Oldest ref has strict regime for dealing with problem parents on the sidelines
Britain's oldest referee is still handing out red and yellow cards at the age of 90 and Frank Foster thinks he could teach some of the country’s top young officials a lesson.
Frank has taken charge of more than 5,000 games in the past 43 years and has no plans to blow the final whistle on his hobby. He started refereeing in November 1980 and still looks after men’s, women’s and children’s games three times a week.
He said: “I just love it, this will be my 44th year of refereeing. I just love being outside in the fresh air. Obviously, I can’t run as fast when I was playing football and when I first started refereeing. But I can anticipate a move and I’ll go with it. I’m up and down like a yo-yo - I sometimes tell people that I’ll need a moped. If there’s no referees, then there’s no football. I’ll be going forever.”
Frank had to stop playing football in the early 1950s because of a knee injury (Courtesy Frank Foster / SWNS)Frank played football in his younger days but had to stop in the early 1950s because of a knee injury. He later took up refereeing and passed his ref’s exam with the Sheffield County FA in 1980, scoring 98%. Frank, who has four children, nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren, says he plays it by the book on the pitch.
He said: ”I love it because you’re making the players abide to the rules, I’m a bit strict actually. I always talk to both teams and tell them to be careful with their tackles and tell them there’s no pushing or arguing. I always say I’ll go straight in and sort them out.”
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He added: “If a player’s parent is shouting, then I ignore it but if they continue I’ll go up to them and say ‘no more’ or tell them that I’ll send them away. Then if they don’t go away, then I’ll stop the match, which I’ve had to do twice.”
Frank, from Sheffield, South Yorks, said: “Normally when a match is finished, people will approach me and ask how old I am.
“I normally say ‘how old do you think I am?’ and usually they seem to be polite and say I’m 67. I usually just say that’s spot on and leave them guessing” he laughed. The Sheffield United fan watches professional games but often criticises the match officials.
He said: “I watch football all the time on TV but I disagree with some of the refereeing sometimes. You can see that they are offside but the linesman doesn’t flag it, they carry on and score and then they put the flag up. To me, that causes more aggravation than stopping them because they’ve scored. I don’t agree with it.”
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