VETERAN referee Mike Stoddart reckons he has dished out the most cards — after 4,500 games.
Mike, 69, has sent off 689 players and booked 4,387 in his 47-year career.
He has officiated at all levels but his scariest moment came when he was chased by a pub team’s fans in Leeds who were denied the title by a controversial late goal.
He said: “Fifty of them ran on the pitch. I legged it and hid in the cellar of a nearby pub.”
He told how he was confronted by Alex Ferguson after he disallowed a goal for Manchester United in 1992 when they were chasing Leeds, managed by Howard Wilkinson.
He said: “Alex came storming into the ref’s room and, knowing I was from Leeds, said, “Howard Wilkinson will be happy with you now’.”
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He revealed Alan Shearer swore at him while playing for Blackburn, then repeatedly apologised.
Mike recalled: “I said, ‘Excuse me Mr Shearer, my father is a vicar and he doesn’t allow swearing’. He was mortified and said, ‘I’m so sorry’.
“He came over at half time to apologise again. What he didn’t know was my father wasn’t a vicar, he was a church organist.”
He was famously photographed as a linesman in 1997 being confronted nose to nose by Middlesbrough star Fabrizio Ravanelli after repeatedly flagging him offside.
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The fiery Italian got a red card and Mike said: “He didn’t say a word. He just stared.”
He once reffed 205 games in one season — but it ended in divorce, with Mike saying: “I can’t blame her. I was never home.”
He is now happily married to Gill, 66, and still officiates, despite players’ behaviour “getting worse”.
He said: “I will carry on as long as my knees let me.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
