From Declan Rice’s red card for kicking the ball away to Dean Henderson’s handball escape in the FA Cup final, every TV pundit and armchair viewer has voiced their opinion on a turbulent season for referees.
But none has the authority of Steve Baines, the only man to have both played and officiated at a professional level.
Baines began at Nottingham Forest alongside European Cup winners and spent 14 years as a dependable defender, playing nearly 500 games and gaining two promotions.
His second career as a ref started in the Chesterfield Sunday League for match fees of £10, eventually graduating to the Football League until his retirement in 2003.
His record of showing only four red cards in eight years indicated a level of man-management and common sense many would say is lacking today.
Baines has watched a series of controversial, and at times unfathomable, incidents with bewilderment, either watching from home or visiting his local team, Chesterfield.
Steve Baines has the rather unique authority of knowing life as a player and an official at the top level
His second career as a ref started in the Chesterfield Sunday League for match fees of £10
A number of Premier League clubs have been unimpressed by the standard of officiating in the top flight
With the PGMOL anxious to accelerate more former pros into the middle, Baines is sure his experience of having played the game was advantageous.
‘Red and yellow cards are there to aid control which thankfully I didn’t need to use too often,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘I could manage people and had empathy. There weren’t many I couldn’t turn around even if they got irate.
‘I pulled a few over. Michael Brown at Sheffield United went in on somebody. I called him over and he said “What are you on about.” I replied: “Listen pal, you can’t kid a kidder. I’ve done that myself!”
‘Alex Rae at Sunderland spent one game ranting and raving, waving his arms around. I told him I was going to rip them off and stick up his arse! He did a double-take and went “Oh, alright ref!”
‘Now they waft cards around like confetti. That’s not control – that’s about “Look at me!”
‘Good referees aren’t really noticed, it’s about players entertaining the public.
‘Yet, at the same time, some still can’t recognise a seriously dangerous tackle. James Tarkowski on Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside derby was a leg-snapper.’
Baines is 70 but in amazing shape due to a fitness regime that includes a hundred squats a day and three-minute planks.
PGMOL chief Howard Webb is keen to accelerate more former pros into second careers as referees
James Tarkowski somehow escaped a red card for his horror tackle on Alexis Mac Allister in the Merseyside derby
It’s no surprise to learn that, as a referee, he’d be bare-chested when managers and captains dropped off their team sheets before games.
It was part of his personal presentation, showing how serious he was about his conditioning.
Those who did came up against someone who’d survived the hard schools of Chesterfield, Bradford, Scunthorpe and Walsall.
‘We laugh about it now but when Nobby (Brian) Horton was manager of Port Vale, he complained all game. When he wanted to make a substitution, I told the linesman I’d deal with it.
‘I walked over to Nobby and shouted: “You twat, get back in your box”. He said I couldn’t talk to him like that and I replied “I just fucking have done!”
‘Now you’d get in bother but that is how the football industry is. I liken it to the shop floor.
‘I was a novelty, being a former player. For my debut, Sky came and asked to mike me up. I said
“No thanks, I want to do more than one game!”
Baines is 70 but in amazing shape due to a fitness regime that includes a hundred squats a day and three-minute planks
Behind the tales is a serious point about today’s referees. Baines accepts it’s harder than ever because players are prepared to cheat each other, doing anything to win.
Last year, the PGMOL started a “player to match official” programme with the PFA. Those former pros accepted from the 120 applicants are already taking charge of grassroots games, the list including. Chris Birchall (ex-Coventry), Liam Trotter (Bolton), Carl Baker (MK Dons) and Anthony Griffiths (Port Vale).
Those who show aptitude could be officiating in the EFL from 2027/28.
Baines feels support from the refereeing hierarchy wasn’t there in his day with the authorities reluctant to allow former players in.
‘In my third season on the list, my assessments were top level, only one official was better than me but I was never offered a Premier League game.
‘And we all had to retire at 50, thankfully that rule is gone.
‘As I left, another referee from our area, Howard Webb, was starting. He’s the top man now. I tried to help him and I think he took on board the way I looked after myself physically and presented myself.’
Today’s referees at the top can earn £150,000 a year, a far cry from Baines’ era when he worked for a Swinton Insurance franchise in Mansfield throughout.
Baines accepts it’s harder than ever because players are prepared to cheat each other
Neither did his playing career bring a fortune despite starting out at Forest pre-Brian Clough with John Robertson, Tony Woodcock, Martin O’Neill and Viv Anderson, who all went on to win the European Cup.
By then, Baines was at Bradford and jokes: ‘They went one way, I went the other! I used to give Tony a lift to training because he didn’t have a car.’
After reading a newspaper article by 1970s icons Tommy Smith and Ron “Chopper” Harris about referees, Baines gave it a go. He was good and made the league list in six years, half the average time.
Before a game at Rochdale, he reminded the chairman he’d once applied for the manager’s job there, but had been passed over for Jimmy Greenhoff.
‘I saw refereeing as a challenge. It’s like driving. You can pass your tests but it’s only by doing it that you really learn.
‘I had this ability to manage people. I’d played against a lot of the managers I came up against. I enjoyed it. I had a laugh.’
There is a picture to back that up. When Manchester United played Chesterfield in John Duncan’s testimonial, Baines was the referee. After Roy Keane let rip at someone else, he couldn’t help finding it funny as the United captain continued to scowl.
He sees some of that fun has gone. ‘It is a massive industry and the players don’t help themselves,’ adds Baines.
In March, Man City were left bemused by the decision to show Jeremy Doku a yellow card for a dive
When Baines goes to Chesterfield, he hears anecdotally that the man in the middle is getting close to £500 for the game
‘I hear pundits talking about buying a penalty, it is just another word for cheating. In that sense, I have sympathy for the officials.
‘Then again, when they talk about minimal contact or VAR, it’s a nonsense when you have the same people sat there in Stubley Bottom or wherever it is making the decisions.
‘Some aren’t recognising what is going on. If I saw players go over, it got my goat but I’d laugh at them.
‘I got to the point where I’d see how long I could go without blowing my whistle. My record was 26 minutes at Maine Road and that was only because someone scored a goal.
‘It was beautiful, all the fans enjoying the game without interruption, singing Blue Moon.’
When Baines goes to Chesterfield, he hears anecdotally that the man in the middle is getting close to £500 for the game. He remembers leaving his house at five o’clock in the morning to take charge of Exeter-Torquay on Boxing Day for less than half.
‘Geoff Miller, the former England cricketer, is a friend of mine and can’t understand why more players haven’t become referees. A lot of cricketers are umpires and understand all the sledging and everything else.
‘It is highly unlikely that any household name will become a refteee. They are earning too much to start again in the local Saturday and Sunday leagues.
‘But for EFL players, things might be changing. It definitely helps to have played the game to referee. I look forward to not being the only one.’
