Rodger Gifford

Gifford became a Football League linesman in 1976 at the age of twenty eight. However, it was another eight seasons before he progressed to the Referees List. Nevertheless, he did referee almost the whole of one (old) Football League First Division game long before that, on 15 September 1979, when fellow Welshman Clive Thomas had to go off injured after only two minutes of the 0–0 draw between Bristol City and Stoke City,[1] and Gifford took over, having been the appointed senior linesman.^†

Thomas retired in 1984 and, as he left the List, Gifford was one of the new intake. Within two years, he was officiating in Europe, as he took charge of the friendly fixture between Northern Ireland and Denmark at Windsor Park, Belfast, on 23 March 1986, which ended 1-1.[2]

Domestically, he was involved in a notable incident in a match at the City Ground on 3 March 1990, when Manchester City goalkeeper Andy Dibble had the ball in his right hand waiting to clear upfield. Nottingham Forest winger Gary Crosby headed it out of his grasp and kicked the ball into the goal.[3] Gifford ruled that this was fair (correctly following guidelines for the Laws of that era), and it proved to be the only goal of the game.^‡ A few days later, he took charge of the most senior European tie of his career, as R.F.C. Liégeois played Werder Bremen in a UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg.[4]

Later in the year, he was involved in a European match where a streaker ran across the pitch, despite conditions of "intense cold". This was during the European Cup Winners Cup second round first leg tie between Fram Reykjavík of Iceland and FC Barcelona on 23 October 1990, which the Catalan side won 2–1 with ten men, due to the dismissal of Fernando Muñoz in the 53rd minute.[5]

He took charge of one of the decisive games of the 1991–92 season when Manchester United visited Anfield on 26 April 1992, needing to win to keep alive their hopes of winning the League title. However, Liverpool beat them 2–0,[6] and thereby confirmed Leeds United as the last of the "old" First Division champions.

He was included as one of the referees for the new Premier League which started the following season (1992–93), his first match in the competition being the 2–1 win over Middlesbrough by Southampton at The Dell on 29 August 1992.[7] He retained his position in the top league for the next three seasons before returning to the Football League.

Whilst still officiating in the Premier League on 1 February 1995, he issued the fastest ever red card (at that time)[8] when Blackburn goalkeeper Tim Flowers was dismissed after 72 seconds of the match, for a foul on Brian Deane of Leeds United during the 1–1 draw at Ewood Park.[9] After the match, a fan attempted to attack Gifford.[10]

He refereed his most senior domestic Cup tie in his final season, as Birmingham City defeated Norwich City 2–1 in a Coca-Cola Cup quarter-final replay on 24 January 1996.[11]

He has since become a referees' assessor,[12] a UEFA Referee Observer,[13] and the National Referees Officer for the Welsh FA.[14] At the end of 2006, in response to an impending shortage of assistant referees at Cymru Alliance League level, he circulated a letter informing leagues of the initiation of an FA of Wales referee recruitment drive.[15]

• Rodger Gifford Referee Statistics at soccerbase.com (1992–1993, incomplete)
• "A week football went mad", an article by Graeme Le Saux commenting on the attack on Rodger Gifford by a fan: from The Independent website, via the FindArticles service