RateTheRef

bmb without having seen the game there is nothing in your report that sounds too far off the mark in terms of what I have generally seen from this referee. In my previous post I said he was one of our two up and coming FIFA referees - I say that as we only have two up and coming referees and as I said them I rate him as second of the two.

Regardless - I do hope Harvey improves and I wish him all the best in improving his performances, it is very cut throat at UEFA level for referees from smaller football nations.

Harvey and Hennessy our two younger FIFA referees did friendlies during the last week or so. Hennessey made a crucial match changing error in his game but from what I have seen he put in significant effort into his positioning, displayed enthusiastic body language and gave a determined performance. Harvey may not have made a key error but I know which referee I would prefer to see on my teams next game.

He reminds me a bit of József Erdős a few years ago. Similar shape and level of fitness who managed to maintain reasonable decision making overall in easy games. József spent 1 summer really working hard on his weight and fitness and quickly went from a referee everyone dreaded seeing to being one of the most reliable safe pair of hands in the league. He continues to work hard on both, he's not naturally fit or healthy and probably has to work harder than a lot of his peers to stay in shape. Harvey has time on his side to do the same.  Someone needs to be honest with him though & he needs to be honest with himself and realise his weight and lack of fitness are holding him back. If he wants to reach the top then he needs to work hard & improve & I hope he has it in him to do it. I don't like making a report on a ref like the one I did, I always try and look for positives but there were none!

I haven't seen him recently but looking at more recent photos I can see what you mean by your description. I certainly concur with your comments on how he manages players, everyone can't be the players best friends, indeed they shouldn't be however they do need to build some kind of rapport and demonstrate a level of empathy - as well as being able to tell them to shut up and f*** off - when needed! From what I have seen of Harvey like you say he totally lacks any ability to connect with players and displays no significant natural authority.

Balázs Berke in the last domestic round - player taken out right by the tech area, he immediately blows the whistle, gives the foul & a yellow card. Coach starts jumping up and down on the touchline screaming. Berke looked at him, said I've given the foul & a YC, WTF else do you want me to do, sit down & shut up. Coach burst out laughing, gave him a hug and went and sat down quietly! Can you imagine that in the PL - the media would have had kittens!