Saturday, 12th May

So the countdown to the 2012 William Hill Scottish Cup Final has begun. It’s exactly one week until the big game at Hampden, however the refereeing team have another big game to focus on first: the SFL 1st Division Play-Off semi-final second leg between Arbroath and Dumbarton. Craig Thomson, Derek Rose and myself are accompanied by Euan Anderson as Fourth Official for this game – but it will be Willie Collum who fulfils that role at Hampden on 19th May. Willie is refereeing the Aberdeen versus St Mirren game today, but we’re delighted to have Euan with us, as he eats less sweeties!

I’ve already spent some time yesterday evening watching the brief highlights of the first leg of this fixture, in case there were any learnings, and to at least check the team colours; and I spent some time this morning checking the clubs’ websites and also the SFL and BBC websites for any last minute news regarding the game, the weather, the clubs or the teams.

We arrived in Arbroath two hours before the 3pm kick-off – and, despite a strong breeze, the sun is shining brightly and it’s a warm day on the pitch for this important game. Both clubs approached the game in a very professional manner, so we had no issues with the arrangements before the game; and thankfully the game passed peacefully for the match officials – it finished 0-0, with just one caution, and Dumbarton proceeded to the play-off final courtesy of their 2-1 aggregate win over the two legs of this semi-final. Craig, Derek and I have been refereeing together regularly, as a team, throughout this season but it was still very helpful for us to get another game together in the run-up to the cup final. It was a shame that Willie wasn’t with us (although possibly not for him!) – but he was with us on our last game together just three week ago (Hibernian versus Kilmarnock), and we’ve all been training together regularly in recent weeks.

After a quick visit from former FIFA Referee and former Referee Committee Member Bob Valentine immediately after the game, we had a debrief from the SFA Referee Observer Craig Mackay. We also took the opportunity to discuss our plans for the remainder of the week, up to the cup final, agreeing when and where we would meet for training during the week.

Having left Glasgow at 11am and not getting home until 7.30pm, it was quite a long day.

Sunday, 13th May

From a training perspective it’s important that we complete a recovery session the day after a game. The refereeing team didn’t get together today, since the recovery session can be quite brief and we will be spending so much time together this week, so it’s a chance to spend some time with our families and fit in some other activities.

I went out for a jog early this morning as my “recovery”, before attending church and then competing in a Past Captains’ Team Match at my golf club. It wasn’t the best weather for golf (in fact it was dreadful), but it was a rare opportunity to fit in a game of golf…and the team won (although no thanks to me, sadly!) After the golf, while drying-out, I managed to watch the Manchester City v QPR game on TV – a fantastic and exciting climax to the English Premier League season. And then it was home to get ready for work on Monday and to catch-up on laundry!

Since my first blog entry, there have been a busy few days of matches and exploring the local area and culture. Saturday was a rest day and I headed into Yevpatoria, the local town, with the CPISRA classifiers. The town is on the Black Sea and appears to be getting ready for the Ukrainian holiday season. The sea was lovely and clear but I still didn’t venture in!On Sunday, I had two games to referee: Russia versus USA and Australia versus Ukraine. As expected, Russia and Ukraine won by a good few goals in the last of the group games. Later that afternoon, we had caviar for lunch which was a first for me.

On Monday, it was the play off stages and Australia versus USA and Ukraine versus Iran were my games. At this stage things start to even up and both games were very competitive, especially the secnd one. They are two of the top three nations and it was an opportunity to put out a marker pre-Paralympics. Iran won and I managed to upset my hosts by awarding Iran a penalty to make it 2-0.

Tuesday was the second rest day and we headed to Bakhchisarai to visit Khan’s Palace and Dormition Monastery. The Palace is being fully restored after a fire but the original building dates to the early 16th century and Monastery to late 8th/early 9th century. It’s amazing where refereeing can take you! All was fine until the bus broke down 40km away from the accommodation on the way home. Fortunately we managed to get a tow home but sharing the roadside with grazing cattle was not an attractive option.

It’s the finals day tomorrow and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be refereeing in Ukraine’s match.

Having left Glasgow at 8.30am on Thursday morning, I arrived in Yevpatoria in Ukraine at around 11.30pm local time that evening. The Ukrainian Paralympic Association are holding the final football competition for cerebral palsy footballers to be classified before the London 2012 Paralympics.

