"You've got talent and elegance"

Today, I was assistant referee for two games. The first game was a U14 wich went very smooth with nothing to talk about.
The second one (U16), I was working with the referee's boss. The first half went very well until a second before half time. I flaged for a throw in and the player of wich the throw in went against, looked at me and said: "How can it be for them, he touched it. (3 seconds pause.) You fucking pine." First of all, I don't have the slightest clue on earth of what is a pine, so couldn't bring it down to OFFINABUS (Offensive, insulting, abusive) language. The word fucking should have helped me guess that it was abusive, but I didn't take any action, just gave him the dirtiest look he might ever get. At half-time I was talking with the ref and he complimented me on my flag-handeling, aswell as our visual communication. He told me I had alot of talent and was elegant when signalling. The second half was a bit more difficult than the first as the play became a bit rougher and the tackles were flying in. The ref gave two yellows and did well to keep that count low. The first booking was for a foul wich he played advantage and booked the player a good 3 minutes after the original offence. The second for dissent.
Overall a good day for me and was happy to be able to find some time to referee. Hope I can build on this performance and become better and better.

Squeezing through

As I am into my exams I had very little time to write on my blog. Since my last post, 1 may, I managed to squeeze in 4 games as linesman. The four games were very easy and controversy free, except a strange incident during the fourth game. I was on the opposite side to the dugouts, so in front of the spectators. There was one person following me up and down and everytime I waved my flag for a decision, threw me a volley of abuse. It was strange because no-one ever complained about one of my decisions so it was relatively quiet, except for the guy who passed the whole game abusing and criticising my decisions. Strange...yes but not surprising.

Also during my third game I was on the spectators side and heared a very amusing comment by one of the parents. They spoke in french but I'll translate it. (The names are fictive as I don't know the people.) The critics were directed to the central referee.

Mike : Ref come on, wake up, you've missed yet another straightforward call.
Paul : (To Mike) Ok , calm down, it's only a game.
Mike : Yeah but I hate these refs from here, when we're at home, they call them against us and when we're away, the refs are against us again.
Paul: Well, if there's no refs than there's nothing to rant about, so don't get these refs fed up otherwise you'll have to find something else to rant about every Sunday morning.

Well said ;) !

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2nd referees meeting

Unfortunately, I had to miss the referees meeting. The meeting was about fouls and cautions.

Gear review Part 1

(Click on the image to enlarge. Numbers will appear next to the gear reviewed wich correspond with the numbers used in the description)

1. Watches. I always referee with two watches. No real fuss about them, just two good watches.

2. Tape! You never know when you'll need it!

3. Wristband. I rarely wear it but maybe some day, I'll try it out.

4. Whistles. 1 of them is a Fox 40 Mini, 2 of them are Fox 40, and 1 of them is a hockey referee whistle. I use then hockey referee whistle when I referee in a park and the referee on the field next to mine has the same whistle as mine. The only problem with this whistle is that there is a pea inside and sometimes get's stuck.

5. Underarmour shorts. Good to have them in your bag. When it's cold or windy it gives me more comfort.

6. Notebooks. Got three notebooks so I'm safe if I loose one. Small, fits well in a pocket.

7. Notebook with cards. I saw that in the Premiership, the notebooks are not made the same as the cards tend to slide in from the side and not from the top. I don't really like refereeing with the cards in notebook as the cards get often stuck!

8. Coin. This is a gift from a fellow referee. These are poker coins glued toghether. One side white, the other side black.

9. Badge. Federation de Soccer du Quebec badge. Arbitre.

10. Yellow and red standard cards. Use them for day time kick-offs.

11. Bright yellow and red cards. Use them for evening and late kick-offs.

12. Legea shorts. Very comfortable and light. 4 pockets with cover-up at the back so that the cards don't go flying around while running.

13. Refer to 5. My error!!!

14. Socks.

15. Pen. I usually have 3 or 4 in my bag but settled to only show one.

Gear review Part 2

(Click on the image to enlarge. Numbers will appear next to the gear reviewed wich correspond with the numbers used in the description)

1. Black Adidas shirt. Very light and comfortable. Pockets easy to open and the zipper wich replaces the buttons are much more easy to use. This shirt was the one used by the referees during the 2002 World Cup and the Euro 2004.

2. Yellow Penalty shirt. Good shirt, light but I don't particularaly like the black part under the arms. Also, the collar is very loose and sometimes jumps around when running. Would have prefered a

zipper insead of buttons.

3. Green Sportira shirt. Probably the one

I use the less but still very good. What I like

about this shirt is that there is a velcro for our

badges. Not so light and looks a bit big on me.

Not a big fan of collars but it's still good to have

three different colours. As we don't have a

sponsor, we have to buy our gear ourselves so

that's why I have three different companies

for my shirts.

Referee's meeting

Well the meeting was extremely pleasant. Happy to see some old faces and had a good time. It was a very light meeting, just going over the rules and talking a bit about what's ahead for the season. I was shocked though to see so many new (and younger) faces. I, 15 years old, am one of the oldest in the bunch. Not that it's bad because young referees can make very good ones, but there is an obvious lack of experience. Having said that, it may be an opportunity for me to impose myself as one of the top referee's in my area.

183

Elleray and Winter autobiographies

Having read both autobiographies by probably two of the most controversial figures in the history of English refereeing, I decided to review and compare both books.

David Elleray's autobiography is really focused on his refereeing and his housemastering at Harrow. He hardly talks about his friends, never talks about his personal life. Even though, it is a very good read. He reviews alot of big matches in wich he was called to make big decisions. He talks very humourousely about his realtionship with Roy Keane, whom he sent off 4 times in his career and explains almost every decisions he made. Excellent read. 8/10

Jeff Winter's autobiography is different to Elleray's. Winter goes a bit more personal, he talks very freely about his family and his boot-boy days when he was a die-hard fan of Middlesbrough. He doesn't explain his decisions like Elleray does but talks a bit more about his life in general. 8/10

Liked both books alot. They are written in two different styles but both are worth reading,. I would recommend both books.