PROFESSIONAL referees in the Championship? It’s still a good news, bad news scenario for me.

As any regular reader of this column will know, I’ve been calling for full-time officials at this level of the game for some time.

But while Wanderers will no longer have a butcher, a baker or a candlestick-maker making the key decisions on a Saturday afternoon from 2016, there is still a lot that could go wrong unless the Football League change their ways.

I’m really happy to see they are diverting some funds from the increased solidarity payments of the Premier League to improve the standard of refereeing and employing more select group officials. It’s a big step forward and it’s long overdue.

What has to improve, however, is the standard of coaching and assessment on offer. At present it is fundamentally flawed and unless they look seriously at the system, they can throw as much money as they want at the problem, it will never be fixed.

At present, the coaching on offer to young referees as they make their way through the Football League is sub-standard. You only have to look at the problems the Premier League have had recruiting up-and-coming talent in the last few years to see that something needs to change.

There needs to be a conveyor belt starting in the Conference, up into League One and Two where you really earn your spurs, and then into the Championship.

It is the same with players. You’ll always get the odd one or two who leap out of the lower divisions and suddenly look at home in the Premier League – but in the main it comes from hard work and experience, learning your trade and getting good advice along the way. At present, I don’t think enough of that is on offer to the referees in the system.

Our methods of assessment are also from the dark ages. Too often a referee is being judged by someone sitting in the stands who haven’t taken charge of a game at Championship level, without the depth of knowledge you need to offer constructive advice.

We’ve seen top referees like Graham Poll, Jeff Winter or even myself get pushed away from the game because our face doesn’t fit. All that experience is lost, and could have been recycled.

But let’s not divert away from the fact that investing in referees in the second tier is good for football. I’m sure managers like Neil Lennon – who have been quite critical of some performances this season – will be glad to see something is being done.

An annual salary of £60,000 should entice a good few referees to put their day job to one side and focus on their football, knowing there is a bit of security there.

We’ve seen in the Premier League that professionalism does improve things but that problems still emerge if management of that select group is not quite up to scratch.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed that from next season Neil and the rest of the Championship managers have a lot less to complain about.

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I WOULD not expect to see Wayne Rooney (Cheshire) refereeing a game any time soon – but it might not be long before some familiar faces pop up.

If everything goes according to plan the Football League will be investing in professional referees in the Championship, with an annual salary of £60,000, from 2016.

That’s a drop in the ocean for the Premier League boys, who can sit on a contract even if they are not getting a game and still be made for life.

But that kind of money will be an attractive proposition for players in League One and Two, who won’t be on that kind of wage but might well fancy staying in the game when they hang up their boots.

With more opportunities available I hope the PFA start to push refereeing as a career option to their members, who are perhaps considering what to do when they retire.

There should be no messing around. Once a player signs on then get them straight into the Conference to get experience.

It doesn’t matter too much about knowing the laws inside out – that will definitely come with time – but having that experience of the game is absolutely vital.

We have been unable to make refereeing a viable career path for too long but think about all that experience we are losing each and every season.

Once a players gets to the age of 33 or 34 he either knows whether he wants to move into coaching or not. But the number of opportunities is limited and we lose far too much talent, which could be utilised in a different way.

They need a push – that’s where the PFA and the Football League should come in – but I think if we could get more ex-players into refereeing the standards would improve quickly across the whole board.

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TAKING charge of international friendlies can be a difficult business, as Martin Atkinson found out this week.

They say there’s no such thing as a friendly – well I think we saw proof of that in the Brazil v Chile game on Sunday.

Some of the challenges flying in were incredible but you are under a bit of pressure as a referee to keep your cards in your pocket.

No-one wants to see games ruined by red cards but I think in that particular game at the Emirates, Martin could have cracked down a lot harder on some of the tackles flying in.

One example was a clear stamp by Gary Medel on Neymar which was somehow missed by the assistant, despite it happening a couple of yards from him.

Referees do have a duty to protect players because they’d soon get it in the ear from clubs if their employees went back from international duty nursing serious injuries.

Think of the hundreds of millions of pounds worth of talent that was on display, everyone in that packed-out crowd wanted to see two fantastic teams stay on the pitch.

But I think as a referee you do have to draw the line and decide what you think is acceptable, even if it means disappointing a few people with a red card.

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WHAT a great tale Eidur Gudjohnsen’s scoring return for Iceland was last weekend.

He’d gone to Bolton trying to get back into the international team and now it looks like he might be going all the way to the Euros.

For any young footballer he’s a terrific example of how to conduct yourself on and off the field. I was delighted he’d even been called-up but to see him get a goal against Kazakhstan was something else.

Talking about amazing stories, Harry Kane’s introduction to English football was real Roy of the Rovers stuff.

His dream introduction for England set another example for young pros in the game – get out there on loan, get some games under your belt and it can happen for you.

It wasn’t too long ago Kane was playing in the lower leagues and now he’s stepping out and scoring for his country at Wembley. It doesn’t get much better than that.

He seems like a young lad with his head screwed on, so hopefully he won’t be one of those fly-by-night types who don’t get to fulfil their England potential.