I'm Not God, I'm Just a Referee: A Lifetime in the Middle - Softcover

Entwistle, Roy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1901746100 ISBN 13: 9781901746105

Publisher: Empire Publications Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

Roy Entwistle is one of the country's oldest active football referees. He's seen it all, knows all the tricks amateurs and professionals pull and has penned this tribute to amateur refs up and down the country. Today's Premiership referees are under more pressure than ever. So many camera angles, so many decisions, so little time. But at least the men in the middle at the highest level have linesmen, stewards and a phalanx of police to hold back the baying supporters, irate managers and livid players - at grassroots level the referee is isolated, subject to the whims of the angry centre-half and the dirty striker. As Sports Columnist Martin Kelner put it: "if you manage to stop the youngsters kicking lumps out of one another, or pulling one another's jerseys in a style learned from Match Of The Day, you have the parents to contend with. A dozen or so fathers on the touchline seeking vicarous glory, is not an easy crowd". Roy Entwistle, for 30 years a referee in Manchester and Cheshire's Amateur Leagues, has been there, done that and booked the defender.

Now he reveals the secrets of the dark art of refereeing, the pressures affecting referees at all levels of the game and the antics of players, supporters and managers all of whom believe that they know best. He also discusses the problematic shortage of referees at grassroots level, recommends improvements and colourfully illustrates the dubious characters attracted to refereeing as a result. In his time Roy has been harangued by Sir Bobby Charlton and was once forced to dismiss ex-United manager Wilf McGuinness from the touchline for attempting to strangle a rival supporter! Little wonder then that out on the pitch, amid the maelstrom of claim and counterclaim, threat and retaliation, that the referee could be heard to yell: 'I'm not God...I'm just a referee'.

About this title

From the Publisher

A short quote from the "Manchester Evening News"
".....a great insight into local football, sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, but very honest. A must for all local footballers to show the man in black has feelings too."

Dany Robson, Sports Reporter Manchester Evening News Article taken from the Manchester Evening News Football Midweek Pink

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER ONE Learning the Laws of the Game is just practice with the hard bits left out. "The secret of success is the capacity to survive failure." (Noel Coward). In the early years of my refereeing career there were times when I wondered why I ever took it up. I especially remember returning home in a depressed mood after the occasional dreadful encounter. But I was probably lucky in avoiding the succession of unpleasant catastrophic games which drive so many referees into declining confidence, disillusionment and despair, followed by inevitable and permanent drop-out.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared me for what was to come as a referee, not even the years spent playing. Yet it should have been obvious. As a player I often argued with my team-mates on the pitch, and we would bawl at each other after any blunders, but I could always take for granted their solidarity and constant support against the other team and officialdom. We were a social as well as a footballing unit. However as a referee I was on my own, having to take tough, instant decisions which often annoyed one team, and, more rarely, did not even satisfy the other. Players' reactions could be intimidating or insulting; and from the touchline, the remarks from managers, supporters and spectators were often worse.

So why did I take it up? I enjoyed playing, but like many other potential referees I was enthusiastic rather than skilled; I relished the exercise and the challenge of the game but was never sure of my place on the team. The next best thing seemed to be refereeing and also, I felt, I would be putting something back into the game while getting paid for the privilege. However, like most referees I didn't join just for the money but the match fee was to prove necessary and welcome in a variety of ways. I used it to purchase all my refereeing kit, this included an initial minimum of two uniforms and tee-shirts, two pairs of boots and stockings, a reliable stopwatch, flags, whistles and a large holdall. Any cash left over I saved and took my wife out for an occasional meal (or even rarer weekend bargain-break) if we could get a baby-sitter. After all she had a lot to put up with: football boots drying out on the kitchen floor; incredibly muddy socks and uniform to soak in the kitchen sink before they were fit to shove in the washing machine; taking numerous telephone messages on my behalf and, worst of all, my going out Saturdays, Sundays and some evenings, leaving her to cope with our young children.

Once established as a referee I did schoolboy and charity games for no fee but never any other type of game. This was because of a particular experience. Early in my career, in a moment of insane generosity, I offered to do a game for free. During the match the players on the losing team, as is the custom, began to whine and whinge at me. It got so bad that I said to their skipper: "Tell your lads to stop moaning, I'm doing my best and for nothing". He glared at me and sneered: "That's all you're f.....g worth". Some years later I met the skipper on the street. He told me he was retiring as a player at the end of the current season because he was slowing down and couldn't keep up with the younger lads. I smilingly suggested he would make an ideal referee as he'd seen and committed all manner of fouls and consequently knew the game inside out. He looked at me in astonishment and laughed: "No way, I wouldn't be prepared to stand for all the abuse you lot receive."

Like all would-be referees I first had to enrol on a course run by the local Football Association, so I joined nine other hopefuls at the local school one evening a week for seven weeks. I found out that six of them were, like me, ex-players but most of them had been good amateur performers. Some had been forced to give up playing because their knees and other joints could no longer stand up to the constant strain; others because of niggling injuries to 'old men' in their thirties which took more time to heal. They all looked and sounded battle-hardened, well able to cope with a new challenge. The other two trainees were young teenagers who said they had played only at school but were obviously keen on the game and saw refereeing as a way in. The rest of us wondered how they would go on.

