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A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF ALAN WILEY

The Select Group official talks us through his normal working week

Football has changed a lot since Alan Wiley first took up the whistle 27 years ago. Gone are the days of referees just turning up with their whistle and a pair of boots on a Saturday afternoon and now the officials are put through strict fitness regimes and stringent eating plans.

Every fortnight the referees meet up for two day training camps and for the man from Staffordshire, this is just part of his busy week:

“I still work anyway, so I would attend my other job on a Monday and then when I get home  do some weight training because it is part of the programme set for us. On Tuesday morning I would drive to Warwick University, where we do fitness work in the morning, then video work in the afternoon and then in the evening we relax and normally discuss some of our recent refereeing experiences.

“We stay over on the Tuesday and then on Wednesday morning it’s more physical work and an afternoon of stretching work. On Wednesday evening, I go home and do a training session at my local gym.

“On Thursday I go back to work, on a Thursday night I would probably recover and then Friday is a day off from my other job so I would do some speed work on a Friday morning and then in the afternoon I start getting all my kit together ready for my weekend game.

“Earlier that week we will have been notified by e-mail of the game we are refereeing and if it’s a game on the Saturday I would probably leave early afternoon on the Friday to try and avoid most of the traffic, go up to the local hotel wherever I am refereeing, stay there on the Friday evening and then of course it is matchday on the Saturday.”

Watch the video as Alan talks through his pre-match build up.

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