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Mike Riley (referee)
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Michael Anthony Riley (born is an English football referee from Leeds in West Yorkshire, who oversees matches in the Football League, FA Premier League and for FIFA.
y 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.
Carling Cup Final; 2004
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.
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Encyclopedia
Michael Anthony Riley (born is an English football referee from Leeds in West Yorkshire, who oversees matches in the Football League, FA Premier League and for FIFA.
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.
FA Cup Final; 2002
In 2002, Riley refereed the English FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Chelsea, which he later stated was "the highlight of my career".
Carling Cup Final; 2004
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 five players during the course of the game.
Euro 2004 Championships
Riley also headed England's refereeing team alongside assistants Philip Sharp and Glenn Turner at the UEFA Euro 2004 finals.
Football League Championship playoff final; 2005
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.
Hong Kong FA Cup final; 2007
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.
Criticism
Riley was accused of major refereeing errors in an Arsenal-Manchester United game in 2004, including a controversial penalty when Wayne Rooney went down under a tackle from Sol Campbell despite replays showing very little (or possibly no) contact had been made. The match, which ended Arsenal's long running unbeaten run at the time, led to immense criticism from Arsenal fans and neutrals alike, including an article in the Daily Mail paper using the headline "The Life of Riley".
The former Bolton Wanderers manager, Sam Allardyce, once criticised him after Riley officiated between Blackburn Rovers and his own side on 14 January 2006. Allardyce denied a charge of improper conduct by the FA following his comments, 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."
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".
After Chelsea's 1-0 win at Reading F.C. on October 14 2006, Riley received more criticism, having allowed Petr Cech only to crawl off the field early in the game with what turned out to be a serious head injury.
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." After reviewing video footage the FA confirmed that they would be taking no further action.
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. 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.
In February 2009 in a match between Chelsea and Liverpool, Riley sent off Frank Lampard for a tackle on Xabi Alonso, with the score at 0-0. Liverpool went on to win the game 2-0. Replays however showed that not only had Lampard won the ball cleanly, it could actually be argued that he was fouled by Alonso, and he successfully appealed the red card. In the same game, Steven Gerrard had earlier been involved in 2 potential red card incidents both of which were ignored by the referee. Lampard suggested that referees should take more time to consult with their assistants before making big decisions. In the same match, Riley failed to discipline José Bosingwa for stamping on Yossi Benayoun's back, a blatant foul for which Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari admitted Bosingwa should have been sent off. Because the assistant referee did see this incident and it was included in the match report, the FA were unable to review it to apply retrospective punishment.
Career statistics
| Season | Games | Total | per game | Total | per game |
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| 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)
External links
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