Andy D'Urso

Andrew Paul D'Urso (born 30 November 1963) is an English football referee in the Football League. D'Urso is based in Billericay, Essex and is a member of the Barking & Dagenham Referees Society.

Career

D'Urso was first promoted to the Football League in 1994; five seasons later he was promoted onto the Premier League list. In 2001 he was nominated for FIFA status, officiating in a full international in May 2004 when the Republic of Ireland met Nigeria.

Controversies

Manchester United v Middlesbrough, 2000

On 29 January 2000 while refereeing the game between Manchester United and Middlesbrough, D'Urso awarded Middlesbrough a penalty kick when Juninho was tackled by Jaap Stam. Upon awarding the kick, six Manchester United players (Roy Keane, Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Jaap Stam, Ryan Giggs and Denis Irwin) chased D'Urso to object to the decision; the resulting image was freely circulated by the media. D'Urso said of the incident: "It was my first season in the Premier League, my first time refereeing Manchester United and my first time at Old Trafford. With more experience I would have stood my ground. I kept saying 'go away', but the further back I walked the more they walked on. A more experienced referee would not have retreated. But there are no grudges. I've refereed Roy Keane on a number of occasions since without a problem." Several players, notably, Keane and Stam, have since voiced their regret of the incident.

He was selected to referee the FA Charity Shield game between Liverpool and Manchester United in 2001, in which he awarded a first half penalty against Roy Keane.

Southampton v Blackburn Rovers, 2004

D'Urso was dropped from the 'Select Group' of match referees by the Football Association in the summer of 2005. This announcement followed an incident at the St Mary's Stadium, Southampton between Southampton and Blackburn Rovers on 21 August 2004. In the closing minutes of the game and having awarded a penalty-kick against Blackburn, the Rovers' captain and Scotland international, Barry Ferguson was seen by D'Urso to have kicked the ball away. D'Urso cautioned the player for delaying the restart by raising the card in his direction without confirming the player's identity. Ferguson had already been cautioned in the second half of the game and therefore should have been sent from the field of play. Southampton eventually won the game 3–2, James Beattie converting the penalty.

Following Beattie's goal the fourth official, Keith Hill brought the above to D'Urso's attention after the penalty had been scored. As the game had been restarted with a penalty kick D'Urso could not change his decision. The Football Association suspended D'Urso for 28 days from 27 August 2004 until 23 September 2004 (as well as suspending Ferguson for one-match), after which he vowed to carry on with his refereeing career. D'Urso appealed, successfully, against the decision to relegate him from the Select Group but he was not selected for a single Premiership match in the 2005–06 season.

From then on, D'Urso refereed infrequently in the Premier League.

Fulham v Middlesbrough, 2007

Having been appointed as fourth official for this game at Craven Cottage on 18 August 2007, and after taking over early in the match from the injury-stricken Lee Mason as man-in-the-middle, D'Urso was disadvantaged by the failure of his assistant referee, Ian Gosling, to spot that a shot in second-half stoppage time by David Healy, and parried on the goal-line by 'Boro goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, had in fact crossed the line but had then been scooped away by the Middlesbrough man. Although this did not affect D'Urso's status after the match, the assistant was suspended from top level officiating for the following weekend.

Bristol City v Norwich, 2008

During the closing minutes of the Championship match between Bristol City and Norwich on 29 March 2008 at Ashton Gate the game was level at 1–1. A long ball was challenged by both teams and with the ball seemingly hitting the arm of a Bristol City player D'Urso incurred the wrath of then Norwich manager Glenn Roeder and his assistant Lee Clark for awarding the home team the free kick from which they scored a late winner, when it was the Bristol City player who committed the foul. The pair were incensed because the 4th official said that D'Urso had indeed incorrectly awarded Bristol City the free-kick. Following the game Roeder stated "I have never ever in my life, after the final whistle, gone on to approach the referee. I'm normally a very calm person. But the referee's performance in that instance was so abysmal, even I couldn't restrain myself going to see him." The FA charged both Roeder and Clark for bringing the game into disrepute, then inexplicably assigned the controversial D'Urso to the corresponding fixture the following season for which he once again played too controversial a role in the result.

