Monthly Archives: February 2008

If things were diferent

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Back in the early 90′s, i remember watching Gazzeta football italia on Channel 4 with James Richardson. One of the things I remember about the show was that each week he would sit outside a cafe and review the weeks football papers.  I always remember that one of the papers they used to review was the Gazzeta delo sport, a dedicated sport newspaper that we could do with here.

 Anyway to the point of the post.  Currently in Italy there is a debate over if Juventus are still paying the price for there part in the corruption scandal.  Juventus feel that a lot of decisions have gone against them and this came to an interesting point at the weekend.   Juventus lost a league game 2-1 against Reggina.  The winning goal came from this penalty (This looks like Dangerous play to me and would be an Indirect Free Kick – Debate.)

Now the thing that is causing the debate over the weekends action is that the Referee who gave the penalty was implicated (and I must add cleared) in the corruption investigation and so its being suggested that he was making a point that he was not favouring Juventus.

Whats interesting is that a few weeks ago Gazzeta dela Sport (see there was a point to the opening bit) went through every league game and changed the results dependant on if key controversial decisions had gone different ways.  So if a goal was ruled out for offside it was given, a penalty had not or had been given they get an extra goal etc.  Interestingly at the end of this Juventus were top of the league and not 3rd 13 points of top spot.   I thought this was an interesting perspective and while not 100% accurate as the course and flow of the game would change Id be interested to know if this was applied how it would reflect the premiership.  Completely finger in the air I would say Everton may have had more controversial decisions against them, but I may be wrong, whats your thoughts?

He Scores……oops no he didnt

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I saw a similar incident a few years ago but cant remeber the two teams.  Something says Sheff Wednesday vs Milwall but I may be wrong.

Anyway this weekend Real Madrid thought they had scored, but whilst celebrating the quick free kick was taken and Getafe went on to score at the other end.  

Return to Fitness

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images.jpgWell im still on the injured list. I had set myself the aim of being back for the 1st March. However this wont happen now, especially when you consider last Sunday was the first time I got out and ran on the ankle. After about 2 minutes I considered stopping. The ankle was sore but I thought to myself ill go for 5 minutes then walk a bit if its no better. The next time I looked at my watch and it was nearly 10 minutes and it had eased. I completed my loop, however I couldn’t believe how long it had taken. Admittedly it wasn’t about time and I didn’t expect a PB but still how my fitness has decreased in 6 weeks is scary.

I had to take the decision, which was easy to be fair. Not to do this Saturdays appointment. Even if my ankle was great I am lacking fitness and so id not last 90 minutes of a Supply game. Ive set myself the target of being back for the 8th, but we will have to wait and see how it is on Sunday. Ive got 3 Supply games on the bounce on the fixtures which is good as these will test it in a different way a Contrib line.

I was away last night in Leeds and so used the very basic and to be honest badly maintained Gym (people actually had a membership to that place!) and managed to get in an hours cardio. I didn’t use the treadmill as I personally never get on with them, and sure wasn’t going to push my ankle on one. With bit of luck i will get back from Leeds as at reasonable time tonight to get out and do another run.

Out & About

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Well I’m still injured however tomorrow I will be out and about tomorrow assessing.  I did the course last year, but was never appointed to any games.   This is something Ive wanted to get involved in for a while and I’m really looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.

Ive been doing this now for 13 years and Id like to think I could pass on my experience and help some up and coming Officials.  

Ankle Update

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Well Ive written of Feb completely.   Tonight I should have been at Shepshed vs Quorn (3rd time Ive lost a game there this season!!!) and tomorrow had Leicester Reserves which Ive now lost.

Its starting to get better and stronger, but my Achilles is giving me pain.   I actually turned around this morning driving to work and decided to work from home as it was hurting changing gear.  I decided to go and see the Doctor and check its progressing correctly and he is happy with it, but that maybe im being a bit impatient.

I’m hopefully going to get out at the weekend to do some assessing, I’m just waiting for everything to be confirmed.   

Top Tips – Tip 6 – Watch Other Referee’s

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As already suggested by working with other Referee’s you will learn a lot and pick up tips as well as having a forum to ask for advice. What you will find though that its difficult to watch the Referee during game if your involved. Try to go along to a game and just watch the Referee. Now clearly your not going to go to the FA Cup Final and watch just the Referee as thats an expensive experience. Although I go see Derby County play Barcelona in a pre season game a few years back, after 15 minutes Derby were 4-0 down (maybe there were planning for that season!) and just spent the rest of the game watching the Referee as Barcelona had enough after 20 minutes!

Its great watching Howard Webb handle a Premiership game, but the problem you have is that he will deal with some situations in a way that he can because of who is, he also has microphone communication and electronic flags that you wont have. Also you will find that if you hang around outside the penalty area at set pieces Mr Assessor will pick you up for not varying your position where as Howard Webb has Prozone etc to tell him the best place to be.

Try to go along and watch a Referee either at the same level that your at or the next step up and watch them in blocks, what they do at set pieces and how they handle situations that your likely to get.