About this Blog
This blog is unlike other refereeing blogs because I don’t usually analyse real-world incidents happening in the game in various leagues around the world. Keeping up with all that is just too much work and quite really a full-time job on its own. My counter-parts in the refereeing network do a great job of that and my discussions and opinions are usually there. I am a guest blogger on the Third Blind Mouse‘s blog and Play The Advantage.
The blog here will talk about:
- refereeing conundrums,
- useful things to know as a referee,
- things you will be interested to know about referees, or
- how my refereeing career is panning out in football/futsal.
I often, during the season, recap a few games where I doubted or was pleased with a decision I made. I’m a CONCACAF referee with AFC roots. I happen to travel somewhat often.
The audience for this blog are current/former referees as well as anyone who appreciates the beautiful game. My posts vary in technical detail and I refer to acronyms quite often. Be sure to follow by e-mail to stay up-to-date!
I’m a football referee and the views on this blog are mine. Any media content used is either my own or referenced from the original site. The reference is done directly via links so if the original owner removes/renames the content, it will no longer appear here. I write this blog to share my experiences for those to enjoy reading; not to judge. If you are here to be critical and judgemental, you are not an appreciated viewer.
For visitors wondering what my handle (larbitre) means, it’s a concatenated form of the French word L’Arbitre which means “The Referee”.
Why do I write this blog? I love refereeing. I love the beautiful game.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Contact Me
If you’d like to contact me, you can comment below.
Refereeing the Beautiful Game 
Hi there, Looking to see if anyone has contact info for the http://canadianreferees.blogspot.ca/ site. They have blatantly stolen one of our articles, an interview with FIFA referee Dave Gantar and passed it on as their own… copied the entire article word-for-word. thanks..
Hi Rob, I found their contact listed as canref@gmail.com on the website.
I believe they re-post a lot of articles and post the source at the bottom. This one says Sportsnet.
thanks! Really appreciate the response… I’ll check it out.
Hi there, I’m getting close to purchasing a set of Ervocoms, and was wondering if you had any further advice/recommendations about them. Eg, is it worth purchasing an extra flag or a “short-bar” flag to use as a 4th official stick? Thank you!
Have you seen my posts on it already on this blog? I believe the costs for the flags have risen but there would likely be some minor improvements. It depends on your level but a short 4th official bar isn’t very useful until you are at the very highest level when it truly is close to impossible to get the referee’s attention in-game. Adjusting the to beeps is already a steep learning curve (adding a third beeper could make things more confusing).
Thanks for the reply! Your blog has really been the convincing factor in my decision to go Ervocom. And that’s definitely a good point on the spare flag/4th stick. I’ll probably just go with the 2 set then. Thanks again!
Glad I was able to help. Touchlines are quite good as well. I’m overdue on my experience with those a couple of months ago.