Mike Riley (referee)

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Michael Anthony Riley is an English referee from West Yorkshire who oversees matches in both the Football League and the FA Premier League. Riley became a national Football League referee in 1994, having previously served five years on their assistant referees list. He was later granted FIFA international status in 1999[1] allowing him to officiate international fixtures.

In 2002 Riley refereed the English FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea, which he later stated was "the highlight of my career"[2]. He also officiated in the 2004 Carling Cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough FC and the 2005 Football League Championship playoff final between West Ham United and Preston North End. Riley also headed England's refereeing team alongside assistants Philip Sharp and Glenn Turner at the UEFA Euro 2004 finals[3]

Riley was involved in controversy on 30 March 2006 after the dubious sending off a Levski player in a UEFA Cup 2005-06 quarter final tie, Levski vs Schalke. He showed a second yellow card to Cedric Bardon, although it was disputed whether there was any contact between him and the opposition player. After the game, Levski's president Todor Batkov called Riley a "British homosexual".[4].

The Bolton Wanderers manager, Sam Allardyce also recently criticised him after he officiated between Blackburn Rovers and his side, saying: "The stats just don't stand up when he referees us [Bolton]. In my opinion, it is not good enough - he nearly caused a riot. He's refereed us seven times and we've had five players sent off, four in the first half. Those stats say it all, it's blatant inconsistency - in my opinion simply not good enough." Opposing manager Mark Hughes agreed, saying "Both sides would argue the referee didn't have his best game".

He also controversially made major refereeing errors in an Arsenal-Manchester United game, which ended Arsenal's long running unbeaten run at the time, with the Daily Mail using the headline "The Life of Riley".

Allardyce accepted a charge of improper conduct, but insisted that he was being "fined for telling the truth". Riley does have his fans however. He is especially well-liked by Chelsea's José Mourinho, and has often been accused of favouritism towards Chelsea, most notably in their controversial 1-0 win at Reading F.C on October 14, 2006, where one respected observer noted that his 'bias towards Chelsea came close to causing a riot.' After the same game however Riley received wider criticism for when he early in the game ordered Petr Čech to crawl off the field with what turned out to be a serious head injury.