I am here not only to officiate but also in my capacity as a CPISRA (Cerebal Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association) football committee member (which includes Stuart Sharp, the ex-Scottish Football Association coach). Friday started with my first committee meeting at 9am and then it was down to the pitch to watch Iran play Russia. I took charge of the second game of the day Holland v Ukraine and finally assisted on Australia v Brazil. Thankfully the offside rule does not apply in CP football!

Not everybody here speaks English and the challenge of communicating with the other officials and players can at times be interesting but most of the time you get your message across.

Today we have a day off and having resembled a lobster last night, I think I will have to be more careful today in the sun!

The 19-year-old from Kilmarnock blogs about her first international appointment, Scotland’s 4-0 win over England in a Scottish Schools FA Girls’ Under-15 match at Toryglen, Glasgow.

I received a call from Alistair from the Scottish Schools FA the week before the match to let me know that I had been appointed to the first international of my referee career.  It meant so much to me, and as a former international player, I knew how important this match would be to the players, and how nervous they would be.

I train very hard and always mentally prepare myself for matches, but this one was different. There was a buzz that I could not get rid of all week – albeit a good one!

As soon as I found out that I had been appointed, it was all I spoke about, even to my friends who don’t play football or referee. At training with the Ayrshire Referees Association I was congratulated by all of my colleagues. They all gave me support and advice, especially my dad, Francis Andrews, who has plenty of experience in this field.

On the day of the match I was very excited and slightly nervous.  I was joined by my colleague Margaret Smith, who was part of my team for the day. My nerves soon disappeared as we travelled to the venue together.

When we arrived we were met by Alex and Alistair from the Scottish Schools FA. We were introduced to some of the VIPs, shown around the facility, and given all the details we needed about the day’s events and procedures.

Before kick -off, as the teams lined up, we were introduced to the presidents of both the Scottish and English Schools FAs, and representatives from the sponsors Lloyds TSB.

The national anthems were played and we shook hands with both teams, before myself and my colleagues wished each other good luck and prepared for kick-off.

The game went extremely well. Both teams perfromed well and respected the officials throughout the match. The game flowed from start to finish and ended on a high for Scotland, who won 4-0.

I thought that myself and my colleagues worked very well together and we helped each other throughout the game.

At the end of the match, we all received medals and were introduced to the crowd.

We were then invited over to Hampden to see both teams receive their caps. Again, we were made very welcome and congratulated on how we performed during the match. Alex was very complimentary about all of the officials and took great delight in letting the players know about my football career.

This was a very special day for me and I was proud to be part of it.

Day four

We had a day off, and with the help of the Swiss referee Sandro, we arranged a trip to Geneva to watch the Swiss Super League match between Servette and FC Sion. The match only burst into life in the final five minutes with a few goals and a penalty and the final score was 2-2. It was a decent experience and good for our development to see top referees in other domestic leagues.

Day six

With a repeat of the practical exercises from last time, we were given a chance to manage match scenarios. David Elleray decided to let the referees have a go at the assistants’ offside exercise to finish the day off. This was not a pleasant experience. For my first offside, I was about four yards behind play and I compounded my poor position by getting it wrong. Hats off to the SARs, it turns out running the line is not so easy after all.

The Scotland women’s under-17 team were staying at the same hotel, taking part in a tournament with Wales, Bosnia and Russia. After a comfortable 3-0 victory over Russia they beat Wales 5-0 in the final, and it was great to see some of the match. We have to thank the girls for giving us bragging rights over our colleagues.

Day seven

The weather took a turn for the better and the fitness test was carried out in good conditions. Everyone passed the final obstacle towards getting the diploma without any problems.

Receiving the diploma was a proud moment. We got on well with the guys and it would have been disappointing if someone had missed out.

Our final night saw a return to the restaurant in Geneva for dinner, and most importantly, the second part of the singing competition! Having ‘performed’ Caledonia last time we kept it safe with Flower of Scotland. We got everyone to take part with an ‘Against Who?’ during the song and the guys again showed Scotland in a good light. Predictably, we got a scandalously low mark following some questionable English scoring but we know who the real winners were!

So, our experience on CORE has come to an end. David Elleray said to us that we are just beginning our journey as international officials and we should see this as merely the end of our introduction to European football.

What have we learned? Well, we have seen ourselves in a completely different light. We have seen our strengths and where we need to improve and have altered our lifestyles where necessary to help continue our progression both at home and abroad. We have met some friends that we will keep in contact with for the rest of our careers and we have some memories that will live with us even beyond that.

