Where do they keep all these officials?
September 4, 2012 3:54 AM Subscribe
In a Premier League match this weekend, one of the referee's assistants could not continue after halftime (hamstring). He was replaced by the fourth official. But then Mark Clattenburg showed up to replace him as the fourth official. Are BPL games assigned 5 officials, and we just never see the fifth ref? The announcers did mention that he was local to the area (Newcastle).
Response by poster: Yet was pressed into service as the fourth official? Odd.
posted by kuanes at 5:24 AM on September 4, 2012
posted by kuanes at 5:24 AM on September 4, 2012
Well, he's an official. It's like, the airline pilot has a heart attack so they ask, "Is anyone on board a pilot?"
As far as I know there's not any official plan for that happening (and I've never heard of it happening, which is a little surprising), so I'd guess it's pretty much like my analogie.
posted by cmoj at 7:26 AM on September 4, 2012
As far as I know there's not any official plan for that happening (and I've never heard of it happening, which is a little surprising), so I'd guess it's pretty much like my analogie.
posted by cmoj at 7:26 AM on September 4, 2012
Best answer: I don't know why Mark Clattenburg in particular took over, but this might help (emphasis mine):
posted by smcg at 8:42 AM on September 4, 2012
You then have to find someone to take over the fourth official duties - which could involve a PA request to fans to see if there's a qualified referee in the crowd. If there's no response, the match assessor could get involved.It's from the Guardian's You are the Ref on 2 January 2009; the answer is from Keith Hackett, who's basically head of refereeing for the English FA.
posted by smcg at 8:42 AM on September 4, 2012
Response by poster: Thanks for the reference, smcg.
Although I am uncomfortable with Clattenburg being in the stands as a quasi-supporter. Is he allowed to officiate Newcastle games?
posted by kuanes at 8:53 AM on September 4, 2012
Although I am uncomfortable with Clattenburg being in the stands as a quasi-supporter. Is he allowed to officiate Newcastle games?
posted by kuanes at 8:53 AM on September 4, 2012
Once Jimmy Hill, legendary football pundit and owner of the Biggest Chin In Football, had to take over as linesman (in the days before third or fourth officials) when a linesman was injured. A call was put out for anyone qualified to run the line and Jimmy stepped up.
posted by essexjan at 9:18 AM on September 4, 2012
posted by essexjan at 9:18 AM on September 4, 2012
Best answer: Although I am uncomfortable with Clattenburg being in the stands as a quasi-supporter. Is he allowed to officiate Newcastle games?
Your question piqued my curiosity, so I did a bit of digging and found a FAQ with the question 'When are referees selected?' on the Premier League's official site. It says that ‘When making the appointments, a number of factors are taken into account including:’
- The current form of the official
- The referee’s position in the merit table
- Overall experience
- How often they have refereed the Clubs involved
- Proximity to the ground or city in which they were born or live
- The team the referee supports
- International appointments (For example if referees have UEFA matches on Thursdays they will only be available for matches on Sundays or Mondays)
The penultimate point being the most relevant, naturally. My reading of this is that these rules aren't exactly prescriptive, but the team support stuff would no doubt be taken very seriously, for obvious reasons. But that would be in relation to the main match referee. The fourth official, at least as far as I know, doesn't have any inherent authority to stop play. The worst he or she could do, to my mind, is make squiffy offside calls or alert to non-fouls. That sort of tinkering would be highly marginal, and given that he changed from a Newcastle strip to a match official's clothing in full sight of the cameras, he'd want to appear as scrupulous as possible.
On top of that, without a fourth official, it's possible the game might have needed to be abandoned. There'd be a lot of wound up supporters if that happened! Also, if the selection of the referee sounds complicated, wait until you find out how complex fixture scheduling is.
posted by jaffacakerhubarb at 10:11 AM on September 4, 2012
Your question piqued my curiosity, so I did a bit of digging and found a FAQ with the question 'When are referees selected?' on the Premier League's official site. It says that ‘When making the appointments, a number of factors are taken into account including:’
- The current form of the official
- The referee’s position in the merit table
- Overall experience
- How often they have refereed the Clubs involved
- Proximity to the ground or city in which they were born or live
- The team the referee supports
- International appointments (For example if referees have UEFA matches on Thursdays they will only be available for matches on Sundays or Mondays)
The penultimate point being the most relevant, naturally. My reading of this is that these rules aren't exactly prescriptive, but the team support stuff would no doubt be taken very seriously, for obvious reasons. But that would be in relation to the main match referee. The fourth official, at least as far as I know, doesn't have any inherent authority to stop play. The worst he or she could do, to my mind, is make squiffy offside calls or alert to non-fouls. That sort of tinkering would be highly marginal, and given that he changed from a Newcastle strip to a match official's clothing in full sight of the cameras, he'd want to appear as scrupulous as possible.
On top of that, without a fourth official, it's possible the game might have needed to be abandoned. There'd be a lot of wound up supporters if that happened! Also, if the selection of the referee sounds complicated, wait until you find out how complex fixture scheduling is.
posted by jaffacakerhubarb at 10:11 AM on September 4, 2012
The fourth official, at least as far as I know, doesn't have any inherent authority to stop play. The worst he or she could do, to my mind, is make squiffy offside calls or alert to non-fouls.Not even that, the fourth official doesn't usually get involved in the actual game itself, but is usually the one making contact with the managers and team officials. Their main duties are signaling substitutions [they don't get to decide when a substitution happens, but they signal which players are coming on/off] and signaling added time [again, the actual time added is not their decision, they signal it to the teams and spectators].
Basically they're the ones carrying the big sign with the numbers on it.
posted by xqwzts at 3:29 PM on September 4, 2012
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posted by Hobo at 4:03 AM on September 4, 2012