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Football referees tell their tales by Stanley Lover

A privileged insider's viewpoint
My football library includes several books written by referees who became famous in their time. Mostly autobiographical they span nearly a century of football history and provide fascinating commentary on the game from a privileged insider's viewpoint. 

A special favourite is a coverless, ink stained paperback of 128 yellowing and dog-eared pages Play to the Whistle!, authored by Jim Wiltshire, who sneaked into refereeing as an underage rooky in Cornwall. Special because Wiltshire was in charge of the first FA Cup Final I attended, in 1947, when my beloved Charlton Athletic beat Burnley 1-0 during extra time. I remember looking anxiously at the referee, seconds after the ball crashed into the net from a superb volley by the diminutive left-winger Chris Duffy; praying that he would not disallow the goal. At his signal of confirmation I and thousands of "Red Robins" fans leapt out of our shoes in ecstasy.

Wiltshire's modest publication is squeezed between high gloss paper covered hardback memoirs by Mervin Griffith The Man in the Middle, Arthur Ellis Refereeing round the world, Norman Burtenshaw Whose side are you on, Ref?, Jack Taylor World Soccer Referee, Pat Partridge Oh, Ref!, Sir Stanley Rous Football Worlds, Denis Howell Soccer Refereeing, and others including recently retired David Elleray Referee! and Pierluigi Collina The Rules of the Game. I have been privileged to have met all and count several as close friends.

They tell similar tales. As for every referee, early days in junior leagues tested resolve and patience but persistence was rewarded at higher levels in the domestic professional game and in international assignments. They recount the author's journey to the top with plenty of anecdotes, some amusing, some dismal, a few tragic. They recall many incidents in particular matches; parade the names of famous clubs, stadiums, players, managers and reveal secrets which only a referee could know. They also include valuable advice for officials wanting to achieve higher grades of classification.
Shining like a beacon through all of these books is an intense passion for the game of football. They recount how many referees are driven by their fervour to juggle with home affairs and careers in order to maximise availability for matches. Family holidays are sacrificed; jobs changed; finances strained; health problems neglected; marriages broken.

Top officials who have a full-time occupation rely on sympathetic employers to allow time off for regular consultations and training sessions with league staff; long distance travel to matches at weekends, and sometimes foreign engagements in midweek. They are, effectively, subsidised by their employers and risk missing out on promotions.

Another facet of a match official's dedication to football receives scant attention. It is true that many thousands devote as much time, if not more, off the field serving as administrators for referees' societies; clubs and leagues; regional, national and international associations. Collectively they form a solid framework in the structure of world football.

How they started

It is rare to meet a referee who set his heart on taking to the whistle as a career. The majority arrived by accident; by a strange combination of circumstances, were enticed, even pushed. Some accepted the role with reluctance and trepidation. 
Playing days ended by injury is often cited as a reason. Sir Stanley Rous, a tall goalkeeper in a Suffolk village team he founded as a fifteen year old student, broke a wrist and added refereeing to his club and league organizing activities. 

Jack Taylor dreamed of a horse-trading business at seventeen but became a butcher in his father's shop. He often chatted about football with a customer who suffered from a war inflicted illness and who needed to sit for a moments rest whilst Jack chopped and wrapped rations of meat. Jack listened to interesting accounts of pre-war referees' society meetings and was encouraged to try his hand. The secretary of a local works league, desperately short of referees, gave him his first match. It was a disaster. Jack decided to abandon the idea but his friend persuaded him to try again. After a turbulent beginning Jack Taylor became a forceful and widely respected official, rising rapidly to The Football League panel and achieving world renown as the referee of the 1974 World Cup Final, Germany v Holland.

Collina as a youth enjoyed playing the game but was not interested in refereeing until a fellow secondary school student suggested it might be fun to attend a short course for potential referees. This casual invitation was the catalyst which launched Collina on a remarkable career in Italian and global football. Recognized for a natural ability to control matches and admired for his courage in adjusting to the illness alopecia, which left him hairless at twenty-four, Collina emerged as an exceptional personality on the world football stage. He become an idol of millions of fans, players and officials, and provided a welcome boost to the image of the man in the middle.

A complete judicial system on legs

Are there typical referees and, if so, what qualities do they have in common which could explain why the attractions of whistling football games compensates for the lack of esteem of their critics? A recent survey of officials in a top European league lists occupations such as teachers, company directors, doctors, engineers, accountants, factory managers, designers. All occupations require basic qualities such as personal commitment, hard work, study, formal training and responsibility. Nearly all require effective management and communication skills. Experience of life, maturity and integrity are other qualities evident when in their company.

