LET'S SEE IF YOU CAN DO BETTER!

STEVE Baines was something of a pioneer.

- Gregor ROBERTSON

The first former professional footballer of note to become a referee. The Newark-born centre-half made almost 450 League appearances for Nottingham Forest, Huddersfield Town, Bradford City, Walsall, Bury, Scunthorpe United and Chesterfield. Then one morning, soon after his retirement in 1987, he opened up his paper and came across an article that piqued his interest.

The former Liverpool defender, Tommy Smith, and the former Chelsea defender, Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris, were talking about how they thought ex-pros would make good referees. Not a bad idea that, Baines thought. And so he signed up for a course at his local FA, and took up the challenge.

Seven years later, he was officiating in the Football League. Historically – and until very recently – climbing the ranks to that level had taken refs a decade or more. But Baines reckoned his playing experience gave him an edge. “It’s about knowledge, recognition. You understand what’s going off, what’s coming next,” Baines, who refereed in the Football League for eight years, told me last year. “I’d done all the things the players had done. I’d been in their boots.”

Thirty years later, Baines, who turns 70 this month, remains the only fully-fledged professional footballer to have become a referee. Maybe though, with the standard of officiating under scrutiny like never before, that could soon be about to change. More than 120 PFA members have issued an interest in a new “Player to Referee” course being piloted by the players’ union and Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). In the coming weeks, that number will be whittled down to a chosen 12.