We have gained a huge amount of knowledge from David Elleray, Jaap Uilenberg and our coaches Peter and Jan-Petter – not to mention the rest of the coaches on the course. We’ve visited the home of UEFA, refereed in European football and gained an invaluable insight into other cultures and ways of life.

Thanks to the guidance of Ziga from Slovenia we have learned everything there is to know about the card game Uno. We’ve learned a few valuable phrases in Slovenian, Bosnian, French and Spanish and I am sure they will come in handy. We’ve also learned that David cannot be relied on to be on time, Gavin has the balance of Bambi during agility exercises, and that we should have explained ourselves better to avoid Gavin being listed as Harris Gravin on the teamlines for our match. Importantly, we are now fluent in ‘international English’ and even Gavin can now be understood by people outside of Dundee.

As we made our way home we had a chance to reflect on our experience and we can safely say that it was a real highlight in our careers and one that will stand us in good stead for the years ahead. I hope that the next batch of officials the Scottish FA sends on the course will enjoy it as much as we did.

It’s been six months since we last set off for Switzerland and we really had our eyes opened in November. The learning experience under the guidance of David Elleray and Jaap Uilenberg gave us an insight into what it will take to become top international officials.

We knew this time round would be no different. We would make mistakes, learn from them, and in the process improve on all aspects of our game.

Day one

It was great to meet everyone again. We made some really good friends and having kept in touch, it was enjoyable to catch up and have a laugh.

There were no bike rides this time – in no small part down to a combination of Alan Mulvanny’s heavy fall on an earlier course and the Azerbaijan assistant getting lost when we were first here.

Day two

We were required to send in clips from our domestic matches to review them with the rest of the officials. It was interesting to see the other officials in their domestic matches and we had plenty of talking points.

We received our match for the weekend, a French CFA match (the fourth level in France) between Jura Sud and Sochaux 2. There is a bit of rivalry between the teams and the home side are in a relegation battle so we knew we’d have our work cut out.

Day three

We prepared as we usually would for a match, getting ourselves ready with a good breakfast and lunch. The kick off was 6pm and with a one hour journey to contend with, we set off mid-afternoon. Interestingly, our driver to the stadium was Stephane Cuhat – Massimo Busacca’s assistant at Euro 2008. The ground was set in a small French mountain village and the weather was as bad as anything we’ve experienced in Scotland. It rained from start to finish and water on the pitch near the end was unbelievable. It was never a danger to the players but the surface water made it a more difficult match with plenty of strong tackles to contend with.

We did not have any major issues to deal with. The quality of the football was reasonable, and the match certainly gave us enough of a test to get some interesting clips. Our coach Peter Jones, the assistant referee coach Jan-Petter Randen, and the Seychelles coach Danny Poiret were all in attendance and happily they all agreed we had a good match. The clips we reviewed were purely technical and the match control was of a good standard with four cautions all correct. Job done.

It was a great feeling on Saturday night to have come through the match without incident and we relaxed in the bar with some of the other guys for a beer before bed. It was well earned. The Friday morning weigh-in saw us all drop weight, with a 10kg loss for the team.

Over the last couple of weeks, the UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round matches have taken place. This stage of the competition involves seven groups of four teams, each being played over six days, with only the group winners progressing to the final tournament in Slovenia in May 2012 where they will be joined by the tournament hosts for an eight-team final.

Scotland hosted one group of the groups, whilst myself and assistant referee, Stuart Stevenson, were involved in the group stage in Bremen, Germany. This group consisted of Germany, Portugal, Bulgaria and Turkey.

Stuart and I were both promoted to the international list of FIFA officials in January, and this marked our first appointment from UEFA. I’ve worked with Stuart several times in the past at domestic matches, as well as at a French league match and a Swiss cup tie so we had a rough idea of what to expect.

The other officials in Bremen were from Slovenia and Belgium, two of whom I knew from a recent course in Antalya, Turkey.

The tournament schedule was rather hectic. Stuart and I arrived in Germany late on a Monday evening, having left Edinburgh at 11am that morning, and by 3pm on Tuesday we were officiating the opening group game between Germany and Turkey. The final score was 4-0 to Germany but this did not reflect how close a contest it actually was. Both teams tried to play flowing football and it was evident that each side had some very technically gifted players who may, in the future, become household names.

