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Regaling Refereeing Memories – Part Two

Step forward the real John Rowbotham

In the second part of our feature on John Rowbotham’s visit to our Dunfermline Club recently, John delves further into his refereeing memories, focusing on officiating on an international level. 

Arguably the peak of John’s career was when he was awarded his FIFA badge which enabled him to travel abroad for international games, representing Scotland - a proud moment indeed.  He was overwhelmed with the honour saying: “I was just a laddie from Kirkcaldy who supported Raith Rovers”. But he did his hometown and Scotland proud. 

Milan gets the size right 

European games were a totally different league when it came to looking after the officials.  A trip to Milan was a real eye opener as he and his fellow officials were shown to the hotel – no dingy wee box room for them!  A suite (each) with a jacuzzi and in the middle of the floor a massive AC Milan kit bag.  At first John thought it was a mistake, he had the room of someone important. In the bag there was all sorts of AC Milan clothing, boots and trainers and all in the right size. To this day John hasn’t a clue how they knew which size to get. 

Now before anyone assumes this sort of thing was bribery, it is actually tradition.  When John and fellow officials travelled abroad they took gifts – usually a bottle of whisky for the various host officials. John proudly showed off a glass model car which he received in Anderlecht. (It was very heavy!)   

The story he told was that after the welcome lunch to Anderlecht, he and his fellow officials were taken to a giant Adidas store.  Now this store had all the top-level sporting gear and as John browsed the shelves a young assistant was with him making polite conversation enquiring about his family.  When John got back to his hotel room, there was this massive brown box waiting for him with everything he had admired at the shop.  But John had been forewarned this might happen when the night before they left home, a fellow, more experienced official called him and said: “Have you got a suitcase that would fit into another one?  Well, pack that then because you will need it to get home!”   

And so it was that John came back with all this top of the range Adidas gear not just for him but for his family too!  Kinda’ puts a bottle of whisky into the shade... 

Anchors and Popcorn 

Another memorable European trip was to Hungary when the local Chief of Police of the home team town asked to meet with the officials.  John hadn’t a clue why but on arriving at the Chief’s office there, on the floor, was a whole range of clubs, batons and weapons.  The strangest two were a ship’s anchor and a bag of popcorn.  The anchor had been smuggled into the ground in a backpack and the popcorn bag hid smoke bombs.  All of this weaponry was what was confiscated from fans during the previous season.  Needless to say, John and his fellow officials were very, very careful that match! 

Doppelganger 

You might have noticed that John has a resemblance to the famous Italian referee Pierluigi Collina - not least the bald heads.  John and Pierluigi both started their UEFA careers at the same time and were interviewed on Dutch TV together.  Though how they ended up on stage doing Karaoke as The Blues Brothers complete with dark sunglasses remains the stuff of legend. 

No need for Specsavers 

Did you know that referees and assistants get marked for each match by supervisors.  Officials are expected to maintain at least a 75% and above performance rate.  Anything under results in a quiet word about improvement, anything over means better chances of getting some of the premium games like a cup final.  Both John and our ex-referee members did remark that possibly the harder job was linesman on the dugout side when ‘pieces of advice’ are hurtled from the dugouts.  

The next time you are tempted to advise the ref and his team to get Specsavers, remember they are already getting marked from their supervisors! 

There were many more stories told during a wonderful session at Dunfermline and we are so grateful that John took the time to stop by.  In fact John is one of our staunchest supporters, visiting clubs when requested and helping us out at events when he takes the floor as compere.   

John Rowbotham – what a star!