Last week, my wonderful partner decided that I should start writing a blog. Mainly, I think, due to the fact that she is sick of me moaning about everything under the sun and being a bit of a miserable old (I'm only 23!) fart.
So I had a think, and came to the conclusion that yes, it would be a rather good idea. But what could I write about? I could write to relieve all my frustrations of daily life, such as my seemingly inherent OCD like behaviour which involves almost ridiculous levels of cleaning and tidying (I blame my mother), or my general cynicism about, well, pretty much everything, or I could write about the life of a student who is a bit too old to be a student.
And then I thought no, why not write about being a Referee. It is what I spend most of my time doing or being involved with, and I have loved football ever since I could stand on two feet and kick a ball (probably about twenty years ago). I qualified as Referee when I was just 14, still playing, and still hoping one day I could fulfil my ambition of making it to the professional game. After a year of mixing the two together, I grudgingly decided it was time to give up playing and focus on refereeing, as it became quite apparent that I was better - and enjoyed - the latter a bit more.
So, I took up the whistle every Sunday morning with my Dad (who qualified at the same time as me) and out we went to the local parks to officiate in the Youth League in our area. I did this until I finished my A Levels and got myself a full time job in a supermarket. I was quite happy plodding along, enjoying my games and my little job at the local Waitrose.
Then, I had a season off, as I just couldn't get my games in due to working weekends. And last year, after meeting my partner two years previous, I packed up all my things and decided to move to Leeds with her and, quite belatedly, become a full time, baked bean eating, tax dodging University student.
As you can probably tell if you've bothered reading this far, I mainly talk about football and refereeing. And moan a bit about other things in life. But I will also lay bare some actual emotions surrounding my games, so hopefully you can get a feel of just what it is like to be a football referee and hopefully help people realise that we aren't all out on a power trip, hell bent on ruining people's fun and being a general pain in the arse. We are just normal blokes who happen to love football...
Please feel free to comment on anything I might ramble about, would be nice to hear some other opinions on matters!
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