From the match officials’ perspective, we had a short debrief at the hotel after the game with the match observer and then more detailed video analysis on Wednesday afternoon. The attention to detail was quite substantial and the observer offered some useful advice and guidance prior to our next matches on Thursday (Turkey v Portugal) and Sunday (Germany v Portugal).

The host country also organised an official dinner for coaches, referees, and UEFA representatives on Wednesday evening. This included several speeches and exchanging of gifts but what was most notable from the speeches (or rather the speeches in English that we could understand!) was the dedication and commitment each of the team coaches had to adhering to UEFA’s ‘Respect’ motto and to the continued development of youth players.

Our second game, again involving Turkey who this time were playing Portugal, also went well from the match our perspective as match officials and was an enjoyable match to be involved in. Amongst the hard work of the tournament, we got the chance to take in a Bundesliga match between the local team, Werder Bremen and FC Augsburg. This was a good opportunity to sample top level domestic football in one of the best leagues in Europe and we really enjoyed the experience.

Ultimately, this group stage came down to the final group game between Germany and Portugal, which Stuart and I were appointed to along with two officials from Slovenia. Both teams, between them, had scored nine goals in the previous two group matches, so we were expecting a high scoring match.

In the end, this six-day tournament concluded with a 0-0 draw which, although short of goal scoring opportunities, was enough for Germany to clinch the point they required to win the group and advance to the Final tournament in May.

Judging by the celebrations at the final whistle, it was something that meant a great deal to the German team. It was also a privilege Stuart I to be involved in a tournament such as this and an excellent way to start our careers on the FIFA list.

Cloud nine. That’s where I’ve been since receiving a call from the Scottish FA to inform me that I was to officiate as an assistant referee at the Scottish Communities League Cup final.

My week prior to the cup final has been busy.  

Monday was exam day for new entrants who are at the beginning of their refereeing journey, where I am one of the instructors.  This keeps me up to date with the changes to the laws of the game.

Tuesday I was officiating at Dundee v Ayr – the only problem was the fans were in but the lights did not come on!

On Wednesday, I was training and I received good wishes from many referees during a tough physical session.

Then on Thursday I took part in the extreme sport of shopping and because of my busy week I missed the chance to wish my son good luck for his trip to Ireland where he is competing for Scotland in gymnastic at the Celtic Cup

It was an early start for me on Friday. I was up at 5am to drop my wife and daughter at the airport then an early morning run followed by a one-hour walk with my dogs. The rest of the day was spent with my feet up watching the FA Cup games on TV.  The night was spent cooking and cleaning like most men who fear not being present on Mother’s day!  I then retired to bed early for the big day.

In the morning, I went down the stairs with all the excitement of a child on Christmas morning but instead of a settee being laden with presents, there lay two snoring dogs.

This was the first cup final for William Collum, Stuart Stevenson and I with our fourth official Calum Murray who is a seasoned campaigner who understood the pressures we were under. 

At Hampden we had a light lunch then went over our pre-match discussion. This was led by the William who offered guidance and his expectations of the game.

We went out for our warm up and spent some time soaking up the atmosphere of the day.

We led both teams onto the park for the pre-match ceremony and walking out of the Hampden tunnel I felt ten feet tall, which is incredible due to being vertically challenged.

Every boy dreams of walking onto the hallowed turf of Hampden and I have now had the great privilege and honour of fulfilling this dream.

The game flew by with an electric atmosphere. There were many difficult decisions which had to be made but they were all handled in a professional manner by all match officials.

Reflecting on the game, I would put this down as the pinnacle achievement of my career and now my medal has pride of place in the family display cabinet. My family have supported me from my beginnings in junior football to the highs of this cup final and they enjoyed their day as much as I did.

Day 15 – Wednesday

It was final day of matches today. My game kicked-off at 11am and I had the same referee team as the last match so we didn’t need to have as much of an in-depth discussion as we did in our previous game together. We had a good blether to the observer (Krys from Australia) on the way to the game about how football is run in her country. It is interesting to see differences.

We had a short discussion regarding pre-match requirements to confirm a few things. Eveline wanted us to talk a bit slower and use shorter words as she has to concentrate so much on listening to English during the match. We decided to use just key words during the game to avoid any confusion as we anticipated that the match would be quite fast paced. We began our warm-up with the temperature at over 20 degrees.

