With up to 30 camera angles of an incident we knew that simply looking at one or two, clearing the decision as correct and then 2 minutes later Sky find a better angle that proves VAR wrong would never be acceptable. Whilst the referee is given the "you can only give w
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Time to move on...

So to the end of the decade. A decade that saw the wonderful birth of a child and the sad loss of a father. One with personal highs and lows, just like everyone else I guess.  Professionally it’s been a decade of unimaginable highs and the lowest lows I could ever have imagined. Promotion to the Premier League following 3 red cards on debut at Southampton seems so long ago now. Progression to the FIFA International list followed and the opportunity to represent my country on the international stage, the highest achievement any referee can receive. A Community Shield between Arsenal and Chelsea at a full Wembley, a Championship Play Off Final with the added spice of a Yorkshire derby between Sheffield Wednesday and Hull City, 4th Official on the FA Cup Final, refereed the FA Youth Cup Final...in fact on the pitch it was a pretty successful decade on the whole. Today I sit and look at the medals and the footballs from those games in my living room and ask myself “where did it all go wron
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Pre Match Instructions

I have read a lot of discussion recently from referees of all levels regarding pre-match instructions to assistant referees. One such point that was raised was a question of how long should the pre-match briefing be? Perhaps a question of where this discussion should take place? In my opinion it is always better where possible for this discussion to take place inside the referees changing room. This takes away the chance on most occasions of being disturbed by somebody else and it also means the assistant referees are not standing thinking about how cold it is or getting wet from the rain and not concentrating fully on the discussion. Each referee is different with their instructions and the length of time they take but it is important to make sure that you put across the points that as the referee you expect your team to follow throughout the game, it is important also for them to know what to expect from you as the team leader. In order to help in some way I have written below pretty
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Racism within Refereeing

Some time ago I read an article by an anonymous journalist regarding the topic of racism in refereeing within English football. Within the article was an interview with a referee that disturbed me greatly, enough for me to publicly criticise this piece.  I should start this by making my stance on the matter of racism perfectly clear. Racism is vile. It is a cancer on our society and it has been very positive to see certain players taking a stand against it and highlighting the problems that occur within English and world football. I do believe these incidents are much more common outside of England however that doesn’t make it right and very recently we have seen a couple of incidents regarding this matter. One incident of racism towards any person is one too many.  What is encouraging however is how much society in general has moved on in the last half a century. Compared to the times of prime time shows such as Til’ Death Us Do Part in the 60s and 70s which was accepted then as racis
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It’s a hobby, not a job!

I started refereeing in the Wakefield and District League on a Saturday aged 16. I turned up to games via mum and dads taxi and collected the wholesome sum of £13. The additional £3 expenses were often met with a “Bloody hell where you come from, London?”  I can honestly say I never once returned home at any stage during my progression through the refereeing pyramid at any level thinking I deserved to earn more than I picked up that day. More would have been nice, of course it would, but I never took to any platform to claim that I was underpaid. Oh how times change!! Recently on social media I have been bemused by the sudden value that referees place on themselves at different levels of the game. Ultimately what we do is a hobby, a good fun way of staying fit and being involved in the game we love. That hobby does provide a service though and rightly so referees are paid for that service. It’s a service that lasts for somewhere between 90-100 minutes barring the odd rare extra time an
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Stop blaming the Premier League!!

It’s getting boring now. It has been for a while. If there was one thing I could guarantee when I went to deliver presentations to any group of referees across the country it would be a question at the end of “Why do you let players speak to you like s**t and let them get away with it?” I will address this question later on, not for the last time in my life I’m sure, however first I want to dispel this myth that Match of the Day (MOTD for easier purposes) has caused the increase of abuse in grassroots football. At no stage will I state that what is seen on TV has zero influence at all, nor am I going to say that what happens in the PL is perfect, however the ease of which people shift the blame from themselves and from society to the 110x70 bit of grass they see on TV is getting rather monotonous.  As a kid I soaked up every bit of football I could on TV. Games were not only shown on pay per view channels, they were often on BBC and ITV as well. I also vividly remember watching my belo
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