Ryan Joseph Wilson – the evergreen man of Sierra Leonean descent

Yes, it is true. The curly hair and the blistering speed comes from those paternal genes of his grandfather. Yes, the proud Welshman is 25% per cent Sierra Leonean. What a loss for the country, that he was born in Wales in 1973.

Two years later after then 'just' Alex Ferguson had signed him from the books of Manchester City, Ryan Joseph Wilson captained an England schoolboys side against Germany in 1989. The same year, at the age of 16 he changed his name to Giggs.

On his 17^th birthday he signed his first professional contract with Manchester United. Fast forward some six months and on 2 March 1991 he made his first team debut from the bench against Everton at Old Trafford. Amazingly, on his first start for the club was against Manchester City. Moreover he scored his first goal for the club in that game to lead them to a 1-0 victory in the local derby.

Next season he was already a first team regular, but also captained the golden generation (eg Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, David Beckham) to FA Youth Cup glory in 1992.

And now, after retiring from international football with Wales (64 caps, 12 goals) in 2007, and having had played 928 (!) competetive games for United, he played the full game and scored against Everton on February 10^th to stay the only player who has scored in every single Premier League season. Though it was his first league goal of the season, he actually has 3 other goals this season to add to his total of 167 goals for Manchester United.

Another noteworthy fact from his illustrious career is that he has NEVER been sent off for Manchester United. In 929 games. That would make around 80 000 minutes of football without a red card. For Wales he has been sent off once and once been suspended for two games for elbowing on video evidence. Nonetheless these facts show what a great sportsman Ryan Giggs is.

I am sure no sportsfan begrudged him a place in Great Britain's olympic squad in London 2012 as it was Giggs' first involvement in an international tournament at the age of 38. There will probably never be a player like him, who has won 12 Premier League titles (13^th on the way), 4 FA Cups, 4 League Cups, 8 Community shield trophies, 2 Champions League winners medals, a UEFA Super Cup triumph, a Intercontinental Cup victory and FIFA Club World Cup victory. There is not point in writing all his individual awards, but the ones that stand out are BBC Sports Personality of the Year, PFA Players Player of the Year and PFA Team of the Century.

And he is still going strong. No, strong is too weak of a word to describe him. A superman from Wales.

The impossible job of the referee

Soccer is not a game just played between two teams of eleven players, but also the staff, the fans and the referees. The latter have to dictate the play so that it could flow. But the referees are just as human as the players and the players make several mistakes per game. Yet this is not allowed for the referee. Still we could not imagine a football game without the referee (s). As history has shown us anarchy does not seem to work.
Is it possible to change the error-prone humans to be faultless machines called referees?

UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) has tried to do that for some time now. A couple of years ago they introduced the idea of AARs (additional assistant referees) which meant that instead of 3 referees (plus the fourth official) a game is controlled by 5 referees (plus the sixth referee). The two added referees position themselves behind the goal line around 16,5 meters form the goal. UEFA protocol says that the AARs must be UEFA licensed referees (not assistant referees). The sixth referee can be an assistant referee as AARs can take the main referees position if he/she picks up an injury etc.

What has been the result of AARs? According to official statistics the percentage of correct offside decisions at EURO 2012 was a whopping 96%. It is mainly down to the fact that the assistant referees can now almost solely concentrate on offside decision. AARs help the referee with fouls, goal decisions and other 50-50 decisions. During EURO 2012 6 goal line decisions out of 7 were correct.
One can wonder if the decision to introduce AARs was made to postpone the inclusion of video replays in football. If so it has certainly done the trick.

Yes, it seems to have worked well, then again we are only talking about the very top of the game. This world's most popular sport is played at all levels and all countries. Employing up to 6 referees of good quality per game can prove a stumbling block for most of the associations. All in all, in around 95% of football games the referees still face a mission impossible. Nonetheless it is good to see that progress is also being made on the level of officiating games. That will also aid the further development of the game itself.