Rodger Gifford

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Rodger Gifford
Personal information
Full name Rodger Gifford
Date of birth April 12, 1948 (1948-04-12) (age 60)
Place of birth    Llanbradach, Mid Glamorgan, Wales
Other occupation    National referees' officer
Domestic
Years League Role
1976-1984
1984-1992
1992-1996		 Football League
Football League
Premier League		 Linesman
Referee
Referee
International
1986-1995 FIFA and UEFA listed Referee

Rodger Gifford (born April 12, 1948[citation needed]) is a Welsh former football referee in the English Football League, Premier League, and member of the Welsh FIFA List. During his time on the List he was based in Llanbradach in Mid Glamorgan. He currently works for the Football Association of Wales.

Contents

[edit] Career

Gifford became a Football League linesman in 1976 at the age of twenty eight. However, it was another eight seasons before he progressed to the Referees List. Nevertheless, he did referee almost the whole of one (old) Football League First Division game long before that, on September 15, 1979, when fellow Welshman Clive Thomas had to go off injured after only two minutes of the 0-0 draw between Bristol City and Stoke City,[1] and Gifford took over, having been the appointed senior linesman.†

Thomas retired in 1984 and, as he left the List, Gifford was one of the new intake. Within two years, he was officiating in Europe, as he took charge of the friendly fixture between Northern Ireland and Denmark at Windsor Park, Belfast, on March 23, 1986, which ended 1-1.[2]

Domestically, he was involved in a notable incident in a match at the City Ground on March 3, 1990, when Manchester City goalkeeper Andy Dibble had the ball in his right hand waiting to clear upfield. Nottingham Forest winger Gary Crosby headed it out of his grasp and kicked the ball into the goal.[3] Gifford ruled that this was fair (correctly following guidelines for the Laws of that era), and it proved to be the only goal of the game.‡ A few days later, he took charge of the most senior European tie of his career, as R.F.C. Liégeois played Werder Bremen in a UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg.[4]

Later in the year, he was involved in a European match where a streaker ran across the pitch, despite conditions of "intense cold". This was during the European Cup Winners Cup Second Round first leg tie between Fram Reykjavík of Iceland and FC Barcelona on October 23, 1990, which the Catalan side won 2-1 with ten men, due to the dismissal of Fernando Muñoz in the 53rd minute.[5]

He took charge of one of the decisive games of the 1991-92 season when Manchester United visited Anfield on April 26, 1992, needing to win to keep alive their hopes of winning the League title. However, Liverpool beat them 2-0,[6] and thereby confirmed Leeds United as the last of the "old" First Division champions.

He was included as one of the referees for the new Premier League which started the following season (1992-93), his first match in the competition being the 2-1 win over Middlesbrough by Southampton at The Dell on August 29, 1992.[7] He retained his position in the top league for the next three seasons before returning to the Football League.

Whilst still officiating in the Premier League on February 1, 1995, he issued the fastest ever red card (at that time)[8] when Blackburn goalkeeper Tim Flowers was dismissed after 72 seconds of the match, for a foul on Brian Deane of Leeds United during the 1-1 draw at Ewood Park.[9] After the match, a fan attempted to attack Gifford.[10]

He refereed his most senior domestic Cup tie in his final season, as Birmingham City defeated Norwich City 2-1 in a Coca Cola Cup quarter-final replay on January 24, 1996.[11]

He has since become a referees' assessor,[12] a UEFA Referee Observer,[13] and the National Referees Officer for the Welsh FA.[14] At the end of 2006, in response to an impending shortage of assistant referees at Cymru Alliance League level, he circulated a letter informing leagues of the initiation of an FA of Wales referee recruitment drive.[15]

[edit] References

[edit] Print

  • Football League Handbooks, 1976-1983
  • †Match magazine ("Match Facts"), September 22, 1979
  • Rothmans Football Yearbooks, 1984-1996 (‡1990 edition, p43)
  • Romeo Ionescu (2004) The Complete Results Of the UEFA Cup, 1971-1991, Soccerbooks Limited

[edit] Internet

  1. ^ Bristol City v. Stoke City, old First Division, 1979: soccerbase.com website.
  2. ^ Northern Ireland v. Denmark, European international friendly match, 1986: srcf.ucam.org statistical website.
  3. ^ Gary Crosby's "header", Man City v. Nottm Forest, 1990: Crosby's profile at the BurtonAlbion.com website.
  4. ^ Liégeois v. Werder Bremen, UEFA Cup quarter-final, 1990: EnglishFootballArchive.com website.
  5. ^ Fram v. Barcelona, Cup Winners' Cup, 1990-91: Linguasport.com website.
  6. ^ Liverpool v. Man United, old First Division, 1992: soccerbase.com website.
  7. ^ First ever Premier League match, 1992: soccerbase.com website.
  8. ^ Fastest red card at that time, Blackburn v. Leeds, 1995: from an article at the Guardian Unlimited website.
  9. ^ Blackburn v. Leeds result: soccerbase.com website.
  10. ^ Fan attack in the same match: report from The Independent website, via the FindArticles service.
  11. ^ Coca Cola Cup quarter-final replay, January 1996: soccerbase.com website.
  12. ^ Referees' Assessor: mention from the Welsh Premier League Football website.
  13. ^ UEFA Referee Observer: mention in match report from the UEFA.com website.
  14. ^ Welsh FA National Referees Officer: mention in a HTML-based cached version of the Monmouthshire Referees online PDF newsletter (01-2004).
  15. ^ Referee recruitment drive in Wales, 2006-07: Gifford's letter, published at the Cymru Alliance League website.

[edit] External links