When I was younger, I used to love buying Shoot! magazine. It contained a lot of football news, stories and competitions. I particularly remember a comic strip called You are the Ref.
You Are The Ref featured a series of difficult refereeing questions and you had to try and guess what the referee should do. Several top line EPL referees have also contributed to the strip and provided answers over the years.
It was created by sports artist Paul Trevillion, also famous for the Roy of the Rovers football comic strip.
The You are the Ref strip began in 1952 in a Tottenham magazine The Lillywhite. The quiz included one question per issue on refereeing.
Five years later, The People newspaper signed Trevillion to produce a dedicated refereeing cartoon quiz, and gave it the title ‘Hey Ref’.
In the 1960s, the strip began appearing in a much larger format alongside Trevillion’s work for Roy of the Rovers in official Roy annuals, under the title ‘If You Were The Ref’.
But it was in 1969 that the strip took on its famous name, when it moved to be part of newly launched football magazine Shoot!. The strip continued to run in Shoot! until 1983.
In 2006, Trevillion agreed to return to You Are The Ref, which was published in The Observer newspaper. You Are The Ref also appears on The Observer’s website.
I was always intrigued by some of the questions and the unexpected answers.
Here’s a few teasers.
1. Two opposing players are at each other for most of the game and you are relieved to blow full time for the end of the game. As the players walk away into the tunnel they start fighting and one player is knocked to the ground. As the ref what do you do?
2. After a penalty shoot out the goalkeeper makes a great save of the fifth penalty kick to win the game for the home team. He is so excited he kicks the ball towards his home fans, but mistakenly kicks the ball into his own net. Do you award the goal and the game to the away team or not?
3. Just before you start the second half one of the away teams substitute comes to the fourth official on the sideline with a signed substitution form. You allow him on and blow for the start of the second half. But in the meantime the away team manager runs onto the field to complain that he did not substitute anyone and the signature on the substitute sheet has been forged. Do you allow the player to stay on?
4. You are returning to a ground where the last time you were there you were booed off by the home fans and players for a controversial penalty decision. This time you get a hostile reception and the home captain refuses to talk to you or shake your hand before the game. When you insist so you can start the game, he kicks the ball away in disgust. What do you do now?
5. A defender takes a throw in, deep in his own half sending it towards his own goalkeeper. The goalkeeper slips up and the ball rolls into his own net without anyone on the field touching it. What do you award – a goal to the opposition, a re-taken throw in, a corner or a goal kick and why?
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