We listened to a series of lectures which included the use of diagrams to illustrate various situations especially offsides. We also had discussions in which we were able to sort out any misconceptions. Most importantly we practised disciplinary-report writing and the need for brevity and accuracy. As the course went on all of us were amazed at how little we really knew about the Laws of the Game. This struck most of us as rather ironic when we recalled how, as players, we had argued with referees on points of law.

At the end we had to take a written and oral test and get a high mark in both to pass. This was quite an ordeal, even for those who were used to taking examinations, but we must have been a good intake because we all passed. Some of the lads were particularly pleased because it was the first qualification and certificate they had ever received.

Before dispersing we were told that we were to be addressed by one of the most senior and experienced referees in the area - a man who had progressed through all the levels of football and had just retired after several seasons on the Football League. I remember he came in and after congratulating us on our success told us he was going to give us only 4 pieces of advice, principles to which he tried to adhere throughout his refereeing career. He suggested we jot them down because they might just come in useful during the difficult times ahead.

"First", he said, "Remember that when you are on the pitch as an official referee wearing the F.A. badge you possess the powers of a medieval king. Providing you act in accordance with the Laws of the Game you will have absolute authority to reprimand, caution and dismiss players, or even abandon a game". As I looked around, the rest of the group appeared rather pleased at the thought of all that power. He must have sensed what we were thinking because he quickly went on, "But the spirit of the game demands that you do your best to avoid using them. You must try to keep them in reserve otherwise once you have used them up you have nothing left. Moreover, everyone is there to play or watch football, not to see you exercise power unnecessarily".

"Second, you must always try to be in control of the game. That means being purposeful, involved and decisive: persuading, warning and reprimanding players; using appropriate words and signals when necessary so that they know the reason for your decision. If all that fails then ultimately you must punish them.

"Third, in order to do all that you've got to run your bollocks off to be as close to play as possible. If you're worried about all the sweat involved just remember you're a professional, you're being paid. You may think some of the points I have made so far are contradictory and you are right. Only after long experience will you be able to reconcile and harmonise them according to the demands of each and every game."

"Finally you'll have to develop a thick skin against the many nasty and hurtful remarks which will be flung at you. If you are honest with yourself you'll know when you've had a poor game and will analyse and try to learn from it to improve your skills. But if you worry about all the insults then your confidence will be eroded and your career inevitably destroyed."

Looking back at that advice after almost thirty years 'in the middle', I can only say that it was superbly relevant but I am fairly sure that none of us took it in at the time - words can never substitute for experience. I had a list of the names of the nine other lads on the course and we promised to keep in touch but of course never did. A year later I came across it and, out of interest, looked at the local F.A. Handbook to see how many, besides me, were still refereeing. There were just three. I later discovered what had happened to the young lads. The Course Instructor had strongly advised them to avoid the open-age leagues and concentrate on junior football. Both had followed his suggestion. One lasted three months then refereed an under-12's game during which a group of parent spectators had hurled obscene abuse at him. It was all too much and he gave it up. The other lasted a little longer but then began to do an occasional game in the adult leagues. During one match he gave a penalty and was surrounded by several of the defenders and their manager. They swore at and jostled him. He must have felt threatened, if not terrorized, because he broke free, abandoned the game and refereeing.

Throughout the 1980's and 90's, continuing disquiet has been expressed by those running football and involved in refereeing about the early and high drop-out-rate of newly-trained referees. Reports from different areas cite drop-out figures that vary between 20% and 70%. Of course it is probable that some of these dropouts never intended taking up refereeing and did the course out of interest; others, such as students, might have taken the qualification to enhance their career prospectus, and the remainder could have moved out of the district and continued refereeing elsewhere. But there is a growing uneasiness that many of the training courses now contain an overwhelming majority of young boys with only a scattering of mature ex-players. Only thorough research will help establish the true figures and underlying factors behind them, but those who seek to deny the extent of the problem should walk around the parks at weekends, especially on Sunday mornings and afternoons, and they would see for themselves games in which the man in the middle is not an official, uniformed referee. In those cases the managers of both teams have probably agreed that one of them, or their nominee, should do the job. But however well he may cope he is usually untrained, inexperienced, lacks a complete knowledge of the Laws and can more easily, if unfairly, be accused of biased decisions.

Even more seriously, if all referees can always be sure of getting a game at the local level, it ensures that those who are not concerned with improving their low level of skills and/or are in it just for the money, and are thereby possibly incompetent and unreliable, can continue with no fear of ever being removed from the FA. list. But disruption caused by referee wastage is not confined to local football. There are repercussions at the upper professional levels: the available 'pool' from which the future top referees are chosen is inevitably smaller and shrinking which can lead to some referees being promoted too quickly with disastrous results. The blame for this state of affairs lies, in varying degrees, with all the participants in football.

Edition details

• Publisher: Empire Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1901746100
• ISBN 13: 9781901746105
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 200