Former referee Howard Webb is adamant that a good relationship exists between players and officials at the top of the game. Webb, who took charge of the 2010 World Cup final and officiated at the recent tournament in Brazil, announced this week that he was retiring from refereeing in order to become technical director of Professional Game Match Officials Limited. And the 43-year-old, whose refereeing career lasted 25 years, says he has received numerous messages congratulating him on his new position.
“I got lots of nice messages from all sorts of people within the game following my retirement announcement”, said Webb. “I got messages from people involved in different roles within professional football and that’s pleasing, because it tells me they do value the job that we do. They know you are not always the most popular person and they understand it is a difficult job, it’s something they appreciate. Hopefully, my new role will be to continue sending that message out. The relationship (with players) is really good, and I don't want people to think I'm just saying this, I genuinely mean it. The relationship is positive on the field of play between the officials and the players. Sometimes emotions overspill because what we are involved in is important and matters to people but, by and large, it is a positive relationship, even more so away from that environment of the 90 minutes. We acknowledge mistakes now and again, in the same way a player might apologize to me for bad tackles they have made over the years. The job we do is a tough one but it is an important one and it’s one that, by and large, we are pretty good at”.
Source: Sky Sports