Interview with referee Andrew Wheaton, a.k.a Refdad

We got in touch with Andrew Wheaton, who is an active referee and also has a YouTube channel with reviews and storys about a referees life and thoughts which you can view via "Refdad" on Youtube and Instagram. He wrote to us in the beginning of 2022 saying "I literally felt naked without my spintso last night" when his Retro Watch got bad a battery. We hooked him up with a new S1 Pro and now wanted to hear his thoughts about how it is to be a Referee and a Dad, Refdad... and more.

– Can you tell us more about Andrew and how you started as a referee?

– I live in England just outside of Stansted Airport, we have a local team here that are playing in step 3 in our league system. I'm originally a football coach, and started that journey when I was 14 years old. That journey took me coaching in the United States eventually I came back to England and took up the whistle as a referee. I took up the whistle around 5 years ago. When you start refereeing here in England, you have to do a couple of theory lessons, two practical days and then you are off to referee five games on your own. After those matches you go back to do the Laws of the game test and talk about our game-experiences. If you pass the test you get your county-badge and then you are qualified and get to referee in the big wide world, as they say. Last year I was going from level 5 to 4 in refereeing here in England, which is much harder then the other levels 7-6 & 6-5. They will throw you in the deep end and ask you to cover last-minute-games and can you go here can you go there. The players are semi-professionals, so much harder and tougher for both players and referees. I was ment to go level 5 to 4 last year, but popped my hamstring and because odd that I was taken off of the promotion scheme. But this year I hope to go that level and get looked after by the FA. Thats my goal for now. Me and a friend of mine have a 10 year plan to get to the English Football League (EFL) from where we are now. In 10 years time I’ll be 42.


– That's a good age to be refereeing. Right?

– I think they have scrapped the age-thing and the age-discrimination for referees here in England and now you can referee until you are retire. I feel many referees get pushed to early to go up through the ranks for me you need that mix of old and young-ones. Don't get me wrong, having many good young referees is great and looks good but you need to have experience of dealing with players and communicating with them on a level. Like I said there are many great young referees, but a good thing here in England is that a 40+ referee still has a chance to go up the ladder. 


– Why did you go from being a coach to being a referee then? Tell us more. 

– I think I got lucky when I got the chance to be a paid coach, I was spoilt and had a really good time in the states. I managed to be in two fantastic clubs, one of them in Utah and I think that club had more that 70% of the youth players in the state at that time. The kids and parents I got to work with were brilliant. Like i said I got spoiled over there. When I got back to England everything just felt different. I clashed with a few parents about my coaching-style, which is more guided-learning. For example I would not tell the answer to a kid, more like drop him or her clues on how to do it. More of "Do you think that's right?" and less of "No, that's wrong!". I actually had a parent that came to me and said "You are not telling my kid what to do", and I said back to him "No, I guide your kid on what to do, and will not shout to him during a match what do to". The parent said "Well, why not"? I said this back to him "Well, if your kid is at school and has a lesson the teacher is trying to guide your kid on how to do things. And when they have an exam or test your teacher can't shout to the kids on how to do thing, and telling them what to write. It won't happen. And I am not here to get results as a youth manager, i'm here to develop your child". A lot of parents didn’t like that style and I think from there I quit as a coach. And I guess the old saying of "If you can't beat them, join them", and as a coach and from that view I was wondering about a lot around decisions that the referees had made.  "hmmm, was that really correct?". Some referees told me if you don't like it become a referee - so I did! You really see a different game in the middle as a referee than on the bench. It is a game of angles, you know. Now I can say to them that I understand, you see it from a different angle than me but that's my decision from there. 


– Is the refereeing what you thought it would be?

– It's actually a lot better, I love it, absolutely love it! It's more the fact that you get the best view of the game, you are not at the far end or the bench you really get the best view when you are a referee. There is nothing better than watching a player who did a really good skill and scored a absolutely amazing goal - and you have the best seat of them all. Or you as a referee give a nice advantage and they go on and score on that advantage, nothing beats that feeling. 



– Do you bring any of those coaching or teaching skills with you as a referee to a game?

– Of course, it's more about how you talk and communicate with the players. If you have a player that talks to you really bad and shouting and you have to have the ability to rise above it and not do the same backwards to the player. I have had those situations a lot of times and here and in England we referee clubs maybe 7-8 times during a year, or more. The first few matches they shout and try to test me as a referee and are up in my face. I try to talk to them, if they can have a discussion otherwise I just walk away from there, or take action from it. But further on, they call me and I call them by firstname and we are talking more before and after the game. The last game, last year, a coach from a team that i refereed a lot actually came over to me and gave me a hug. Not because I helped his team, obviously, but because it was the end of the season and he knows that we are not there to ruin games of football. 


– Nice gesture from that coach! Andrew, what about RefDad then? Where did that came from and how did it started?

– RefDad was a lockdown sort of thing. I always wanted to do a Youtube-channel. I thought I could get a lot of young people into refereeing through my videos on YouTube. Referees get the brunt of a lot of stick ,A lot of people shouting and give comments towards the referees most of the time they don't know the laws of the game. Don't get me wrong, I know the laws of the game but I can't tell you the laws word by word. But everyone has a different view of the laws. RefDad started on those premises to view a referees thoughts about how it is to be a referee, and more for the younger referees I think. That is also the audience on Youtube, younger ones. RefDad also shows how refereeing has affected my family life, with two step-children and a young one under 1 year. When I have a fulltime work and refereeing on top of that, that of course it affects my family life. Sometimes I go straight to a match after work. I also want to take away that stigma of that all we do is show up to a game, whistle during the match, pick up our fee and go home. Our game starts when we get the appointments, we always do some research about the teams even at a lower level. My top hit on Youtube-clip is what a referee have to pack before a game. It's not only one shirt and a whistle, it's a lot more. We show up in good time, do the safety checks, talk to the teams and more. People think that we referees just pick up our fee after the game, and that's it. But it's not! Just think of all the equipment that we have to have and buy ourselves. Just a pair of flags for instance, it's not cheap. If you have reports and red cards during a game, a game can last for months for a referee. It's not just 90 minutes and thank you, see ya later. It's so much more being a referee, and I want to show that with RefDad, and educate young referees. 


– Now in England you are off-season. Whata are you looking forward to?

– I will have a game, a charity-game, as the man in the middle and will be taking charge of that one. In England we have a lot of charity football and teams, and a big cup that is called the National Affinity Cup and I will be taking charge of the final. Looking forward to that, and will of course use my Spintso S1 Pro watch for that. The day after I have my fitness test, to go to the next level. We have a new fitness test here, the same that you guys have in Sweden i think. 75 meters in 17 seconds, 25 meter recovery walk in 22 seconds and do that 40 times. The new test is more realistic for us referees and is more looking like a match. 


– Thank for the chat Andrew and good luck! 

– Thank you!


Interested in looking at Andrews Youtube channel? Go to RefDad at Youtube