Ask The Ref

Jack Feavers, England

Phil, An absoloute hero of mine! I think you are a fantastic ref. I watch alot of your games and take alot of things from you! If you could give any advice to a fairly young ref starting out (In a different country were I can do open age football) what would it be?

Thanks for your nice comments, my advice is to enjoy what you do I believe if your enjoying it then you are going to do a better job than if your not. Also get yourself a mentor who can help you over the difficult periods in your career. If I can be of further assistance then please contact me and I will be pleased to help you.

matthew jarvis, England

Hi Phil what is your view on goal line techongley and do you think we should have video evidecnece for refs to look at

If there is something that will assist then it must be good for the game, the goal line is one area where the game would benefit from quick responses as to whether the ball was over or not but not with reference to other decisions. These are all opinions and not facts, we have seen penalties in the past where the experts can not even agree on some of these decisions, would this really benefit the fast nature of football?

Jack Wildman, England

Hi Phil, What made you become a referee? - I was looking at some old programmes from the MFA League at my local Club, refereed it, were you assessed regularly on the MFA to get to where you are today?

It was in the early 80s I was working for the coal board and whilst in dispute with my employees, decided to take a referees course. The course was just for me to learn the laws of the game and pass my evenings learning the other side. After the course I was asked to referee youth football I gave it a try and was hooked. My goals early on were just to be successful at the local youth level. I moved into Sunday football and a gentleman named Frank Doherty became my mentor, I progressed through the leagues and after hard work and dedication received the call to Referee on the Premiership - the pinnacle of my career. On the MFA we were assessed on a regular basis which with club marks allowed us to be put forward for the next step on our journey.