Whistling For Love

How many rules do you think there are in football then?

If you are anything like me you probably think there must be hundreds. In fact there are only 17. Known as The Football Laws, these are currently determined by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) and were last updated in 1997.

One of these rules covers Referees (Revision tip: all referees are bastards). This lead me to thinking more about referees. Reading about it on Wikipedia, there are a couple of interesting points of note. Firstly, their use of the whistle is not mandated by the football law on the subject. In fact they used to wave a handkerchief! And until the 1950s blazers were worn instead of a jersey. Very chic!

Refereeing, it would seem, is an art form. Most referees aren't paid either. So they do the job out of love for the game. See here for what happens when love and art come together (apologies for the politically incorrect title but it was too good to miss)