Football-turned-rugby referee and Sherwoods group parts manager, Andy Hodgson.
A FOOTBALL referee has shown the beautiful game the red card after 15 years – and taken up rugby instead
Andy Hodgson, group parts manager for motor group Sherwoods, has been the man in the middle of amateur matches throughout the North of England since the age of 29.
But after seeing the abuse directed towards referees by fans, players and managers get increasingly worse, he decided to blow the whistle on his football officiating career.
After overseeing his last match – a clash between York City Juniors and Marine Juniors at York’s KitKat Crescent stadium – he switched to the oval ball game.
“The abuse is too much nowadays,” said Andy, from Redcar. “I love football and I’m still the treasurer of the North Riding Yorkshire Referees’ Association, but even at the grassroots levels the abuse aimed at referees who are just doing their job is really over the top.”
It was through a chance conversation at Redcar Rugby Club last year that Andy was encouraged to take up refereeing in the sport.
“Despite being in football for so long, rugby has always been my favourite sport,” said Andy, who is based at Sherwoods’ head office in Darlington but oversees parts distribution to its other dealerships in Stockton and Northallerton and businesses across the North-East.
“I went to Sir William Turner’s Grammar School, in Redcar, where it was a massive thing,” he said.
“I did a course set up by the Rugby Football Union and refereed my first game, which was an under-13s match, last October.”
Andy is now a regular fixture in the Yorkshire leagues, which see him take charge of matches from Teesside down to Leeds.
He added: “I’ve loved every second of it. The respect that referees are shown in rugby is tremendous. I have players calling me sir, which takes some getting used to. I’ve refereed 25 games this season and can’t wait for next season to begin.”
