- Martin Atkinson
-
Martin Atkinson 
Personal information Full name Martin Atkinson Born 31 March 1971
Bradford, West Yorkshire, EnglandDomestic Years League Role 1998–2000 Football League Assistant referee 2000–2003 Premier League Assistant referee 2002–2003 Football Conference Referee 2003–2005 Football League Referee 2005– Premier League Referee International Years League Role 2006– FIFA listed Referee Martin Atkinson (born 31 March 1971) is an English professional football referee who officiates in the Premier League and for FIFA. He was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, but is now based in nearby Leeds.[1]
Since his first appearance in the Football League as an assistant referee in 1995, Atkinson has refereed a number of notable matches, including the FA Community Shield and the finals of both of the FA Trophy and FA Cup.
Contents
Career
Atkinson started his refereeing career at the relatively early age of 16 years old, as the local team did not have a referee to oversee matches. By 1998, he had been promoted to the Football League's list of assistant referees.
This was followed in 2000 by promotion to the Select Group of assistant referees. By December 2002 he was refereeing Football Conference matches,[2] and also refereed the 2003 FA County Youth Cup final.[3]
At the start of the 2003–04 season, Atkinson joined the national list of referees. He had the distinction of not sending off any player from the field of play between August 2004 and October 2005.
Only two years after his Conference debut, Atkinson was appointed to referee his first Premier League game, taking charge of the Manchester City-Birmingham City fixture on 20 April 2005, cautioning one player and awarding the home side a penalty kick in a 3–0 result.[4][5]
During the three seasons between 2003 and 2006, Atkinson issued only eight red cards in 102 matches, an average of less than 0.08 per game.
In 2006 Atkinson was appointed to the list of FIFA referees.[6]
The 2006–07 season saw Atkinson referee 42 matches in English football, his highest tally of appointments to date.
2006 FA Community Shield
Atkinson refereed the 2006 FA Community Shield match at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, arguably his highest domestic appointment. Liverpool defeated Chelsea 2–1, with Atkinson issuing four yellow cards.[7]
13 August 2006 Chelsea 1–2 Liverpool Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Attendance: 56,275Shevchenko 
44'
Ballack
7'
Lampard 15'
Diarra 68'(Report) Riise 9'
Crouch 80'
Alonso 61'2008 FA Trophy final
Atkinson was appointed to referee the 2008 FA Trophy Final at Wembley Stadium, which was contested between Ebbsfleet United and Torquay United.[8]
10 May 2008
14:30Ebbsfleet United 1–0 Torquay United Wembley Stadium, London
Attendance: 40,186McPhee 45'
Smith
McCarthy
Moore(Report)
Rice2011 FA Cup Final
Atkinson was appointed to officiate the 2011 FA Cup Final. Manchester City defeated Stoke City 1–0; Atkinson issued two yellow cards to two Stoke players during the match.
14 May 2011
15:00Manchester City 1–0 Stoke City Wembley Stadium, London Y. Touré 74'Report Wilkinson 76'
Huth 40'Europe and international
On 13 October 2007, Atkinson refereed a group C qualifier for Euro 2008 between Moldova and Turkey. The game in the Moldovan capital Chişinău ended a 1–1 draw, with the referee showing two yellow cards.
The 2008–09 season was the first that Atkinson took charge of UEFA Champions League games. That season he refereed four matches, including FC Zürich against Real Madrid and Inter Milan versus Dynamo Kiev.[9] In 2010 Atkinson was fourth official to Howard Webb for the Champions League final in Madrid. He issued his first Champions League red card on 5 April 2011, to Cristian Chivu of Inter Milan as they lost 5–2 at home to Schalke.
Atkinson's first international appointment was the 2010 FIFA World Cup UEFA group 4 qualifying game between Germany and Finland in Hamburg on 14 October 2009 which ended 1–1.[10] One month later, he officiated Portugal's 1–0 qualifying win over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Criticisms
After the 2009 Manchester derby at Old Trafford, Atkinson was criticised by Manchester City's then-manager Mark Hughes for bad time-keeping after Manchester United had scored an injury-time winner. The fourth official had signalled four minutes of additional time, but Michael Owen scored a 96th-minute goal, handing United a dramatic 4–3 win.[11] Atkinson was defended by former referee Graham Poll, himself considered one of England's greatest officials,[12] who pointed out that during injury time itself there had been a goal celebration, a substitution and a delay caused by a fan on the pitch.[13] The incident led to City questioning the late appointment of Atkinson to the 2010 Manchester derby.[14]
In September 2010, Atkinson was handed a one-week demotion to the role of fourth official after a time-keeping dispute with Everton manager David Moyes. Everton had scored two injury-time goals to make the score 3–3 against Manchester United, but Atkinson then blew his final whistle while Everton were midway through an attack with a chance of a winner.[15] Though it should be noted Everton had already squandered the chance, with Phil Jagielka shooting straight at Van Der Sar.
