Howard Webb drops his broad Yorkshire tones to momentarily adopt those of the stereotypical Bond villain. It is Euro 2008 and the referee, hard on the heels of awarding a 93rd-minute penalty to Austria against Poland, has arrived in Salzburg for his next match. “I was met by the head of police,” Webb recalls. “He said: ‘Meester Vebb, you will not be killed in Salzburg.’”
The life of the modern official can be precarious. Having become a hate figure in Poland for penalising the shirt-pull that gave Austria their equaliser, Webb, who will be England's only referee at the World Cup finals in South Africa, asked if he could attend a Fanzone to watch a game. “Uefa said: ‘OK, fine, but we recommend that you wear some sort of disguise.’” Webb duly pulled on a hat.
In the face of heavy criticism from Poland's president, the sports minister, the team's management and players, and even reported death threats, Uefa offered its full support to Webb. “We don’t think it is controversial that a player is pulled down by the shirt and a penalty is given,” William Gaillard, Uefa's director of communications, said.
Webb maintains that the decision was “right — it was just the timing of it that caused the controversy”, but the episode illustrates the intensely pressurised world that referees and their assistants must operate in. Blink, you miss it and the consequences stay with you. Or act a split-second too quickly and, again, notoriety is assured.
Webb was entrusted by Uefa with last month's Champions League final between Internazionale and Bayern Munich, the pinnacle of his career to date. “We knew that the game could be career-defining,” he says, speaking as well for his assistants Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey, who will accompany him to South Africa. “A poor decision, which we are all capable of making, could be a career-changing incident. We could live with it forever.
“The Norwegian Terje Hauge refereed the 2006 Champions League final and he sent off the Arsenal goalkeeper, Jens Lehmann. He just blew too soon. He saw the offence and hit the whistle without looking at the big picture. He will tell you that decision lived with him, he can never get away from it for the rest of his career. He still refs but it had an impact.”
Webb says he received messages of support before the final “from Premier League managers, from players, from the England [pre-World Cup training] camp in Austria” and he emerged from the 90 minutes with great credit. He could savour a high. The lows, however, always have the capacity to torture.
“When I have got something wrong, I hate it,” he says. “I don't sleep for several nights sometimes, and it goes around in my head with me thinking, 'What happened to make me see it that way?’ Sometimes, just to exorcise my own mind, it would be good [to be able] to come out and say: ‘I made a mistake.’ Like with the penalty against Tottenham [at Manchester United in April 2009]. I just could not see, from my view, that the goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes got his fingers to the ball.”
Webb believes it helps him that he is an imposing physical presence. He can sprint 40 metres in 5.25sec while in his fitness test at altitude in South Africa, he clocked 5.1sec. As part of his training, he has used the environmental chamber at Sheffield Hallam University which recreates high altitude conditions.
“Certainly, as I have got older, I have worked at looking after myself,” the 38-year-old says. “I didn’t want to look like an old fart. I want to look as if I still belong on a field of athletes, I want to show that I take this job seriously.”
The mental preparations are equally vital. “We have a sports psychologist,” Webb says. “Coping with the ups and downs of the game is important. It comes down to luck as well but if you're refereeing well and not making mistakes at all, then you take all comment out of it, don’t you? We understand the stakes and how important it is to everyone involved but we also try to put it into some perspective.”
Webb grew up “about a mile from Orgreave” and he remembers the notorious confrontation there between the police and picketing miners during the 1984 miners’ strike. “Me and my mate got on our bikes and we rode to the hilltop above Orgreave and we saw the battle,” he says. “It was fantastic.”
The son of a miner, Webb became a policeman before he went full-time as a referee. He took charge of his first game in 1989, an under-11s match in Orgreave, and the World Cup will represent the culmination of all the hard work and dedication.
“You hope that you don’t have controversies but sometimes you have to make the big decisions,” Webb says. “If you don’t, because you are trying to avoid controversy, you are not doing your job right. If the situation presents itself, you have to react.”
© Guardian News and Media 2010
