Refereeing

[paultheroyal]

Paul, fourth official in the PL is right at the top of the tree, would we know who you were, recognise you as a league referee?

I can see why there is a struggle for Sunday league referees - increasingly a cesspit for violent behaviour and abuse.

No, not now. Retired.

When i was doing this in the late 90's and into the noughties the setup was different. You would run the line one level up from being a referee or a combination of the two. I was refereeing in the National League which came with appointments as 4th Official in Premier League games. You now have the select group we all know about and "linesman" are full time "linesman" if they chose that path.

Luckily enough to do televised games etc and plenty of clips of me which i wont be linking lol - i was in the era of refereeing along with Rob Styles, Steve Lodge, David Elleray, Paul Durkin etc - i was following same path as Lee Probert. I would add i am alot younger than them, and again fortunate to experience all this at a very young age.

Refereeing abuse appears to be getting worse, if social media is anything to go by. Referee's are getting pilloried for even games at grassroots level. I saw one clip where the referee was getting dog abuse for an honest decision, viewed by 3 million people on line.

[Sutekh]

Paul, fourth official in the PL is right at the top of the tree, would we know who you were, recognise you as a league referee?

I can see why there is a struggle for Sunday league referees - increasingly a cesspit for violent behaviour and abuse.

No, not now. Retired.

When i was doing this in the late 90's and into the noughties the setup was different. You would run the line one level up from being a referee or a combination of the two. I was refereeing in the National League which came with appointments as 4th Official in Premier League games. You now have the select group we all know about and "linesman" are full time "linesman" if they chose that path.

Luckily enough to do televised games etc and plenty of clips of me which i wont be linking lol - i was in the era of refereeing along with Rob Styles, Steve Lodge, David Elleray, Paul Durkin etc - i was following same path as Lee Probert. I would add i am alot younger than them, and again fortunate to experience all this at a very young age.

Refereeing abuse appears to be getting worse, if social media is anything to go by. Referee's are getting pilloried for even games at grassroots level. I saw one clip where the referee was getting dog abuse for an honest decision, viewed by 3 million people on line.

Social media, both the best and worst of things. Think that ALL sporting officials (and anyone under the age of 18) should be kept off of social media as all you get are trolls and a****holes who have as much brain power as a set of drawing pins that have been bashed into bricks with a frozen halibut.

But then if you're keeping everyone under 18 off then the number of trolls and a****holes will be minimal anyway.

[Lighthouse]

Paul, fourth official in the PL is right at the top of the tree, would we know who you were, recognise you as a league referee?

I can see why there is a struggle for Sunday league referees - increasingly a cesspit for violent behaviour and abuse.

No, not now. Retired.

When i was doing this in the late 90's and into the noughties the setup was different. You would run the line one level up from being a referee or a combination of the two. I was refereeing in the National League which came with appointments as 4th Official in Premier League games. You now have the select group we all know about and "linesman" are full time "linesman" if they chose that path.

Luckily enough to do televised games etc and plenty of clips of me which i wont be linking lol - i was in the era of refereeing along with Rob Styles, Steve Lodge, David Elleray, Paul Durkin etc - i was following same path as Lee Probert. I would add i am alot younger than them, and again fortunate to experience all this at a very young age.

Refereeing abuse appears to be getting worse, if social media is anything to go by. Referee's are getting pilloried for even games at grassroots level. I saw one clip where the referee was getting dog abuse for an honest decision, viewed by 3 million people on line.

I was at a Hungerford game last year and was speaking to an ex local league ref. He described a local ref called Paul who made it to the football league. I’m not sure if this was you but he was extremely complimentary.