Retired French referee
Bruno Derrien has published a memoir, "Down With The Referee," telling how managers and coaches cultivate their relationships with match officials. According to the
book, "the canniest coaches manage their relationships with referees as studiously as they do with their players," writes Ian Hawkey.
Derrien tells, for example, how Manchester United
manager
Alex Ferguson came to the referee's locker room at the end of a Champions League game at Old Trafford, when his club had beaten Olympiakos of Greece 4-0. "You had another really
good game tonight," Ferguson told referee
Gilles Veissiere, before handing the Frenchman and his assistants each a United replica jersey. Derrien, the fourth official that night, said there
was nothing against the rules in Ferguson's compliment, but that it left an impression on him as an eye-witness.
Derrien also reveals how long-serving Auxerre coach
Guy Roux would
ask to check the match ball before every game, giving him the chance to casually remark to the refereeing team: "I've got a couple of really quick wingers. You wouldn't believe how often they
get called offside when they're not, they move so fast." As Derrien puts it, this left the linesmen "well warned. Or even manipulated?"
Read the whole story at Times (U.K.) »