Howard Webb

Howard Webb

Howard Melton Webb , MBE (born July 14, 1971 in Rotherham ) is a retired English football referee .

Career

Originally a police officer, Webb joined the local Rotherham League as a referee in 1989. From 1993 he was assigned to games in the Northern Counties East Football League , initially as a linesman . From 1996 he directed games in the lower professional league, the Football League . He made his debut in the top English league, the Premier League , in October 2003. At national level, the management of the English Supercup final of 2005 and the League Cup were his highlights. Chelsea FC defeated London local rivals Arsenal FC 2-1 in both games .

In 2005 he became a FIFA referee and in November he chaired his first international match, a friendly between Northern Ireland and Portugal . In September 2006 he whistled his first UEFA Champions League game. In December 2007 he was nominated as one of twelve referees for the 2008 European Football Championship . His assistants at this tournament were Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey, with whom he directed the games between co-hosts Austria and Poland and between Greece and Spain . Due to a penalty decision in the last minute of the Austria-Poland match for Austria, which resulted in Austria's equalization, he was the victim of defamation in the Polish public (including Prime Minister Donald Tusk ) and even death threats. As a result, the security measures to protect the referees were strengthened at this tournament .

After he was nominated for the Confederations Cup in 2009, he was also nominated for the 2010 World Cup a year later . He led the final of the Champions League 2009/10 in Madrid, which Inter Milan won 2-0 against FC Bayern Munich . Less than two months after this appearance in the Champions League final, the Englishman also led the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands. The very tough game led to a new warning record in a World Cup final: With 13 yellow cards (8 for the Dutch and 5 for the Spaniards) he beat Romualdo Arppi Filho's (Brazil) record from the Argentina - Germany game World Cup 1986 (4 × yellow for Argentina, 2 × yellow for Germany). For his performance in the World Cup final, Webb was heavily criticized by both the Dutch and Spanish sides. Die “Welt” described the decision not to immediately send the Dutch player Nigel de Jong off the pitch after a kung-fu kick against Xabi Alonso as a blatant mistake .

2011 Webb was on a proposal by British Prime Minister David Cameron the award Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), the lowest level of the Order, for his "services to football."

On December 20, 2011, UEFA announced that Webb had been nominated as one of twelve referees to oversee the matches at the 2012 European Football Championship .

In 2013 Webb then took part in the Confederations Cup, where, among other things, he led a semi-final. He also flew to Brazil in the summer of 2014 to lead games at the World Cup.

After the World Cup in Brazil, where Webb directed two games, he ended his career as a referee after 25 years. In the future, Webb will work as technical director of the English referees association PGMOL.

Howard Webb lives in Rotherham, South Yorkshire . He was a sergeant with the South Yorkshire Police in Sheffield before starting to work as a professional umpire. He is involved with the police in a project that uses football to get children off the streets.

Webb is one of the most recognized referees in football. He received confirmation of this as two-time "World Referee of the Year" (2010 and 2013), an award from the International Federation of Football History & Statistics .

Trivia

The documentary Referees at Work , in which a number of referee teams were accompanied during EURO 2008, also covers Howard Webb and the consequences of his decision for a penalty kick.

Howard Webb is in a relationship with the German referee Bibiana Steinhaus .

Tournaments

• 2006 European Under-21 Football Championship in Portugal (3 appearances)
• U-20 World Cup 2007 in Canada (5 appearances)
• European Football Championship 2008 in Austria and Switzerland (2 appearances):

phase	date	Venue	Home team	Visiting team	Result
Group stage	June 12, 2008	Vienna	Austria	Poland	1: 1 (0: 1)
Group stage	June 18, 2008	Salzburg	Greece	Spain	1: 2 (1: 0)

• Soccer World Cup 2010 in South Africa (4 appearances):

phase	date	Venue	Home team	Visiting team	Result
Group stage	June 16, 2010	Durban	Spain	Switzerland	0: 1 (0: 0)
Group stage	June 24, 2010	Johannesburg	Slovakia	Italy	3: 2 (1: 0)
Round of 16	June 28, 2010	Johannesburg	Brazil	Chile	3: 0 (2: 0)
final	July 11, 2010	Johannesburg	Netherlands	Spain	0: 1 a.d. (0: 0)

• European Football Championship 2012 in Poland and Ukraine (3 appearances):

phase	date	Venue	Home team	Visiting team	Result
Group stage	0June 8, 2012	Wroclaw	Russia	Czech Republic	4: 1 (2: 0)
Group stage	June 14, 2012	Poses	Italy	Croatia	1: 1 (1: 0)
Quarter finals	June 21, 2012	Warsaw	Czech Republic	Portugal	0: 1 (0: 0)

• FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 (2 appearances):

phase	date	Venue	Home team	Visiting team	Result
Group stage	19th June 2013	Fortaleza	Brazil	Mexico	02: 0 (1: 0)
Semifinals	June 27, 2013	Fortaleza	Spain	Italy	07: 6 i. E. (0: 0 a.d.)

• Football World Cup 2014 in Brazil (2 appearances):

phase	date	Venue	Home team	Visiting team	Result
Group stage	19th June 2014	Brasília	Colombia	Ivory Coast	2: 1 (0: 0)
Round of 16	June 28, 2014	Belo Horizonte	Brazil	Chile	3: 2 i. E. (1: 1 a.d.)

Web links

Commons : Howard Webb  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Profile on FIFA ( Memento from September 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Guardian, May 20, 2010: "England's Howard Webb to referee Champions League final"
2. ↑ 11Freunde.de, June 15, 2008: Webb admits errors and reacts calmly ( Memento from July 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ Howard Webb given honor of refereeing World Cup final , The Guardian article , July 8, 2010
4. ^ Criticism in the newspaper DIE WELT
5. ↑ thefa.com: Howard Webb awarded an MBE (December 31, 2010)
6. ↑ Referee appointed for UEFA EURO 2012 ( Memento from June 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ spiegel.de: "End of career of the star referee: Webb whistles off" (August 6, 2014)
8. ↑ World Referee of the Year 2013. In: fussball-wm-total.de. FOOTBALL WORLD CUP total, January 8, 2014, accessed on January 8, 2014 . 
9. ↑ Bibiana Steinhaus loves English star referees on welt.de.