Mike Riley (referee)

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Mike Riley
Personal information
Full name	Michael Anthony Riley
Date of birth	December 17, 1964 (1964-12-17) (age 43)
Place of birth	West Yorkshire, England
Domestic
Years	League	Role
1989-1994 1994-1996 1996-	Football League Football League Premier League	Asst. referee Referee Referee
International
1999-	FIFA listed	Referee

Michael Anthony Riley (born December 17, 1964) is an English football referee from Leeds^[1] in West Yorkshire, who oversees matches in the Football League, FA Premier League and for FIFA.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 FA Cup Final; 2002 1.2 Carling Cup Final; 2004 1.3 Euro 2004 Championships 1.4 Football League Championship playoff final; 2005 1.5 Hong Kong FA Cup final; 2007 1.6 Criticism 2 Career statistics 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Career

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.^[2]

[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

In 2002, Riley refereed the English FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea, which he later stated was "the highlight of my career".^[3]

[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

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 Zenden, 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' Ibrahimović  78' (pen) Allbäck  90' Ibrahimović Linderoth		Ivailo Petkov Jankovic Kirilov

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

Riley also headed England's refereeing team alongside assistants Philip Sharp and Glenn Turner at the UEFA Euro 2004 finals.^[4]

[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

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] Hong Kong FA Cup final; 2007

19 May 2007	South China	3–1	Happy Valley	Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong Attendance: 6,427
	Detinho  22' (pen) Chan Chi Hong  27' Cheng Siu Wai  85' Lee Chi Ho		Poon Yiu Cheuk  48' (pen) De Souza

Riley was invited to go to Hong Kong to take charge of the Hong Kong FA Cup 2006-07 final between South China and Happy Valley in 2007. South China won by 3-1, allowing them to achieve a treble in local competitions (First Division League, Senior Shield and FA Cup. Riley gave three penalty kicks in the match, two for South China and one for Happy Valley.^[5]

[edit] Criticism

Riley was accused of major refereeing errors in an Arsenal-Manchester United game in 2004, which ended Arsenal's long running unbeaten run at the time, with the Daily Mail paper version reportedly using the headline "The Life of Riley".^[6]

The former Bolton Wanderers manager, Sam Allardyce, once criticised him after Riley officiated between Blackburn Rovers and his own side on 14 January 2006.^[7] Allardyce denied a charge of improper conduct by the FA following his comments^[8], but was found guilty at a personal hearing, fined £2000, severely censured and warned as to his future conduct. Following the match Allardyce had said: "The stats just don't stand up when he referees us. In my opinion, it is not good enough - he nearly caused a riot." Opposing manager Mark Hughes had partly agreed, saying: "Both sides would argue the referee didn't have his best game but can't argue about the sending off."^[9]

He was involved in controversy on 30 March 2006 after the sending off of 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".^[10]

After Chelsea's 1-0 win at Reading F.C. on October 14, 2006, Riley received more criticism, having allowed Petr Čech only to crawl off the field early in the game with what turned out to be a serious head injury.^[11]

In a lighter vein, during the first half of the home match against Newcastle on 30 April 2007 Kingsley Royal, the Reading club mascot, was sent from the field by the referee for standing too close to the pitch. It was reported that one of Riley's assistants mistook Kingsley for one of the players and almost flagged him for offside. A spokesman for the FA said: "The referee reported to us that the mascot made a number of inflammatory gestures. I don't know what the gestures were and we are now making further enquiries and will look at video evidence."^[12] After reviewing video footage the FA confirmed that they would be taking no further action.^[13]

In a Euro 2008 qualifying match between Albania and Holland on September 12, 2007, Riley denied Albania a goal in the last minutes of the first half when Dutch defender Mario Melchiot headed a ball behind his own goalkeeper after an Albanian free kick. Riley cancelled the goal and gave a free kick to Holland. He was also said to have finished the game two minutes early, due to fireworks being thrown from the spectators' area.^[14] The criticism in the Albanian media and from the Albanian players was very harsh. The Albanian Football Federation decided to file an official complaint with UEFA. ^[15]

[edit] Career statistics

Season	Games	Total	per game	Total	per game
1997/1998	28	87	3.11	3	0.11
1998/1999	23	81	3.52	7	0.30
1999/2000	28	93	3.32	9	0.32
2000/2001	36	141	3.92	9	0.25
2001/2002	31	117	3.77	19	0.61
2002/2003	33	105	3.18	7	0.21
2003/2004	38	130	3.42	6	0.16
2004/2005	39	117	3.00	11	0.28
2005/2006	42	147	3.50	13	0.31
2006/2007	43	145	3.37	13	0.30
2007/2008	37	124	3.35	6	0.16

(There are no available records prior to 1997/1998)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mike Riley Referee Statistics at soccerbase.com

Preceded by Graham Barber	FA Charity Shield 2000	Succeeded by Andy D'Urso
Preceded by Steve Dunn	FA Cup Final Referee 2002	Succeeded by Graham Barber
Preceded by Paul Durkin	Carling Cup Final 2004	Succeeded by Steve Bennett