David Elleray is a particularly interesting character, combining the world of top class refereeing with that of a house master at the English public school Harrow.
The book begins with David's childhood, describing how he turned to refereeing after finding that he was not as good at playing football as he wanted to be. This early part of the book shows David to be like any football obsessed youngster, and there is an amusing anicdote of how the Football Association refused to send David any more data requests, because he had already made so many.
The book then proceeds through Davids career describing his rise through the rank of referee's with numerous interesting anicdotes along the way. What is particularly revealing is both Davids love for football, and his devotion to his refereeing. A highlight of the book is David's description of the day he refereed the FA cup final in 1994. It is striking that ten years later David is still haunted by what he considers to be a poor decision he made on that day.
The book concludes with some interesting insights on some of the players and managers that David encountered during his time as a referee. David points out which players he found particularly easy or difficult to referee and some of encounteres he had with various managers.
In the modern game it seems to be the new vogue to criticise the performance of a referee, and as David says: Bad refereeing performances are remembered, while good performances are forgotten. It is hoped that those people that are quick to criticise referees read this book, as it provides a phenominal insight into what it takes to be a top class referee.
Highly recommended