The game’s up, Gino — blow your whistle

DEBATE about the amount of extra time being played in football matches is nothing new. in the early 1970s, i played for KKS Ksokol, representing the local Polish Catholic club, in the nottingham Sunday League. There was great rivalry with AC Roma, representing the italian club, managed by gino, who owned a local restaurant.

One fixture was in the depths of winter. The ground was heavy, the light fading before we had even kicked off and the referee had failed to turn up. To prevent postponement, the managers agreed to each referee one half of the game. gino won the toss and opted to let our manager take charge for the first half. it passed without incident and the score was level at the break.

As we returned to the pitch for the second half, gino stepped forward to referee, in an expensive mohair suit and patent leather shoes. He blew the whistle to get the game under way, then proceeded to position himself in the centre circle, from where he did not move. Despite some heavy tackles and a number of penalty appeals, his whistle remained silent. it was only when we took the lead that gino showed any kind of emotion. He started to shout words of encouragement to his team — he must have forgotten he was refereeing. As the 90-minute mark approached, we were still a goal ahead, much to gino’s dismay. At what should have been full-time, there was still no whistle and the game went on and on. Clearly gino was not going to call a halt until AC Roma had levelled things up. We protested, but to no avail. After 20 minutes of extra time and still no goal, fortunately for us, his players were not prepared to play on and walked off the pitch in disgust. gino was never allowed to referee again.