These referee quotes will inspire you. A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competitions, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging referee quotes, referee sayings, and referee proverbs.
Best Referee Quotes
- “Referees are the law. They have a whistle. They blow it. And that whistle is the articulation of God’s justice.” ~ Harold Pinter
- “You don’t notice the referee during the game unless he makes a bad call.” ~ Drew Curtis
- “The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.” ~ Bill Shankly
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“Having one child makes you a parent; having two you are a referee.” ~ David Frost
- “If you’re good enough, the referee doesn’t matter.” ~ Jock Stein
- “The objective of a referee is not to get mentioned. I tell a lot of young referees that not being mentioned is king. If you can achieve that, that then it has been a pretty good game.” ~ Alan Lewis
- “I just get on with my game and let the referees do their job.” ~ Lionel Messi
- “I wanted to have a career in sports when I was young, but I had to give up the idea. I’m only six feet tall, so I couldn’t play basketball. I’m only 190 pounds, so I couldn’t play football, and I have 20/20 vision, so I couldn’t be a referee.” ~ Jay Leno , Football referee quotes
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“You can’t applaud a referee.” ~ Alex Ferguson
- “There’s nothing better than a good, blind referee.” ~ Bobby Heenan
- “I don’t understand referees. It appears like some players can’t even be touched, but in my case, everyone can hit me as hard as they can.” ~ Cristiano Ronaldo
- “The referee is going to be the most important person in the ring tonight besides the fighters.” ~ George Foreman
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“Referees are only human, I think.” ~ Phil Kearns
- “I always liken it to being a referee – if you notice the referee, that’s not a good thing.” ~ Chris Harrison
- “You have to become involved to make an impact. No one is impressed with the won/loss record of the referee.” ~ John Noble Holcomb
- “I would say the referees have the toughest game to call. I would say that there’s a lot of officiating done by announcers, local announcers. Sometimes you should listen to a game from both feeds, and you’d think you were listening to completely different games.” ~ David Stern
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“Don’t you think it’s strange how many referees work at Footlocker?” ~ Jim Gaffigan
- “Time is only linear for engineers and referees.” ~ Craig Ferguson
- “Most of us are referees at heart; we like to call throws and errors on someone else.” ~ John Kessel
- “It’s the referee’s job. It’s not for me to have to say I should ease up.” ~ Chris Eubank, Jr.
- “The referee was only five or seven yards away from that incident.” ~ Peter Drury
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“I never comment on referees and I’m not going to break the habit of a lifetime for that prat.” ~ Ron Atkinson
- “Coaches will do what they can but it doesn’t necessarily bother me. You are an international referee for a reason. If things like that are going to ruffle your feathers, don’t bother doing the job.” ~ Alan Lewis
- “No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I’m not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal.” ~ Bill Cosby
- “Sometimes you wonder, do referees understand the game of football? ” ~ Roy Keane
- “Coaches do so much research about a referee because they believe refereeing is such a crucial part of the game that the result may hinge on what we say or do. They probably know more about me than I know myself!” ~ Alan Lewis
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“Once the referee throws the ball in the air, it’s either your ball or their ball and you have to just take your shot.” ~ LL Cool J
- “It’s a game of integrity. There’s no referees out there. We all respect each other.” ~ Jordan Spieth
- “Referees need help. Players are getting faster and fitter and too many referees are making decisions from behind the play. They see a tangle of legs, they are asked to make a decision with one, often obscured look at high speed.” ~ Andy Townsend
- “A difficult decision for the referee’s assistant. I wouldn’t beat him up over it.” ~ Kenny Cunningham
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“Referees and linesmen are killing teams.” ~ Ashley Cole
- “As all of us with any involvement in sports knows, no two umpires or no two referees have the same strike zone or call the same kind of a basketball game” ~ Herb Kohl
- “Anyone who clings to the historically untrue-and thoroughly immoral-doctrine that, ‘violence never settles anything’ I would advise to conjure the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedom.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein
- “Life was a damned muddle – a football game with everyone offside and the referee gotten rid of – everyone claiming the referee would have been on his side.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
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“Never take your eyes off the ball – even when it’s in the referee’s pocket.” ~ Christy Ring
- “Life is a game with many rules but no referee. One learns how to play it more by watching it than by consulting any book, including the holy book. Small wonder, then, that so many play dirty, that so few win, that so many lose.” ~ Joseph Brodsky
- “We talked to the referees before the game; there’s always new situations to adjust, for the refs and for us as well. Even on the ice, it’s good for players to talk and interact with the referee.” ~ Peter Bondra