Barnsley v Sheffield United, 2008

During this hotly contested Yorkshire derby there were several flashpoints. Shortly after United took the lead, D'Urso sent off Barnsley's Anderson, and United's Ugo Ehiogu, despite it seeming only the latter provided any reason to be removed, after punching the former in the stomach before a corner.

The second flashpoint came moments later, with Iain Hume of Barnsley suffering a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain after being caught by an elbow from United's skipper, and former Barnsley captain, Chris Morgan. Despite the severity of the injury, D'Urso offered only a yellow card, something which was later reviewed in an FA appeal. The FA stood by their referee, prompting national outrage and high level media coverage of the event.

Finally, in the closing stages of the game, Robert Kozluk was chasing down a ball in the penalty area. Despite no appeals from United players, and no signal from the referee, a penalty was awarded by the far linesman, standing 70 yards away near the managers' dug-out. Barnsley manager Simon Davey was sent to the stands for his protests. United went on to win the game 2–1.

Norwich City v Bristol City, 2009

During this match Andy D'Urso controversially sent off Norwich City defender Gary Doherty for a last-ditch tackle on Bristol City's Dele Adebola and awarded a penalty to the visiting team. The penalty was converted by Bradley Orr and was the deciding goal in Bristol's 2–1 away victory. The red card was appealed by Norwich City officials and was rescinded 4 days after the game on 10 February 2009. Norwich also had a few penalty shouts turned down in the second half – most notably when Orr appeared to trip Adam Drury – to further infuriate Norwich fans.

Luton Town v Brighton and Hove Albion, 2009

During the 2009 Football League Trophy Southern area final second leg D'Urso sent off Brighton and Hove Albion defender David Livermore for a tackle later deemed on appeal should only have warranted a yellow card. The timing of the sending off was also controversail as the tackle was deemed to have taken place after the end of the first half.

Leyton Orient v Gillingham, 2009

Prior to the League One game on 1 December 2009. Gillingham's players were delayed by both traffic chaos on the A12 and problems on the Tube getting to the match, forcing Gillingham manager Mark Stimson to send out the first 11 players to arrive at Brisbane Road, almost being forced to play reserve team goalkeeper Alan Julian at right wing. D'Urso refused to sanction for a late kick-off claiming safety issues were not a problem and Gillingham had enough players to start the match. Gillingham started the match in Orient's reserve team away kit as their own kit was stuck in traffic, with limited warm up time and lost 3–1.

Ipswich Town v Swansea City, 2010

In this game, D'Urso denied Ipswich Town what the media described as "a clear penalty" which, if converted, would have levelled up the game at 2–2. Instead he allowed play to continue and Swansea City scored from the resulting breakaway whilst the Ipswich players were still protesting.

Charlton Athletic v Southampton, 2010

D'Urso, who arrived late for this fixture^{[citation needed]}, called off this game due to a frozen touchline less than an hour before the scheduled 1pm kick off. No consideration was taken for the proximity to kick off and the fact that many fans had traveled long distances to this Boxing Day fixture – reports from those at the ground suggested that by 1pm the disputed area of the pitch was perfectly fine. This decision angered officials from both Charlton and Southampton who felt the pitch was perfectly playable and were willing to play.

Ipswich Town v Leeds United, 2011

In this game, D'Urso gave a red card to Leeds United's Aidan White for a professional foul as last man. Replays showed that White had in fact been fouled initially and as White tumbled to the crowd Ipswich's Jay Emmanuel-Thomas accidentally tripped over White. Later in the match, it appeared that Leeds' Max Gradel was fouled in the Ipswich penalty area. D'Urso ignored what was a clear penalty and only moments later Ipswich scored the winner from a heavily deflected shot. Ipswich manager Paul Jewell acknowledged after the game that his side had received a number of lucky decisions and that Leeds should have been given a penalty.

AFC Bournemouth v Oldham Athletic 2011

D'Urso failed to see a first half strike from Oldham Athletic's Robbie Simpson go over the AFC Bournemouth goal line, before Bournemouth's Steve Cook cleared the ball from inside the goal. The Npower League One game finished 0–0.

External links

• Andy D'Urso Referee Statistics at soccerbase.com

Preceded by Mike Riley

FA Charity Shield referee 2001

Succeeded by Alan Wiley