Referees' chief keen to build on successful season

Mark Clattenburg took charge of the men's final at the London Olympics

Referees’ chief Mike Riley says his officials are determined to maintain their high rankings when the new Barclays Premier League season kicks off this weekend.

English refereeing begins the new campaign on the back of a successful season, with officials receiving their highest performance marks ever as well as being selected for a string of top appointments overseas.

The referee ratings are given by match delegates, who consist of former players and managers and are independent of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).

They attend every League match and rate the performances of the referees based on accuracy of big decisions, consistency of decisions and man management.

Last season the delegates judged 95% of referees’ performances as “good” or “excellent”.

“We are coming off the back of probably the most successful season we have had for a long time,” Riley, PGMOL’s General Manager, told premierleague.com. “Over the last three years the standard of refereeing at Select Group level has got better season by season.

“Referees are personally driven all the time to give it their best; that’s every match and training session that they do.

“We know that, come 3pm on Saturday, everything that has gone before has passed. What we have to do is build on that so we can deliver again this season.”

"Over the last three years the standard of refereeing at Select Group level has got better season by season"
Mike Riley

Not only has English refereeing performed on the domestic stage but PGMOL officials have also shone overseas this summer.

Howard Webb, Martin Atkinson and Mark Clattenburg were selected for UEFA Euro 2012 with Clattenburg and assistants Stephen Child and Simon Beck named by FIFA for the Olympic men’s football final between Mexico and Brazil.

“We have had a great summer,” said Riley. “The officials at the Euros did superbly well and were in consideration for the final on the quality of their performances throughout the tournament.

“Mark and his team represented us at the Olympic Games and refereed the final superbly, winning plaudits everywhere, again demonstrating the quality of English refereeing.

“And if you also look at the number of appointments we have had in the Champions League qualifying [matches] and the Europa League, we have had a very successful summer that will get us on the front foot.

“English refereeing is in a really good place at the moment. I spent a lot of the summer talking to people throughout the European Championships, to the FIFA people at the Olympic Games and English refereeing is held in very, very high regard, as demonstrated by those appointments.”

Communications with clubs key

Communication with the clubs is an important part of PGMOL’s work, with all Barclays Premier League managers receiving a briefing before the start of the season. Every squad will also receive a visit from a Select Group referee.

The visits can, in part, explain why bookings for dissent have been halved over the past three seasons. This year the visits will be extended, with officials also going in over the winter to work with players, to discuss on-pitch issues and to take part in training.

“That’s all aimed at building understanding and improving communication,” said Riley.

The Select Group referees are now concentrating on the new League campaign and will be dealing with the introduction of two new rules by FIFA when the season begins on August 18^th.

The first is that if players wear tape around their socks, it must be the same colour as that part of the sock. The second rule states that a goal cannot be scored directly from a drop ball.

Riley said there is no big issue that referees are looking out for ahead of the new campaign and the 47-year-old believes that is down to the efforts made last season.

“We work very hard throughout the season to address issues as they arise, like the tackling issue last winter and towards the end of the season when we had a number of examples of simulation,” he said. “So it’s not to leave those until the summer and then say, ‘Right we need to address it.’

“It’s also about addressing the issues in co-operation with everyone else in the game. The encouraging thing about those two examples was the participation of the clubs, the managers, the League Managers Association; the Professional Footballers’ Association; all involved in coming to a common view of what is good for our game in the framework of the laws.”