Football news: Referees to watch out for in 2012

More often than not, when a referee appears in the football news headlines it’s for all the wrong reasons. The unfortunate truth is that judging fouls, awarding penalties and deciding if the linesman’s call for offside is justified isn’t going to win you many fans – but what referees should we be fearing the most during the rest of the 2011-12 season?

Well, when it comes to giving out cards, the league leader at the time of writing is Staffordshire-born ref Phil Dowd, who got things off to an incredibly punitive start by issuing as many as seven yellow cards during the 2011 Community Shield game between North West rivals Manchester City and Manchester United. To date, he’s since dished out 58 yellow cards in 14 Premier League games, which gives him an average of 4.14 per game. So far though, he’s only had to issue two red cards in the whole of the season.

However, while Dowd takes the overall total, football trivia fans might like to know that it’s Chester-born Mike Jones who takes the crown when it comes to averages, with a yellow card rate of 53 in only 12 games – an average of 4.42. Jones also has the current joint record for sending-offs in this Premier League season, issuing four red cards to date. This is matched only by Chris Foy, who has also sent four players for an early bath because of their conduct on the pitch.  

But there’s also Martin Atkinson to keep an eye out for if he is donning the ref’s jersey for your team’s latest match any time soon – as he has now sent off five people this season on both the national and international stage. In the Premier League, he has issued reds to Jack Rodwell (Everton), Emmanuel Frimpong (Arsenal, now on loan at Wolves) and Martin Olsson (Blackburn). During a Euro 2012 qualifier between Belarus and Bosnia Herzegovinia, he also dismissed Alexander Martynovich and TimofeyKalachev – both Belarus players – in a game that led to their side’s 1-0 defeat. Last season, Atkinson’s red card tally reached 13 across all competitions, up from the 11 he issued in 2008-09.

Also included in the top 10 givers of yellow cards when it comes to averages are Andre Marriner, Kevin Friend, Anthony Taylor, Neil Swarbrick, Howard Webb and Peter Walton. So with all this in mind it may be worth checking out the latest news on upcoming football fixtures to see which grounds these guys will be heading for next!