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Just before a fight, as the ring empties, you can feel it. There is danger and loneliness all around you. Soon it's just the three of you in there: the referee, your opponent, and you. You're in a very lonely moment then. But, strangely, that's when I feel most comfortable. The ring becomes my office, and I go to work.

David Haye

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I think making the referee aware of a situation, there is nothing wrong with that.

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Damn referees, I'll miss them less than anybody.

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Yeah definitely, I have to be brave. There are some bad tackles that we don't like. But it's not my job to look at that, it's the referee's job, he has to see what is going on. All I try to do is keep going.

Yeah Try Tackle

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Most of the time I don't go down when they kick me. I try to stay up, so the referee knows that if I go down it's because they kick me badly.

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The objective of a referee is not to get mentioned. I tell a lot of young referees that not being mentioned is king. If you can achieve that, that then it has been a pretty good game.

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Coaches will do what they can but it doesn't necessarily bother me. You are an international referee for a reason. If things like that are going to ruffle your feathers, don't bother doing the job.

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Coaches do so much research about a referee because they believe refereeing is such a crucial part of the game that the result may hinge on what we say or do. They probably know more about me than I know myself!

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I do my own analysis on the teams I am refereeing. I will know some of the personalities, the players who could be difficult customers in a scrum situation, the ones I am going to have to really work hard on early in the game to get what I want.

Work Work Hard Will

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But then southern hemisphere teams are more skilful than their northern hemisphere counterparts, which means games can be easier to referee.

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Good spectator sports share certain fundamentals. Their competitors battle head-to-head. Their winners are determined objectively: fastest runner, most points. They are refereed, not judged.

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You can't applaud a referee.

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I just love playing snooker. Every single frame is different. Not one referee ever sets the balls up exactly the same.

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It's true that I score a lot of penalties. If referees give us penalties and the coach names me as the penalty-taker, I have to take them. That doesn't mean that I'm going to score them.

Alexandre Lacazette

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Power is the main difference; it's more powerful in England. Referees are less strict than in France, teams like to play low and in counter-attack, and defenders in general are stronger than in France.

Alexandre Lacazette

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In England, the referee doesn't blow his whistle.

Alexandre Lacazette

Whistle T Referee

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I always appreciated my dad coming outside and playing with us - or my mom - and being a part of the game we were playing or refereeing it or just being outside. That was fun for us, and it was very encouraging.

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I don't know if referees look at me differently; you'd have to ask them. I hope everybody gets treated the same, but I know that it doesn't always happen.

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Some referees have to think about treating every player the same, even if it's Ronaldinho or another player from a Premiership club. It doesn't matter how good you are: you have to be treated the same.

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So, a flop is basically tricking the referee into thinking somebody fouled you or maybe elbowed you in the face.

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The league is interesting because it's evident everyone can beat everyone. And sometimes things happen you just don't understand. This might be referee decisions or the running paths or passes of a teammate. It's different than in Europe, but you have to take things as they are.

Bastian Schweinsteiger

The Argentinians provoke and are always whingeing to the referee to try and change his opinion. It starts before the match. You see their body language, how they gesticulate, how they try to influence the referee. That is not part of the game. That is a lack of respect. It's their mentality and character, and we'll have to adjust.

Bastian Schweinsteiger

The second season is always easier than the first one. When you change, it's always more difficult. You have to adapt to the way your team plays; you have to adapt to your team-mates, to the league, to the referees.

The fact is that everybody around a college basketball game - the coaches, the announcers, even the referees at a lower level - calculates when the game is really over. They calculate it with intuition and guesswork.

The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.

There's nothing better than a good, blind referee.

Refereeing is always an issue where you want to have the best officials, and I think the referees do their very best in the games, but we always want to improve standards across the league.

Brendan Rodgers

You can't put your arm around the referee! That's ungentlemanly conduct.

Bruce Grobbelaar

We do need maybe younger or more experienced judges but where you can get them I don't know. It's like in football, who would want to be a football referee? You'd just get criticism all the time.

It's the referee's job to stop the fight. I'm in there to win, defend myself, and further my career.

Chris Eubank Jr.

It is always hard when the referee is against you.

Christian Eriksen

We must respect the referee every time.

Claudio Ranieri

The referee will now keep track of the time on the field and the shootouts have finally been banned.

I was a referee in TCW in Carrollton, Georgia, doing Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, and it was 1,000 degrees in there, and it was completely sold out every Friday that we ran it. That was my dad's independent promotion.

At 15, I refereed my first match, and I was training at my dad's school even prior to that, so the only thing that I was concerned about - I guess the only thing that made me reluctant and was the reason I was in L.A. and the reason I went to acting school - was I thought maybe I wasn't big enough - physically big enough - to compete with WWE.

How I hate the Beautiful Game! I hate its cry-baby players and its gruff, joyless managers, its blokish supporters and its sinister owners, its whistle-peeping referees and its chippy little linesmen, its excitable commentators and - perhaps most of all - its unpluggable 'analysts.'

One rule that will work if it is used everywhere, is that when you have a free-kick, the referee puts the mark on the floor to make sure the defenders keep their distance.

Cristiano Ronaldo

English football is different, especially for a goalkeeper. It's more aggressive, more physical. It's far, far harder. The ball is in the air more, and you get pushed about. And the referees don't blow anything!

Having one child makes you a parent; having two, you are a referee.

Just before a fight, as the ring empties, you can feel it. There is danger and loneliness all around you. Soon it's just the three of you in there: the referee, your opponent, and you. You're in a very lonely moment then. But, strangely, that's when I feel most comfortable. The ring becomes my office, and I go to work.

I'm aware that the World Cup is probably the greatest spectacle in the world of sport, and that's despite the referees that have been found to have fixed games specifically.

I would say the referees have the toughest game to call. I would say that there's a lot of officiating done by announcers, local announcers. Sometimes you should listen to a game from both feeds, and you'd think you were listening to completely different games.

I don't like to criticise referees, because I believe it is a very complicated job.

I don't like to criticise referees because I believe it is a very complicated job, and what they do is very beneficial for football.

In England, the referees don't call many fouls, as opposed to Spanish football. Consequently, you must be really strong all through the 90 minutes.

VAR exposes everything. Before we didn't have the possibility of seeing some things that we now see. The referees are people who can be wrong as well.

I went into umpiring at age 16. I got into officiating because of the fact that I could not stand the referees that worked our basketball games.

You don't notice the referee during the game unless he makes a bad call.

English Premier League is much harder and quicker, and also, the referees are totally different because in England, they don't whistle after every small contact like in Germany.

When you see Sir Alex arguing with referees and linesmen, he is showing passion that has taken him to the very highest level of the game.

Edwin van der Sar

We can be tackled but referees are there to police dangerous challenges. Forwards are protected by the laws of the game and the way it's played, while defenders and midfielders have to throw themselves about a bit more.