Mike Riley (referee)

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Michael Anthony Riley is an English football referee from West Yorkshire who oversees matches in both the Football League and the FA Premier League. He was born on 17 December 1964. Riley became a national Football League referee in 1994, having previously served five years on their assistant referees' list. He was later granted FIFA status in 1999 allowing him to officiate international fixtures.^[1]

1 FA Cup Final; 2002
2 Carling Cup Final; 2004
3 Euro 2004 Championships
4 Football League Championship playoff final; 2005
5 Controversies
6 References
7 External links

[edit] FA Cup Final; 2002

4 May 2002
	Arsenal	2–0	Chelsea	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 73,963
	Parlour 70' Ljungberg 80' Henry Vieira		Gudjohnsen Le Saux Terry	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 73,963

In 2002, Riley refereed the English FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea, which he later stated was "the highlight of my career"[1].

[edit] Carling Cup Final; 2004

29 February 2004
	Bolton	1–2	Middlesbrough	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 72,634
	Davies 21' Campo Charlton Frandsen		Job 2' Zenden 7' (pen) Boateng Ricketts	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 72,634

Riley took charge of the 2004 Carling Cup final, between Bolton and Middlesbrough, in a game that saw all three goals scored wihtin the first 25 minutes. He awarded a penalty to Middlesbrough after just seven minutes, converted by Job, and booked four players during the course of the game.

[edit] Euro 2004 Championships

14 June 2004
	Sweden	5–0	Bulgaria	Estádio José Alvalade, Portugal Attendance: 52,000
	Ljungberg 32' Larsson 57', 58' Ibrahimovic 78' (pen) Allback 90' Ibrahimovic Linderoth		Ivailo Petkov Jankovic Kirilov	Estádio José Alvalade, Portugal Attendance: 52,000

19 June 2004
	Latvia	0–0	Germany	Estádio do Dragão, Portugal Attendance: 30,000
	Astafjevs Isakovs		Friedrich Frings Hamann	Estádio do Dragão, Portugal Attendance: 30,000

Riley also headed England's refereeing team alongside assistants Philip Sharp and Glenn Turner at the UEFA Euro 2004 finals[2]

[edit] Football League Championship playoff final; 2005

30 May 2005
	West Ham	1–0	Preston	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 70,275
	Zamora 57' Mullins Walker		Hill Mawene	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Attendance: 70,275

Riley officiated the Football League Championship playoff final between West Ham United and Preston North End in 2005. West Ham ran out 1 - 0 victors, seeing them promoted to the Premiership.

[edit] Controversies

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".[3].

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". Allardyce accepted a charge of improper conduct, but insisted that he was being "fined for telling the truth".^{[citation needed]}

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".^{[citation needed]}

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 ordered Petr Čech to crawl off the field early in the game with what turned out to be a serious head injury.^{[citation needed]}

Recently broke the record for most yellow cards in a single UEFA champions league m,atch between Olympique Lyonnais and AS Roma, where he booked a total of 11 players (8 for AS Roma, 3 for Lyon)^{[citation needed]}