The game was very competitive with both teams wanting to just play football and I was happy to use as much advantage as possible. The players listened well to my instructions during the game and no cards were required. After the match, we had a chat with Krys and she was very happy with our performances and match control.

After my warm down and shower, I watched the second half of the final between Germany and Japan. It was 1-0 when I arrived but finished 2-2 with Japan equalising late on. The match was really exciting and Germany scored the winning goal in the last minute of extra time. Thrilling game.

We had a couple of hours until dinner and my friend Pernilla came up with an idea for something for tonight’s end of tournament party. All of the UEFA referees congregated in Pernilla’s room and she performed a dance routine with assistant referee flags – it was hilarious. We decided to have a final rehearsal later on before dinner.

After dinner, karaoke was arranged and Sonia from FIFA made some speeches to thank everyone for all their work. Before the karaoke started, the UEFA referees headed off to get sorted and we performed our routine to music with the flags. It was hard to keep a straight face during this, but it went down extremely well and was good fun. The rest of the night was really enjoyable and we all said our goodbyes before heading to bed.

Day 16 – Thursday

Breakfast at 7.30am and there are a few tired faces at the table after last night’s events. There are only around 10 of us leaving at 11am flight as the majority of the girls left at 3.30am for 6am flight!

After a couple connecting flights, I arrived in Aberdeen at 10.10pm. My sister picked me up from the airport and it is good to see a familiar face. I was deposited at my parent’s house with a small bag of shopping and headed off to bed following my 14 hours of travelling!

I am Back to work tomorrow morning at 9am and then have a game at the weekend.

The Algarve Cup was a fabulous experience for me with lots of fantastic memories. I learned so much out there. Hopefully I have done Scotland proud with my performances and hope to have put myself in contention for future FIFA competitions. Fingers crossed.

And finally, thanks for reading my blog and sharing this experience with me.

Today I was fourth official at Hungary v Wales with the Chinese girls. Our match wasn’t until 5pm at night and the Chinese girls wanted breakfast at 7.30am! OMG – I managed to persuade them to put it back until 8am so that I could have a wee bit of a long lie in.

After lunch, I went for a walk into town for an hour and then prepared for the match. I met with the Chinese girls and discovered that our physical fitness coach, Jean-Baptist, was coming with us, not as an observer, but just to watch the match and keep us company.

The match went well and my job as fourth official ran smoothly with the teams behaving as requested. I sorted out all my paperwork and we left the stadium to head back to the hotel for dinner and to return the equipment to the FIFA office. I met up with the rest of the girls at dinner and we discuss the day’s matches before bed.

Day 14 – Tuesday

We started the day with our normal, non-match day training session. The referees who had a match did a slightly different session to the rest of us as they needed more of a recovery session. We then looked at some match situations with the assistants mainly focussing on the offside rule. We finished off with some sprint shuttles and some core stability exercises.

After training I had a quick shower before myself and Abbie (from Singapore) are taken to the local dermatologist to find out about this skin rash. There are now seven girls with the same rash. Most are clearing up but mine is getting worse and has spread down and up my leg. The dermatologist listens to our situation and advised us that it’s a contact rash, perhaps from the material of our tracksuit bottoms and the chemicals on the material or the friction on hot tracksuit bottoms and not necessarily from massage oil. However, he sent us away with three prescriptions for cortisone cream which is enough cream for everyone.

After lunch, we had a de-briefing meeting with all the girls to go over the DVDs from yesterday’s matches. It was our last meeting before we go home. We discussed situations from all the matches and discover the top marks from all the tests from the first week, I was delighted to discover that I was in the top four on the first DVD video test and I won a yellow FIFA t-shirt – well chuffed! I also managed 100% in the English test but that doesn’t really count…

Finally, we were given the appointments for the final day of matches. I was delighted to hear I had been appointed to the 3rd versus 4th place match of Sweden v USA and had the same team of referees with me as I had for the last match I refereed. I was really happy for everyone. The final match is Japan v Germany and Margaret from USA is the referee which is a great appointment for her and everyone was really chuffed for her as she had a tough match in the previous round of games and did very well so it’s a good reward for her.

We then got changed and headed to a restaurant in a nearby town where we had a referee dinner to celebrate the tournament with the referee organisers, etc. We arrived back at the hotel at 11pm absolutely knackered and I was ready for my bed. We have an early game at 11am kick-off and will be leaving the hotel at 8.15am so I need my sleep for the day ahead.