RateTheRef

Apologies if we have had something like this before. I can't remember such but that's nothing much to go by these days ! By live, I mean a match where you were actually present.

It will surprise few of you to learn that for me it was a performance by the peerless Joe Worrall. It was at QPR in the early 1980s I think and I am honestly not sure about the opponent's. What was sure though is that there was some serious bad blood between the teams. It was like warfare out there. Crunching tackles and no quarter given. Joe, by his fitness, excellent reading of the game and man management skills managed to bring the game under control and into a great spectacle.

I have been privileged to meet many senior march officials, past and present, but I have never sadly ever met Joe Worrall who I consider to have been the best I have ever seen. However, hopefully we both have good years left to us so maybe one day I will.

For those of us at a certain age it was almost everytime I saw Jim Finney.

Difficult to assess, some of the best refereeing performances are by the referees that you haven't noticed throughout the game?
Do you judge a 'best' performance on the amount of activity within the game and how that that had been dealt with, which in some cases may have been initiated by the official in the first place?

Whistleblower was able to set his choice convincingly in the context of a potentially difficult situation handled in masterful fashion. My memory, not to mention lack of qualifications, precludes me from offering a "best" performance. The one that left the greatest impression, however, came in a run-of-the-mill match at Ewood Park in the early seventies. There were no particular incidents as far as I recall, but the referee seemed somehow to bring a different dimension to refereeing. The official in question was Peter Reeves.

Similarly, some years earlier, Rugby League refereeing had changed dramatically with the arrival on the scene of the peerless Fred Lindop, whose work over the next couple of decades was to prove immaculate.

In recent years the refereeing which impressed the most - among very many possibilities - came in a Regionalliga match at Elversberg. The referee was Michael Kempter, some time after his fall from grace. It was not a particularly testing match for someone who had achieved (and lost) FIFA listing and was handled athletically but in a routine German manner, with several yellow cards. What impressed, however, was the way that these were accepted by the players and the way he maintained excellent relations throughout. He would surely have been one of Europe's top referees if his career had continued.

I think Graham Poll Mike Dean and Alan Wiley have had many masterclass performances in big games that could easily have spilled over and dare I say it Mike Riley ( I think it was ) produced  a masterclass on rabbit in headlights performance when Rooney got away with murder against Arsenal

I remember too the Van Der Ende performance. 

If i remember the British Press had stirred things up, saying beforehand that Van Der Ende was likely to favour Italy because, of all things, he liked pasta and Italian restaurants.

As already said,  one of the best i can remember.  Great hair streak too,  and a shoe in for any Catherine Cookson fans!

For me it was 1993 Kim Milton Nielsen when he refereed at the World Youth Cup in Sydney.
On tv it was Jan 1994 Phil Don refereeing MUFC vs LFC
Both games were a masterclass

I though Clattenburg and his performance in the Chelsea V Spurs game was a masterclass.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42219327

Are you joking?? He missed at least 4 if not more clear red cards. He himself has admitted he was far too lenient! He let it get out of control