- “A pinch is a pinch. If you pinch my right nipple, I’m going to say, ‘ouch.’ If I pinch your right nipple, you’re going to say ‘ouch.’ A foul is a foul and a flagrant is a flagrant.” ~ Shaquille O’Neal
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“Referee Norlinger is outstanding in the sense that he stands out.” ~ George Hamilton
- “Profit by your own mistakes and profit by the mistakes of others. The referees were calling ball handling violations like they were getting commissions.” ~ John Kessel
- “All you umpires, back to the bleachers. Referees, hit the showers. It’s my game. I pitch, I hit, I catch. I run the bases. At sunset, I’ve won or lost. At sunrise, I’m out again, giving it the old try.” ~ Ray Bradbury
- “The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. It is an indictment of our game. You see referees abroad who are as fit as butcher’s dogs. We have some who are fit. He wasn’t fit.” ~ Alex Ferguson
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“Everyone who watches me play knows I am an honest player. play the game as honestly as I can. If the referee gives a penalty there is nothing you can do.” ~ Wayne Rooney
- “Even as they are now pointing to God and praising God for that victory, something terrible happens; there’s a demonic spirit now that referees, and the officials, and they say Oh did you see that? He just referred to God. We need to stop that and we need to disqualify them! And they’re punished for their righteousness by the demonic spirit that’s inside the referees.” ~ Gordon Klingenschmitt
- “My wife runs the house much better than I could so I think she could be a linesman or a referee or even a football manager and that’s the truth.” ~ Ian Holloway
- “Johnny Walker, the American that fought for the Taliban, is now talking with an Arabic accent. Have you heard him? It’s ridiculous. I know how we should handle him. Let’s bring him back here and take him to Cleveland Browns stadium and dress him up as a referee. They’ll know how to take care of him!” ~ Jay Leno
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“But then southern hemisphere teams are more skilful than their northern hemisphere counterparts, which means games can be easier to referee.” ~ Alan Lewis
- “I remember an incident overseas about five years ago where a player punched a referee and knocked him cold. I don’t think anything like that will ever happen in the NBA. Emotions run rampant. The games are so intense, and the stakes are so high. (But) At the end of the day, players and coaches really respect officials and really appreciate that they try to do a good job.” ~ Jalen Rose
- “Soccer is a game for 22 people that run around, play the ball, and one referee who makes a slew of mistakes, and in the end Germany always wins.” ~ Gary Lineker
- “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.” ~ W. E. B. Du Bois
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“The referee will now keep track of the time on the field and the shootouts have finally been banned.” ~ Cobi Jones
- “I love how the soccer guys just fall when they get kicked and go baby crying.They try to explain to the referee like he’s their mother: “Wah! Did you see what he did?” Then they get back to playing soccer again.” ~ Pablo Francisco
- “Pardew has come out and criticized me. He is the worst at haranguing referees. He shoves them and makes a joke of it. How he can criticize me is unbelievable. He forgets the help I gave him, by the way. The press have had a field day. The only person they have not spoken to is Barack Obama because he is busy. It is unfortunate but I am the manager of the most famous club in the world. Not Newcastle, a wee club in the North-East. I was demonstrative. I am always demonstrative. Everyone knows that. I am an emotional guy but I was not abusive.” ~ Alex Ferguson
- “I love what I’m doing. It’s my life. When it’s time to go, I’ll probably be fighting to get out of the casket. I’ll be yelling at the priest instead of a referee.” ~ Lou Duva
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“Damn referees, I’ll miss them less than anybody.” ~ Abe Lemons
- “I do swear a lot, but the advantage is that having played abroad, I can choose a different language from the referee’s.” ~ Jurgen Klinsmann
- “Golf requires only a few simple Rules and Regulations to guide the players in the true nature of its sporting appeal. The spirit of the game is its own referee.” ~ Robert Harris
- “Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government– in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.” ~ Milton Friedman
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“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein
- “Although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert.” ~ J. K. Rowling
- “I want to congratulate again Mike Dean. I think his performance was unbelievable and I think when referees have unbelievable performances, I think it’s fair that as managers we give them praise. So fantastic performance.” ~ Jose Mourinho
- “I would like to say boxing cannot compared with war. We have gloves on, we have cushions, we have referees, we have judges, we have ambulances there, the intention not to kill, we don’t have steel there, we don’t have bullets, we don’t kill momma, kill daddy, kill baby, our intention is a sport, and we’re not there to kill, so boxing cannot be compared in no way with machineguns and bombs and everything that used.” ~ Muhammad Ali , Boxing referee quotes
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“McCarthy shakes his head in agreement with the referee.” ~ Martin Tyler
- “We all believe we have found the finest of diktat that applies our perfect future but do we believe the world needs referees.” ~ Rudolf Hess
- “Referees don’t come down here with a particular flavored shirt on.” ~ Steve Coppell
