RUFC – Ref Watch v Stoke City

The Referee chosen to officiate at Tuesday’s Carling Cup 4th round tie between Stoke City and Rotherham United at the Britannia Stadium is…

MARK HALSEY from Lancashire

Born on July 8th 1961,Mark R. Halsey was formerly based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, before moving to Bolton, Lancashire.

Mark spent 12 years playing non-league football before he started refereeing in 1989. In December 1984 he played one game for Barnet before joining St Albans City and in the early 1990s Halsey trained with Barnet in Potters Bar to keep himself prepared for the rigours of officiating top flight games.

Halsey has been a National List referee for the Football League since 1996.
He refereed the 1999 Football League One Play-off Final between Gillingham and Manchester City at Wembley on May 30, 1999, when City won 3-1 on penalties, the match finishing 2-2 after extra time.
Also in that year, he was promoted to Premier League referee, his first match in this competition being the 1-1 draw between Wimbledon and Coventry City on August 14, 1999.

In 2000, he was added to the FIFA List of referees, officiating in the Toulon Under-21 tournament in the same year. In 2001 he was a referee for the football tournament at the World Student Games in Beijing, and in 2002 at the FIFA World Disabled Championships, held in Japan.



Also in 2002, he was appointed as fourth official to Mike Riley for the FA Cup Final on May 4, 2002 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, where Arsenal defeated Chelsea 2-0.

In 2004, he took control of his first major FIFA appointment, the match between Belgium and France.

Last season he took charge of 2 major games at Wembley Stadium.
Firstly the FA Community Shield which Manchester United won on penalties against Chelsea.
He booked 4 players that day, Ben Haim, Obe Mikel and Carvalho from Chelsea, added to Rooney of United.
Later last season he officiated at the Carling Cup Final between Spurs and Chelsea won by Tottenham 2 goals to 1.
Yellow cards were shown to Chelsea’s,Obi and Carvalho, with Zokora, Tainio, Lennon and Jenas of Spurs also being booked.

Marks most recent appointment to a Millers game was on 13th November 2004, as he took charge of our 2-1 defeat v Wolves at Millmoor, a game which saw no cards being shown



Career Record
1997/98 42 games 161 yellows (3.83 per game) 5 reds
1998/99 46 games 111 yellows (2.41 per game) 2 reds
1999/00 38 games 96 yellows (2.52 per game) 8 reds
2000/01 33 games 101 yellows (3.06 per game) 10 reds
2001/02 37 games 118 yellows (3.18 per game) 7 reds
2002/03 34 games 75 yellows (2.20 per game) 6 reds
2003/04 41 games 81 yellows (1.97 per game) 5 reds
2004/05 32 games 60 yellows (1.87 per game) 2 reds
2005/06 38 games 54 yellows (1.42 per game) 6 reds
2006/07 42 games 103 yellows (2.45 per game) 9 reds
2007/08 41 games 86 yellows (2.09 per game) 5 reds

So far this season Mark has taken charge of 10 games, shown 14 yellows and just 1 red.
6 of the bookings came in the 1-1 draw between Chester and Shrewsbury on September 20th.
His most recent appointment was Saturday’s game which saw Everton score 3 late goals to beat West Ham 3-1 at Upton Park.
The Hammers Matthew Etherington and Everton’s Jolean Lescott were booked by Halsey.

He will be assisted at Stoke by….
Nigel Bannister from East Midlands
Andy M Garrett from West Midlands

The fourth official will be…
Scott W Mathieson from Cheshire

Thanks to Zipadeedoodah for the ref watch article