YOU MUST BE
JOKING REF!!!
THE CHESHUNT & WALTHAM CROSS
REFEREES SOCIETY MAGAZINE
October 2010
CHESHUNT & WALTHAM CROSS REFEREES’ SOCIETY
PRESIDENT: GARY EVETTSLIFE VICE PRESIDENTS: JOHN BACON AND
LISTER NEWCOMBE
COMMITTE AND CONTACT LIST 2007 – 2008
CHAIRMANDAVID BACON
39 WOODLAND MOUNT, HERTFORD SG13 7ID01992 504473
SECRETARYMARK MORRIS
115 BENTLEY ROAD, HERTFORD, SG14 2HJ01992 410890
TREASURERKEVIN DOHERTY
133 LAMMASMEAD, BROXBOURNE, EN10 6PG01992 426210
COUNTY REPTONY ANDREWS
25 WARE ROAD, TONWELL, WARE, HERTS, SG12 0HN01920 463648
SUPPLIES OFFICERBOB BRAND
18 ELDERBEK CLOSE, CHESHUNT, EN7 6HS01992 425933
TRAINING OFFICERSDAVE BAKER
10 GIBBS CLOSE, CHESHUNT, EN8 9RX01992 628597
PAUL FLANAGAN – HIGHFIELD STABLES01992 461234
WHITE STUBBS LANE, BROXBOURNE EN10 7PZ
RECRUITMENT ANDDAVE BAKER – AS ABOVE01992 628597
RETENTION OFFICE
MAGAZINE EDITORMARK MORRIS – AS ABOVE 01992 410890
The opinions contained with the Magazine are those of the author and not necessarily (unless otherwise stated) reflect the views of this publication’s Editorial Team, Society or the Referees’ Association. Permission is given to anyone to copy original material, subject to acknowledgement.
The next Meeting of the Society will be held at the usual venue: -
THE GREEN DRAGON PUBLIC HOUSE
CHURCHGATE
CHESHUNT
MONDAY 18thOctober
All meetings commence at 7.45pm and finish at 10.00pm
Guest speakers will appear from time to time and notification of such guests will appear in this magazine in advance. Should any member require a particular topic to be raised at any meeting, or wish to address the meeting on any subject of interest to members, he or she should contact the Chairman.
All original material for publication should be sent to the Editorial Team Leader. Material may not be used in the current issue, but may be stored and used in further issues. Letters and press cuttings are also welcomed. They can also be e-mailed to .
EDITORIAL PAGE
Minutes of the meeting of the Cheshunt & Waltham Cross Referee’s Society AGM held at the Green Dragon Cheshunt on 17thMay2010.
Apologies: Mark Morris
Attendance: David Bacon, John Bacon, Dave Baker, John Llewellyn, Tony Andrews, Gary Herbert, Paul Englefield.
David opened the meeting at 8pm and welcomed all members.
Secretary report: 6 members so far. Application forms sent out with the magazine this month.
Treasurer’s report: None
County RA Report: 1st meeting of the new season is next week.
Norman Rourke has sadly died. Peter Molyneux has taken over.
£1.50 affiliation fee remains unchanged.
No members from Cheshunt & Waltham Cross had been registered at the end of July.
Membership should be from April each year for insurance cover to be valid year round. Application forms to be sent out in March next year.
There was a request from Tony to see wording of insurance document from RA.
Training: No report
Supplies: No report
AOB: Emails being received to cover Herts County Cup Youth games, but when accepting are told to contact clubs themselves. Feedback should go back to the fixtures secretary that clubs should contact referees.
The rest of the meeting was spent discussing match incidents.
Chairman drew raffle at 9:40pm and ended meeting.
Next meeting 18th October 2010
WORLD CUP 2010: Graham Poll: What refs will REALLY do about the swearing
With all the attention on Wayne Rooney and his swearing, what do the laws say on the matter?
Well, for starters, simply swearing or using foul language is no longer an offence.
So, if Rooney misses an easy shot and swears that's OK?
Technically yes, although if it's very loud, the ref might ask him to mind his language.
So what does a player have to say to get a red card?
