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THE POSITIVE SIDE OF ENGLAND'S FAILURE TO QUALIFY

English trio not restricted by match appointments as action gets underway

The European Championships are just a matter of hours away now and for the majority of England supporters, faced with the prospect of experiencing a major tournament without the Three Lions it is an event that won’t live up to expectations but you can forgive Howard Webb, along with Assistant Referees Mike Mullarkey and Darren Cann, for seeing England’s failure to qualify as something that carried a little silver lining for their personal careers.

On Thursday it was confirmed the trio had been handed the opportunity to oversee Austria’s clash with Poland and with hopes of being appointed for at least a second group match after that, they are ready and willing to fly the flag for England.

Webb, the youngest of all the referees at the tournament, explains: “With England not having qualified, it does have its advantages as technically I am open to get any match, I won’t be restricted by officiating games that could have affected their progress in the group stages, had they qualified.

“Tournament football is a different animal to the club competition matches we are used to refereeing and it is a testing time, we are away from our families and that comes with a different sort of pressure to deal with away from the games.

“This is my first major tournament and I have to be realistic with my expectations. I have not even completed a full year yet on the FIFA elite list and I am just keen to do the best that I can to get another match.

“We are all ambitious people and want to go as far as we can but at this point, this tournament is just about laying the foundations of our career at this level.

“There will always be difficult decisions to make and there will always be a group of people who believe you made the wrong one however our focus remains to concentrate fully and make the best judgements we can.

“If we can come away with our reputations enhanced, or at the very least still intact then we will be pleased. If we can officiate games anonymously and the headlines are not about any decisions that were made that had a negative affect on the outcome of the game then you hope you will be given another match to take charge of.”

Make sure you stay logged on to refworld.com throughout the tournament as we keep you up-to-date with the progress of the English officials.