Downing's Summer of Sport: Dr Michael Ashby
For those of you counting, it will have been 89 days since the last Premier League match was played when Manchester United line up against Fulham at 8pm on Friday.
It also won’t be long until the Downing football teams are back in action. Alongside them, Dr Michael Ashby, Downing Fellow in Economics, will be dusting off his whistle and cleaning his boots as he prepares to undertake another season as a football referee.
Why did you decide to become a football referee and how long did the process take?
I started watching Downing matches and realised the teams were hardly ever allocated a referee, which meant the players had to do it themselves.
To help solve this problem, I decided to complete the FA refereeing course. The process took a month, it was one evening and one full day training session with an online ‘laws of the game’ course before the first session.
I then had to referee five matches before officially becoming a qualified referee.
During the football season how often do you referee a game and for what type of matches?
1-3 games a week. I do a real mix of College league matches (Downing and non-Downing games), University Football Club games (Blues and Falcons) and the Cambridgeshire County League.
How do you fit it in with your day-to-day work?
Except for the University games, which are on a Wednesday afternoon, it’s all weekends. It’s good exercise and I enjoy it so, even if it were a bigger time commitment, I would say it’s important to make time for a hobby (both for students and Fellows!).
What skills would you say you need to become a referee?
A thick skin and the ability to remain calm. Unless a call is very blatant, you’re going to upset 11 of the players on the pitch. And you’re likely to upset the other 11 later in the game, so you must be comfortable with not pleasing everyone all the time and possibly pleasing no-one.
What is the best thing about being a referee?
I love football and I love being involved in the game. Plus, it’s nice to get a run out.
What’s been your best sporting moment – either as a spectator or participant?
My highlight as a referee was refereeing the Cuppers final this year. It was John’s vs Catz. A mercifully uneventful game from my point-of-view, it finished 0-0 after extra time and Catz won 5-4 on penalties. There was a pretty vocal crowd of about 200 people there, but it was all good humoured and a lot of fun.
As a spectator, I’m a big West Ham fan and I would have to say my best moment was Bobby Zamora’s goal against Preston North End in the 2005 Championship play-off final. I was at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff for the match and somehow I ended up crowd surfing three or four rows down from my seat in the celebrations.
Published 14 August 2024