Anything that the referee considers to be offensive, insulting and/or abusive; certainly an expletive aimed directly at a match official such as, 'Ref, you are a ****' should result in a red card.
Shut it: Wayne Rooney has been warned he risks being sent off if he continues to swear at referees during the World Cup
What about gestures?
They are treated in exactly the same way as the spoken word. So the three universal signs must all be seen as offensive and insulting and should result in a dismissal.
Are there allowances made for a player with Tourette's, for example, such as the American goalkeeper Tim Howard?
Well, clearly common sense must come in and if a player is not thought to have intentionally abused the referee then he could get away with a warning. But remember that one of the two main objectives that referees have been given is to protect the image of the game.
Is it fair that with English being such a major language, referees will recognise English swear words more than say, Korean?
Referees will react to the way something is being said rather than the exact words, so a Korean racing up to a referee and shouting and screaming should expect a card the same as an English-speaking player.
Is it just the match officials that you can't have a go at?
No, any abuse aimed at colleagues, opponents or supporters must result in a red card as well.
Do you think this will be a big issue at these finals?
No. I think the Rooney incident has heightened awareness so much that players will curb their excesses - until the pressure builds and then, who knows?
Graham Poll's Official Line: How the man in the middle can stay out of trouble
Four years ago I was rated as one of the very best referees in the world and one of only 21 selected for Germany 2006; following one incident in my third game I still have people shouting ‘three yellow cards’ at me in the street.
That is the potential impact the world’s premier football tournament can have. Never mind my 329 Premier League games, domestic and European cup finals, I will always be associated with the 89th minute in the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium in Stuttgart when I mistakenly showed Croatia’s Josip Simunic his second yellow card and failed to send him off.
To compound that error I then issued him with his third yellow and a red after the final whistle when he continually harassed me following Croatia’s exit from the tournament
Three strikes and you're out: Despite being one of the top referees England has produced, Graham Poll is still haunted by three bookings he gave Josip Simunic
In the build-up to that World Cup, the lady mayor of Frankfurt addressed the officials, saying: ‘A decision you make in a split second could well be remembered for decades.’
I had no idea how accurate or prophetic her words were.
It is hard to articulate the pressure that is on the referees as the next World Cup begins on Friday — they will be acutely aware of the media scrutiny and the size of the TV audience (it has been estimated that 1.5billion have seen my darkest moment) which means there really is no hiding place.
The fact that the media hounded me in the days following my incident was not surprising, but that they chose to camp outside my family home in Tring was.
Can you imagine that while dealing with your own demons in a foreign country your wife calls to ask you to do something to get the media away from the house — to protect your children?
No, and yet nothing appears to have changed in our desire to expose a referee, who despite his best efforts has made a human error.
Remember how Swiss referee Urs Meier was pursued after he disallowed Sol Campbell’s ‘goal’ which led to our elimination from Euro 2004? He received death threats and tens of thousands of emails full of vitriol and abuse after a Radio 1 DJ released his email address.
And so the best referees go into this tournament confident in their own ability but mindful of what is at stake and just how far-reaching the consequences of a simple and honest human error could be. They are also acutely aware of the underlying suspicion of match-fixing.
This has not been helped by the revelation that the referee for England’s first match, Carlos Simon, was suspended in his own Brazilian domestic league following a series of inaccurate decisions which losing clubs felt were done deliberately.
In charge: Brazilian Carlos Simon, who refereed England's match with Sweden in 2002, will officiate the World Cup opener against USA
I was with Simon in Korea/Japan in 2002 and Germany 2006 and grew to like him and admire his style of dealing with the pressure. There is no way his ability can be questioned; to be No 1 referee in a football-mad country like Brazil proves he is good enough.
But now a cloud hangs over him before Saturday’s game and he will need all of his experience to put that behind him and referee without fear or favour knowing that if any decisions are debatable then questions over his impartiality are bound to follow.
It is a crying shame that the game we love has come to this; all referees want is to serve the game and they just hope that the inevitable error that will come in every match will not affect its outcome.
But if it does they know what will follow could well be with them for the rest of their lives.