In April 2010, Birmingham City central defender Roger Johnson censured Atkinson after the official awarded rivals Aston Villa a late penalty in the Second City derby, for an apparent foul by Johnson on Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor. Television replays appeared to show Johnson had played the ball, and manager Alex McLeish also criticised the decision which gave Villa a 1–0 home win.[16]
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson censured Atkinson in March 2011 following his refereeing of United's away fixture with Chelsea. He called Chelsea's 80th-minute penalty award "very soft"; Frank Lampard converted the spot-kick to secure a 2–1 win for the hosts. Ferguson also felt that Atkinson should have issued a second yellow card to Chelsea defender David Luiz earlier in the second-half for an apparent trip on Wayne Rooney. It was not the first time Atkinson came under scrutiny after officiating this fixture; in the previous season Ferguson criticised him for awarding Chelsea a free-kick, from which captain John Terry scored the only goal of the game.[17]
On 1 October 2011, Atkinson came under fire for sending off Everton midfielder Jack Rodwell in the 23rd minute of a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, which was ultimately won 2—0 by Liverpool. The official erroneously adjudged Rodwell to have committed a foul worthy of a straight red card, although replays suggested the player won the ball cleanly and safely from Liverpool forward Luis Suarez.[18] In a post-match interview, Everton manager David Moyes claimed the derby was "ruined" by the decision to send off Rodwell.[19]
Card statistics
Season Games Total per gameTotal 
per game2002/03 9 28 3.11 3 0.33 2003/04 26 61 2.34 3 0.11 2004/05 38 87 2.28 3 0.07 2005/06 38 78 2.05 2 0.05 2006/07 42 128 3.04 6 0.14 2007/08 42 109 2.60 6 0.14 2008/09 40 135 3.38 11 0.28 2009/10 48 187 3.90 6 0.13 2010/11 41 143 3.49 13 0.32 2011/12 Statistics for all competitions, including domestic, European and international. No records are available prior to 2003/04.[20]
References
- ^ Profile: the Football League official website. Retrieved on 16 April 2008
- ^ Football Conference referee, 2002: soccerbase.com website. Retrieved on 16 April 2008
- ^ FA Youth Cup Final 2003: TheFA.com website. Retrieved on 16 April 2008
- ^ "Fulhamweb" Profile of Martin Atkinson. Retrieved on 16 April 2008.
- ^ Man.City v. Birmingham Fixture Details: RateTheRef website. Retrieved on 16 April 2008.
- ^ Appointment as FIFA referee, 2006: TheFA.com website. Retrieved on 16 April 2008
- ^ FA Community Shield 2006, Liverpool v. Chelsea: TheFA.com website. Retrieved on 16 April 2008
- ^ FA Trophy Final 2008, Ebbsfleet v. Torquay, referee: TheFA.com website. Retrieved on 16 April 2008.
- ^ http://refworld.com/referee/29/0/martin-atkinson
- ^ FIFA World Cup qualifier, Germany v. Finland, referee: Refworld.com website. Retrieved on 27 November 2009.
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/21/mark-hughes-michael-owen-city-united
- ^ http://www.iffhs.de/?20e43c03f32b00f31c13f32b17f7370eff3702bb1c2bbb6e08
- ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1215132/GRAHAM-POLL-Well-ref-timed-Manchester-derby-just-right--United-showed-City-play-whistle.html
- ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/7599439/Manchester-City-v-Manchester-United-City-question-appointment-of-Martin-Atkinson.html
- ^ http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Ref-Martin-Atkinson-demoted-after-the-row-over-his-timekeeping-at-Everton-Manchester-United-game-article578817.html
- ^ http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Birmingham-defender-Roger-Johnson-brands-referee-Martin-Atkinson-a-disgrace-after-derby-defeat-to-Aston-Villa-article405789.html
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9411182.stm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15045708.stm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/15138647.stm
- ^ http://www.soccerbase.com/referees/referee.sd?referee_id=832&season_id=141
External links
- Refworld.com
- Martin Atkinson Referee Statistics at soccerbase.com
- Martin Atkinson Profile at RateTheRef.net
Preceded by
Howard WebbFA Community Shield
2006Succeeded by
Mark HalseyPreceded by
Chris FoyFA Trophy Final
2008Succeeded by
Michael JonesPreceded by
Chris FoyFA Cup Final
2011Succeeded by
TBACategories:- English football referees
- 1971 births
- Living people
- People from Leeds
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