How the Laws of the Game have changed
As I recall, I didn't have to wait too long to attend the course, which lasted for several weeks, one evening per week. It was very much an indepth course that concentrated on the Laws of the Game and unsuspecting things like working out what yards, feet and inches are in metres and millimetres, positioning of referees and linesmen (linos) at corners, free kicks, throw-ins and so on. And the importance of 'running the diagonal' (Diagonal System of Control) which I personally had never really thought about before. As I was later to find out on the open football fields of our countryside, running the diagonal only works really if you've got two competent club linos running the touchlines, something I was very rarely spoilt with.
And, before anybody reading this shouts "hoi! you can't call 'em linesmen!", well we could and we did back then because that was their official title before the world went mad. 'Lino' was the much easier nickname that everyone in football gave them and, to be totally frank, still fits a lot better in men's and women's football today than 'Referee's Assistants'. Who makes up these silly stupid titles?!
At the end of that course, I had to attend Dartford Town Hall where I was put through a gruelling set of tests, including an obligatory eyesight test. I could add a quip here about how I failed that part of the exam as my eyesight was too good but, it would only be a quip because the truth of the matter is, I could have failed had I not also got eyes in the back of my head! Referees need those extra eyes to see what's going on behind their back and, even then, sometimes those extra eyes can blink at the most inopportune moments.
My exam pass coincided with pre-season games a few weeks later prior to the commencement of the 1978-79 campaign. Those of us who attended the course I was on in Bromley were advised to take on as many pre-season friendlies as possible, in order to get our whistle blowing sharp but firm so there was no doubt that the 'suddenly deaf' players could hear it and, get decision cock ups out of the way before the competitive games start. And, to be fair, those bits of advice proved to be well-founded — at least they were in the friendly fixture games that I took on.
In my very first game, there was a high boot offence by a defender inside his own penalty area. I got screamed at by all and sundry for just awarding an indirect free kick and not a penalty. Nowadays, of course, that offence would result in a penalty kick being awarded. Somewhere along the line, between when I gave up the whistle in 1986 due to work commitments and recent times, the punishment for a foot up offence inside the penalty area has changed.
It does make sense, though, as in another game I refereed (a cup semi-final) in the mid-1980s an attacking player had to be rushed to hospital after his head got ripped open by the studs of a defender whose foot (and therefore his boot) was high. After I'd made sure that the injured player would be in good hands I restarted the game with... an indirect free kick to the attacking team inside the defender's penalty area. Modern day followers may find that strange but, back then, it wasn't. But the offence committed on that day was a nasty one yet my hands were tied about awarding a penalty and maybe even yellow or red carding the offender.
Readers may be happy to know that the badly injured player made a full recovery. He even went as far as to thank me via the local Referee's Association for abruptly bringing the game to a halt so that he could receive immediate attention by his team's 'sponge man' (maybe one day I'll write an article on 'sponge men').
Another law change in recent years seems to indicate that players can now get away with foul throw-ins. Throughout my playing and refereeing years players had to stand with both feet on the ground outside the touchline and propel the ball right over the head. Nowadays it appears perfectly acceptable for players taking throw-ins to have one foot up off the ground and the other foot across the touchline and not necessarily while propelling the ball from the back of the head. In my day, that was a definite foul throw. So, why did the powers-that-be change it? Pressure brought on by player power maybe?
One more change that seemed to be sneaked in by the back door is how a team can now kick off. All through my school years, playing days and the hundreds of games I refereed, the ball had to be kicked and travel forward the length of its circumference into the opponents' half before a second player was allowed to touch it. Now, the ball can be pinged in any direction from the kick-off, even I dare say straight into the opponents' goal if the player taking the kick-off fancies his or her chances. Why the change? After well over 100 years of little to no trouble with kick-offs, why have the football authorities reinvented the wheel?
In a way I am glad I can no longer officiate in games. I am far too old, I have a heart condition that would probably finish me off even if I could try to keep up with play and — the most discerning fact of all — I wouldn't be able to retain my attention because the laws keep changing every five minutes.
There's a saying that I learnt when I was younger than a teenager. It goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It's a pity that the football authorities have never heard of it!