Andy D'Urso

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Andrew Paul D'Urso is an English football referee in the FA Premier League who is famous for an incident where he awarded a penalty against Manchester United in a game versus Middlesbrough at Old Trafford and was pursued by a group of Manchester United players.

D'Urso was first promoted onto the Football League in 1994; it took a further 5 seasons for him to be promoted onto the Premier League list. In 2001 he was nominated for FIFA status, officiating in a full international in May 2004 when the Republic of Ireland met Nigeria.

1 Manchester United v Middlesbrough, 2000
2 Southampton v Blackburn Rovers, 2004
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Manchester United v Middlesbrough, 2000

D'Urso is most well-known for two incidents that have derailed what was a promising career. On 29 January 2000 while refereeing the game between Manchester United and Middlesbrough, D'Urso awarded Middlesbrough a penalty kick when Juninho Paulista was tackled by Jaap Stam. Upon awarding the kick, five Manchester United players (Roy Keane, Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Jaap Stam and Gary Neville) chased D'Urso to object to the decision; the resulting image freely circulated by the media. D'Urso said of the incident: "It was my first season in the Premier League, my first time refereeing Manchester United and my first time at Old Trafford. With more experience I would have stood my ground. I kept saying 'go away', but the further back I walked the more they walked on. A more experienced referee would not have retreated. But there are no grudges. I've refereed Roy Keane on a number of occasions since without a problem."^[1] Several players, notably, Keane and Stam, have since voiced their regret of the incident.

He was selected to referee the FA Charity Shield game between Liverpool and Manchester United in 2001, in which he awarded a first half penalty against Roy Keane.

[edit] Southampton v Blackburn Rovers, 2004

D'Urso was dropped from the 'Select Group' of match referees by the Football Association in the summer of 2005. This announcement followed an incident at the St Mary's Stadium, Southampton between Southampton and Blackburn Rovers on 21 August 2004. In the closing minutes of the game and having awarded a penalty-kick against Blackburn, the Rovers' captain and Scotland international, Barry Ferguson was seen by D'Urso to have kicked the ball away. D'Urso cautioned the player for delaying the restart by raising the card in his direction without confirming the player's identity. Ferguson had already been cautioned in the second half of the game and therefore had to have been sent from the field of play. Southampton eventually won the game 3-2, James Beattie converting the penalty.

Following Beattie's goal the fourth official, Keith Hill brought the above to D'Urso's attention before the restart but after the penalty had been scored. D'Urso failed to act on his advice. The Football Association suspended D'Urso for 28 days from 27 August 2004 until 23 September 2004 and suspended Ferguson for one-match^[2], after which he vowed to carry on with his refereeing career^[3]. D'Urso appealed, successfully, against the decision to relegate him from the Select Group but he was not selected for a single Premiership match in the 2005-06 season.

Up to January 2006, D'Urso had refereed only 11 Premier League games since that incident.

He is based in Billericay, Essex.