To qualify as a referee entails a mastery of the written rules of play and how they should be applied on the field. The rulebook only scratches the surface of a real game; played at speed with tough physical contact between competitive athletes. It does, however, delegate supreme powers to the referee. He is a complete judicial system on legs. He is required to detect the crime, make the arrest, deliberate as the jury, announce the verdict, pass sentence as the judge, and carry out execution - all in a split second - hundreds of times in ninety minutes. Some task!
With this job description a football referee has to have the ability to think fast on his feet; make quality judgments and correct decisions in emotionally charged situations and have streetwise wisdom to dispense justice with tact and diplomacy. All of these characteristics are inherent in the professions represented by the referees at the top of the tree. At international level, extra talents, diplomacy and linguistic, are needed to cope with varied races and cultures.
Only hard experience of controlling many matches at various levels can hone the desired qualities for disciplined and fair application of the laws in play.
This brief summary describes remarkable and successful people, hardly compatible with the 'mental defectives' targeted by moronic verbal missiles launched from the touch lines.

These are also the most visible referees. If there are any heroes in the game they must include the thousands of invisible match officials, the solitary guardians of discipline at grassroots level, who have little chance of reaching the top. Such men and women, who devote a large slice of their lives in a football referee's role, contribute a valued service to the community. I salute every single one.

Evolution of refereeing

Referees have styles which mirror their personalities. They vary between tough, no-nonsense, by-the-book, take-it-or-leave attitudes, to a more sympathetic, friendly I'm-trying-to-keep-you-out-of-trouble approach. In between are the majority who apply the rules with a slight flexibility while following firm directives from FIFA on specific topics e.g., interpretations of offside, players' conduct etc.
The English Football League referees of the 1950-60s era were mostly unique characters with charisma and recognizable styles. A handful, such as Arthur Ellis, Jim Finney, Reg Leafe, Roger Kirkpatrick, Gordon Hill, and the one-armed Alf Bond, achieved recognition and fame almost similar to Collina in recent times. They were, however, often criticized by colleagues and administrators for laxity in applying the laws. Perhaps a little jealousy clouded objective comment but the outcome, in the 1970s, was to move away from personality refereeing to a more technical and consistent style preferred by football authorities.

Why? 

Reflecting on my own commitment to football, the questions flow. Why did I choose to officiate as a referee? Why did I expose myself for years to the ever present atmosphere of begrudging acceptance; to ridicule and humiliation; bearing the incessant verbal, and sometimes physical abuse of players and fans; enduring the minimum of facilities with the buckets of icy water on freezing windswept parks? Why have I devoted an important part of my life trying for perfection as an arbiter; working hard to achieve a good level of fitness; accepting the inconvenience of time away from home and career? Why? What was the purpose?
Nearly every referee has been asked similar questions. Common replies include; 'I do it for the love of the game' - 'I want to put something back' - 'I enjoy being involved'.

For me it goes deeper than that. When illness stopped my playing career I decided to try refereeing. A major attraction was to be active inside the play, the next best thing to actually kicking the ball. I was part of the theatre of sport, playing a role which was positive and satisfying. I realise now that, in every one of the 1,000 or more games I served as an official on the field, I was hoping for a dream to come true. A dream where every football match is played to the highest ideals of fair play; where the players - guided by moral and physical disciplines written into wise rules - combine individual skills in an athletic ballet of spectacular movement and colour; where they express emotions of excitement and joy for themselves and for those who watch. I wanted to relive all of those wonderful moments of elation I felt as a boy with a ball at my feet.

Every cynical foul, every attempt to cheat, every act of disrespect for the game and its disciplines, spoiled that dream; felt like a knife in my flesh, drawing blood and staining my vision of the purity of sport. I know that dream was naïve and can rarely be achieved but, together with fellow referees, I tried to limit the degradation of a healthy sport by thoughtless players and fans who do not share my depth of passion.

Although my dream has yet to be realised I look back on 25 years as an active referee with satisfaction. I learned much about myself; about latent convictions; accepted responsibilities and developed attributes which served me well through life. I learned much about people and feel privileged to have met, and shared my love of a special sport with a unique brotherhood of honest men from all walks of life, in many countries in the six confederations of FIFA. 
Football referees will continue to rock on an emotional see-saw, one day ready to pack it all in and then feeling a surge of adrenalin before the next match. It is an obsession which yields more satisfaction than frustration.

Has it been worthwhile? Yes, most emphatically!

(Edited from original article published in REFEREEING TODAY April 2006)