By Come on Boro.com
February 22 2006

Graham Frankland is the ComeOnBoro.com man in the black - I said MAN in the black - and is here to answer your questions and settle your arguments. f you have a question for the ref, just fill out the form at the bottom of this article or email us here. Ask The Ref is published weekly.

Question one from James Bassett

I know professional referees aren’t allowed to officiate games for the teams they support but how far does this extend? I assume that, as a Boro fan, you would be able to referee a Sunderland or Newcastle game, but what if the result of Team A vs. Team B determined whether Boro got a Uefa Cup place? Would you be allowed to referee it?

The Ref Says

Thanks for that James. As I eluded to in my previous article, the football authorities are clearly very sensitive when it comes to upholding the integrity of the game in this country so the subject of a referee’s affinity to a particular club is taken very seriously and where possible a referee would never be appointed to a game that would have any bearing on that particular club's league standing or cup progression.

From a refereeing point of view, I really don’t think it is an issue because professional pride in your performance becomes the overwhelming aspect of a game rather than any affect it could have on the team that you support. Having said that I do understand the concerns that this sort of situation would raise to the fans and officials of any particular club that may feel aggrieved that I as a Boro fan am refereeing a game that could have a positive affect on our position or progression.

This situation only ever happened to me once in my career towards the end of the 1997/98 Football League season when I was appointed to referee Nottingham Forest against Reading live on TV at the City Ground in Nottingham. You may recall that we were fighting a promotion battle with Forest at the time so I was very aware that having a Middlesbrough based referee on this game may have raised some eyebrows at Forest, so much so that when the TV people prior to the game asked me where I was from I did not want to say “Middlesbrough” so simply replied “Stainton” and when the guy then asked quizzingly, “Where’s that?” I simply replied, “North East.”

That did do the trick to get him off my case but it shows how sensitive even I as a referee am to this particular issue. For the record, an 87th minute winner from Chris Bart Williams gave Forest the three points which was the margin between them and the Boro at the end of the season in which we finished runners up to them and both teams were promoted to the Premier League.

A very similar situation occurred to Jeff Winter a few seasons earlier but this time it was Tranmere Rovers who we were vying with and Jeff had to go to Prenton Park for a game. Sadly for Tranmere they lost this particular game and Jeff was given an extremely hard time by all connected to Tranmere as they felt that for whatever reason he had had a bearing on their defeat in this game. The fact that a Tranmere player had scored an own goal in the first minute appeared to go unnoticed by them and were simply looking for a scapegoat.

This bad feeling continued for Jeff with every subsequent visit to Prenton Park and they never really forgive him for it so as you can see these types of situation can cause problems for referees which is why they are avoided at all costs. For the record Middlesbrough based officials are not excluded from officiating at Newcastle or Sunderland but it didn’t happen too many times.

Question two from Kean Thomas

Are there any FA laws on the speed of the ball boys returning the ball into play? During the recent Reading v Southampton game the Reading ball boys were replacing the ball the instant it went out of play, indeed on more than one occassion placing the ball ready on the corner spot. But they only did this for the home team. The referee duly ordered them to stop. Was he right to do that?

The Ref Says

Kean, I think the referee had every right to stop the actions of the ball boys if, as you describe, they were only doing it for the home team. The initiative to introduce the multi ball system was introduced a number of years ago to speed up the game and to increase the amount of time in a game that the ball was in play. At the moment my understanding is that it is an optional part of the game but if any home club wish to utilise it then they must inform the referee and the opposing team that they wish to use it and it must be to the benefit of both teams.

At times this system is fraught with problems and I remember one game in particular at Tranmere Rovers when we were using it, but unfortunately not very successfully because in the first half of the game, I had to stop the match four times because we had two balls on the pitch at the same time. As soon as a ball went out of play the ball boy would instantly throw a replacement to a player. However as the game continued the people in the crowd were just throwing the original ball back on to the pitch in a random finish and therefore ending up with two balls at once on the pitch. Needless to say I refused to sanction the use of it in the second half.

Question three from Simon Dixon

Graham, when you first got into refereeing was there any one particular ref who you looked up to or tried to emulate?

The Ref Says

Cheers Simon. As in any walk of life we all have people that we look up to with a great deal of respect and admiration and certainly in refereeing terms that person for me was the one and only George Courtney. It always struck me when watching George referee that he was obviously extremely fit but always looked in control of not only himself but everybody that came into contact with him on a match day including club officials and most importantly the players who obviously had a great respect for him.

The modern day equivalent is the legendary Pierre Luigi Collina who you rarely, if ever see him have anything other than an excellent game. It is no surprise to me that both these men have refereed some of the biggest games of football in the world over the last twenty years or so. One of my proudest moments was being able to officiate with George for the official opening of the Riverside Stadium when the Boro played Sampdoria. Just being in his company for the day of a game was an education in itself and a great experience for me at that time of my career.

Question four from Chris Beanland

How far up the arm does the ball have to hit for it to be considered handball?

The Ref Says

The simple answer to this question Chris, certainly in terms of Football Law is the whole of the hand or arm. Detecting whether the offence is deliberate or not is much more of an argument than where the ball has struck.

*****************

And finally, we received the following email from someone called Thierry Henry in response to last week's article concerning referees becoming involved with football clubs. In the article, Graham pointed out that the system has been tried and tested and that certain referees have spent considerable time rtaining with their local clubs, in particular Mark Halsey at Bolton.

"I'm afraid I haven't actually got a question for you, but after reading this article it has now all become clear to me why Mark Halsey allowed Bolton to kick Arsenal off the park during the game that probably decided the championship in 2003. Three players carried off after horrendous tackles with no suitable action taken by the referee. At least I now know why this happened."

Thanks once again for your questions and until the next time.

Enjoy your football.

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