Andre Marriner ‘was told to leave pitchside at an UNDER NINES game for mouthing off at a ref’
Premier League referee Andre Marriner has been told to leave the pitch at an UNDER NINE game for badmouthing a referee, because his dry humor and calm leave him when he watches his son play.
Andre Marriner was once forced to leave an under 9 game due to his language while watching his son play soccer, according to reports.
The veteran Premier League referee, who denies the claim, has reportedly been ordered away from the touchline for badmouthing the referee in charge of a children’s game, and his habitual whistle-in-hand behavior apparently abandoned him when he was on the touchline.
As a referee, Marriner has a reputation for letting the game unfold and staying relaxed at key moments.
But even one of the most experienced officers in the division has been known to get caught up in the moment when his son is in action. according to The Guardian.
In his own career, Marriner has overseen 386 matches in the English top flight, handing out 1,197 yellow cards and 67 red cards, according to the Premier League.
Andre Marriner was once told to leave the touchline of his son’s U-9 game for reportedly badmouthing the referee.
He could become the third referee to officiate in 400 Premier League games, with only Martin Atkinson and Mike Dean reaching the tally in the past.
The 52-year-old recently compared the level of scrutiny he and his colleagues are subjected to to that of ‘surgeons’.
“I can’t think of any other job where there is as much scrutiny over decision making,” he said. Maybe a surgeon?
England’s top-flight officials are often put under a microscope due to the number of contentious moments and decisions that regularly take place.
The introduction of VAR has only increased the scrutiny of officials, although Marriner maintained that just as the technology is new to players and spectators, it is also new to those charged with implementing it.
“It’s about accumulating the incidents so that there’s a standard of when to interfere,” Marriner said. “Because VAR is new to us, we are learning.”
And perhaps as a result of being forced to make unpopular decisions that can often spell the difference for a team’s fortunes on the day, referees are becoming more akin to “pantomime villains.”
Marriner (left) is reportedly known for his dry humor and his whistle-in-hand calm.
In 386 games in the Premier League, Marriner has handed out 1,197 yellow cards and 67 red cards
After overseeing a 1-1 draw between Everton and Nottingham Forest, Marriner and his team of referees, Simon Long and Richard West, were the butt of light-hearted banter by Everton defender Conor Coady and his sons.
“These are the referees,” the Everton defender began, according to The Guardian, pointing to Marriner. ‘And we don’t like them… Boooooo!’
Although jokingly, these are the kind of jokes and comments that lead West to comment: ‘Referees are the villains of pantomime.
“People think we get paid to show up, ruin everyone’s day and fuck around, but they don’t see all the work we do.”
The weekend’s action was marred by Aleksandar Mitrovic appearing to push referee Chris Kavanagh in Fulham’s 3-1 defeat by Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-final.
Mitrovic faces a lengthy ban after the FA said the standard ban for his red card was “clearly insufficient”.