RateTheRef

Preston v Portsmouth 10/2/1973

Les Hayes was the referee with Don Bond and Harold Galley on the lines.

Down to the last 5

Jim Ashworth, FL referee, 1983 to 1991?

I think he was Lincs/Leics based

Bit far to send to Aldershot?

Tiverton Town v Cambridge United - P-P Tue 18th Nov and again Tue 25th Nov

tie reversed and now being played at St. Ives Town Sat 29th Nov

Telegraph

Howard Webb will fight allegations PGMOL ruined the career of a leading female referee in court next week. Lisa Benn, the Women’s Super League referee, claims she was sidelined by Professional Game Match Officials Limited – the body responsible for referees, then led by Webb and his wife, Bibi Steinhaus-Webb – after making a complaint against a leading men’s coach.

Benn, 34, alleged she was “physically manhandled and threatened” on a pitch by Steve Child, a PGMOL coach and former Premier League assistant referee, at a men’s tournament arranged in 2023 to give VAR experience to WSL referees. A PGMOL investigation that same year found that Child’s behaviour did not meet the threshold for disciplinary action against him.

Benn says that despite assurances from Webb and Steinhaus-Webb – who was then head of women’s referees at PGMOL – that she would not be punished for making a complaint against Child, that turned out not, in her view, to be the case. She would go on to lose her place on the coveted Fifa list of referees and her £20,000 annual PGMOL salary.

Benn has since filed an unfair dismissal complaint with the tribunal listed to begin at an employment court in Croydon on Monday and Webb is expected to give evidence on behalf of PGMOL later in the week.

Steinhaus-Webb, a former World Cup final referee who took charge of games in the men’s Bundesliga in her native Germany for three years, married Webb in 2021. She now works for Fifa. Webb has been chief refereeing officer at PGMOL since December 2022.

Benn’s case centres on the decision in December 2023 not to nominate her for one of the five Fifa places available for English referees, despite ranking fifth among top officials in the WSL. In the two years previous, Benn had been nominated by the Football Association on the basis of her PGMOL performance and been duly accepted by Fifa.

In December 2023, the FA had submitted six names to Fifa, with Benn sixth on the list, although Fifa had requested only five nominations. Documents later revealed that Webb, also on the FA referees’ committee, had been party to the decision to submit Benn as a sixth name as early as August 2023.

That Fifa place was crucial – it meant Benn would be selected to take charge of international games and Uefa competition matches. It earned her a £20,000 annual salary from PGMOL to enable her to take time off from her job with the Sussex County FA to travel to matches and training camps. She lost that salary and effectively became self-employed at the start of 2024, reliant on her match fees alone.

Before then Benn regularly took charge of some of the biggest WSL games and also refereed in the men’s game in the National League South, the sixth tier. In the previous WSL season, 2021-22, Benn had been ranked first among the referees and also been selected to take charge of the FA Women’s League Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester City.

Having learnt she had lost her Fifa place in December 2023, Benn was told by Steinhaus-Webb that there would be a “more holistic” approach to selection for Fifa nominations in the future, that was not reliant on ranking position. Benn received assurances she could regain her Fifa nomination the following year.

In the WSL season 2023-24, Benn finished second on the WSL ranking but was not nominated by the FA for Fifa for a second successive year. That was despite one of the five Fifa-listed referees, Rebecca Welch, retiring from on-field service and leaving a place free.

Post-November 2023, and the subsequent fallout from the alleged clash with Child, Benn refereed just four more WSL games that season. She took charge of 11 games in the 2024-25 season, but has not been appointed to any this term. Benn’s claim encompasses compensation for direct discrimination, harassment, victimisation, unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal and unlawful deduction of wages.

PGMOL says it denies all Benn’s claims in their entirety.

The case has stirred considerable interest among referees. It also shines a spotlight on the Webbs – the most powerful couple in refereeing. Howard, 54, and Bibi, 46, met while on Fifa duty and had both previously been in the United States working for Major League Soccer.

Both are former police officers in their respective countries, with Bibi – short for Bibiana – having broken through from the women’s game to spend three seasons taking charge of men’s Bundesliga games. Both have refereed Fifa World Cup finals in the international game – the ultimate appointment. Howard took charge of the 2010 men’s final in Johannesburg, only the second English referee to do so. Bibi did so the following year at the women’s World Cup in Germany.

Bibi is now Fifa’s head of women’s refereeing, the most senior administrative position in the game for women referees. Webb is tipped as a contender to take the top job at Fifa when its referees’ committee chairman, Pierluigi Collina, steps down.

The Benn case dates back to when Steinhaus-Webb was at PGMOL between 2021 and 2024. Benn’s complaint against Child in 2023 was investigated that year by PGMOL director Adam Gale-Watts, another former Premier League assistant referee. In his report on the incident, included in court documents, Gale-Watts found that while there had been physical contact between Child and Benn, it was not considered “threatening or aggressive”.

Child was an experienced Premier League assistant who officiated at more than 300 Premier League games before retiring in 2019. He is now a full-time PGMOL assistant referee coach in the women’s game.

In the documents seen by Telegraph Sport, Benn claimed that, in March 2023, Child had made physical contact just before she was about to referee a men’s match which had been delayed because of a serious injury in the previous game. In court documents it is alleged by Benn that Child “grabbed the Claimant’s [Benn’s] arm and dragged her to the pitch”.

The pair had been at odds before and then during the game over the style of refereeing required for the matches, played for the benefit of the WSL referees to learn VAR protocol. Benn admitted that she told Child to “chill out” and also to “f--- off”.

Towards the end of the game in question there was a red card given by Benn and angry players demanded her attention. It was then the referee said that Child approached her again. Benn alleged he told her that “your card is marked”. Child denied any aggressive or threatening behaviour.

In his investigation in June 2023, Gale-Watts found that, “on the balance of probability” there was physical contact made between the pair ahead of kick-off in the game in March, but it fell short of the threshold of “threatening and aggressive”. Gale-Watts recommended that Child not be disciplined under the PGMOL rules. Gale-Watts advised that avoiding physical contact between officials was “best practice”. Child denied any wrongdoing.

There was a second confrontation between Child and Benn at a training camp in August 2023. Court documents allege that Child told Benn, who had just arrived, that she was late. In the course of the argument Benn told Child to “f--- off”, and later left the camp that day.

PGMOL claimed that the nominations for Fifa were at the behest of the FA. The FA moved to have Benn’s claim against it struck out on the basis that it was not her employer.

Phil Flinders of course. Timeline is just about right but not sure whether it is the same guy as at Hendon. Thanks for posting.

Next P.N. Flinders was not born until 1962

1968-69 Cook, H. (Salford): could this be a misprint in the programme for H. Crook?  I may be mistaken, but I seem to remember an official of that name and initial refereeing in the Northern Premier League in the early 1970s.

Bingo!!!