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WEBB BENEFITS FROM SUMMER HOLIDAY 'JOB'

Select group official reflects on the experience of the European Championships

While most of his colleagues were enjoying a well deserved rest following the rigours of a tough league season, Howard Webb had one more job still to do.

The Yorkshire man was one of only three people to represent England in Euro 2008, as he as his two assistants were in action in Austria and Switzerland:

“It was a fantastic honour to be selected to represent English refereeing over in Austria and Switzerland,” said Webb.

“When you get there you quickly become aware of the size of the tournament, it is the third largest sporting even after the Olympics and the World Cup and that hits you when you get over there.

“To spend two weeks in the company of Europe’s best referees was for me an awesome experience. I spent a lot of time day in day out training with these guys, looking at videos and attending the games with them as well. There was so much learning for me, a fairly inexperienced international referee, which I was able to take into my games over there and hopefully bring some things back into the domestic premier league season as well.”

The domestic season is now well and truly underway but Webb still looks back on his summer experience as something which can only help him improve as a referee: “In the downtime that we had we were able to chat about our experiences in the games and in the tournament, as well as other games – Champions League for example and how different domestic competitions compare.

“We attended five games in total so just watching the games live was a good experience for us as a team of officials. We took part in some of the debriefing meetings as well so we were able to see how other referees were being assessed in their games and some of the key learning points were sent out to the other referees as well so that we could take some of those into our games.

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