Rocky beginnings...

Its only fair to look back further from my initiation in Oslo and invited my predecessor to jot down his thoughts on the success of British Referees in Norway Cup - Chris Rock.

Thanks to James for asking me to pen an article about how the Norway Cup for the English band of referees we know today began.

I qualified as a Referee back in 1995 under the tutelage of the late, great, Premier League Referee Gerald Ashby. Fast forward to 1998. After a couple of years officiating on the Saturday Supply and Sunday Local Leagues – I wanted to broaden by horizons and keep busy during the summer months. So I was looking to see if there were any tournaments taking place in the summer that required referees. In those days, the Internet was in its infancy – with just a small percentage of the sites we know today up and running. One of the only sites I could find online for such tournaments was the one for the Dana Cup, which is a tournament which still takes place in July in Northern Denmark.

A trip abroad AND the chance to officiate foreign sides sounded like just the kind of challenge I wanted – so off went an email to the tournament enquiring as to if they wanted any foreign officials. The reply came back that they did and if I wanted to attend, there would be a place for me. This was all in June – around about 4 weeks before the tournament was due to start. Flights by this stage were at a premium (this is the days before Ryanair, Norwegian or the other low cost carriers) - and very expensive. So I ended up travelling to Denmark overnight by coach from London with Eurolines.

Accommodation there was as in Norway – camp beds in a large room (in this case – the local Badminton Hall) with all the other foreign referees. The main two groups were a load of Germans from something called “Refex” and a bunch of around 20 English officials – including the Football League Referee Keith Hill. So one night I got talking over a few beers and a spot of food with a guy called Dave Corrigan from the West Midlands. He mentioned that after finishing the Dana Cup – they were due to travel across to Oslo for a bigger tournament called the “Norway Cup” for the first time to see what it was like and if it was worth going to in future years. I asked Dave to keep me updated over the next few months with how it went as I might be interested in joining them next year.

As it happens, Dave and myself both officiated on the West Midlands Regional League, so contact was maintained, and he informed me how the tournament was better organised and the standard of football was of a much higher standard than it was at the Dana Cup. He passed me the details of the organisers and applied to go to the 1999 tournament, which was accepted. In the intervening months – I was chatting to colleagues in the Worcestershire FA about how good this tournament in Norway sounded and about my experiences in Denmark handling foreign football. As a result a few colleagues asked if they could attend as well. I dropped another email to the Referee Department (which at that time was run by a guy called Steinar Bergh) - they informed me that the more the merrier (at that time there was no limit on the number of referees that could attend from outside of Norway as not many knew about the tournament).

So – we fast forward to July 1999 – and outside the Ekeberg School where the referees are still accommodated today. Six Worcestershire FA Referees are stood there wondering who we have to see to get accommodation and where to go in the building. The first group were as follows: Nick Bawden (retired), James Robinson (now based down in the Hampshire area and still refereeing), Andy Daniel (still referees locally), Chris Husband (Football League Assistant Referee), Mark Daniel (still active locally) and myself. We manage to get directed inside with our luggage to a large room on the top floor of the school – which unlike nowadays, we didn’t share with anyone else. As we are unpacking – a young Norwegian sticks his head around the door and asks who we are and if this our first tournament. We all immediately struck up a conversation with this young referee who is also there to officiate at the tournament - and are still good friends to this day. That referee was Bjorn Andre Hansen (who now works in the Referee Department). Met up with Dave, who had brought about 4 or 5 colleagues with him as well – including Dave Humphreys, John Flavell and Martin Hancock. And not forgetting our two members who are treated in very high esteem by all – Dave Chinery and Steve Crossman (who gave me a lot of good advice in his role as one of the only English speaking Observers back in the early day). One highlight of the first year was being told that we were due to be going on a sightseeing trip by bus to some of the attractions of Oslo – namely the Holmenkollen ski-jump and the Vigeland Sculpture Park. As part of that the Referee Office said they had lined up one of the Norwegian Referees to come along and be our tour guide as he spoke excellent English. That was the first time that I had the pleasure of meeting Jan Olav Knutsen (who moved into the Referee Department in later years and I now meet up with every year during the week as he is still involved with the tournament in his position on the Tournament Jury). The setup of fields in those days was a lot different to how we know it today. Pitch 7 was natural grass (with hardly any grass on it) - and the reserve pitches were actually gravel pitches. Thankfully we only had to use them one day in around 2001 after a monsoon of a downpour put 75% of Ekeberg out of action. Was akin to playing on a car park – but the tackles still went in as if it were grass. One Norwegian referee gave me a good piece of advice - “wear an old pair of socks – because if not – they will get wrecked with the amount of gravel and dirt it throws up”. The other main difference to today was how referees were assigned matches. Each referee was placed in a Banding Group initially – based on level back home and length of service and experience at previous Norway Cup tournaments. Throughout the week – depending on Observer marks, you could move up or down banding levels – with the Level A officials getting the U19 middles and lines. I managed to get to Level A for a couple of years – culminating in refereeing one of the U19 A-Class semi finals between Cruz Azul of Mexico and a Norwegian Premier Division team, which the Mexicans won. By the end of a superb week full of beer (which was a lot cheaper back then), good football and making new friends amongst the other referees – Final day comes around – with both Chris and Mark getting one of the small sided finals. In those days – the finals were not played on the main site – but at the Bislett International Athletics Stadium (home of the Golden Mile and major international athletics events) in the city centre. The next year, we returned with a few more officials as word got around back in England – ending up with the limit on quotas we see today.

I ended up becoming the main contact to organise the English contingent, which I did for many years, laying the groundwork before passing on the torch to the current incumbent of the role – and an all round legend – James Campbell. I ceased refereeing in 2013 at the Cup – but then moved into working in the Press Centre (helping write articles and match reports for the English version of the Tournament Website) before ending up in my current role of being a Guide for a couple of the foreign teams – making sure they are safe around the site and they get to where they need to be to play games during the week.

My most memorable game in any Norway Cup was also one of the toughest I’ve ever handled between a Norwegian club and a team from Azerbaijan who completely lost the plot as the game went on. Thankfully I had two excellent Assistants with me who worked the game as if they had eyes in the back of their heads. We ended up with the Azeri coach being sent from the sidelines on the advice of my Norwegian Assistant Referee and about 5 or 6 yellow cards awarded on the way so of both Assistants. After the game, we went into debrief with the Norwegian Observer who had nothing but high praise for all three of us. Indeed the assessment report ended up with all three of us getting full marks for a difficult level game (plus somehow – some extra points) which to this day is still the highest set of marks given to a team of officials in Norway Cup history. Take a bow Paul Lowe and Kevin Bachmann for getting us through that game!

Just in finishing – in my many years at the Norway Cup – I have worked with and met many officials starting out who went to greater things: Kim Fisher (from Cardiff) who attended his first tournament as a fresh faced 16 year old – and later ended up on the FIFA Assistant Referee list for Wales along with the legendary Alun Boore. One year a group of three Scottish Officials turned up. Neil McLennan went on to serve as a Referee on the Scottish Professional Leagues before retiring and is now Director of Leadership Programmes at the University of Aberdeen. Paul Reid had a similar career and is now a Lawyer in Edinburgh. The other one amongst the group is still an active Referee – Kevin Clancy, who is one of Scotland’s FIFA Referees and a fixture on many an Old Firm game, and Refereed the 2018 Scottish Cup Final. Although we won’t be there in body this summer – we will in spirit.

Here’s to us meeting again up on the fields next year...

Chris Rock