Tired Excuses

Wait! What?

Referees get tired too?

Yep. That's what Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini said last week after his club exited the Carling Cup following a loss to Liverpool.

''The refs sometimes are tired - to play every two or three days is difficult for the players, and for the referee. The referee is like me, like the players. They can be tired sometimes.''

If this is true – who am I to second guess Mancini – perhaps Premier League refs need to find themselves a better fitness program, just like National Football League officials did several years ago when they hired this dynamic fitness and nutrition duo I wrote about last week.

The husband and wife team conducted a 10-game study on NFL officials a few years go, and data showed the league's officials ran an average of 6.1 miles per game. It was far more, they said, than anyone, officials included, guessed before the study was completed.

I wonder how many miles the average Premier League referee gallops per game. I'm sure this number has been calculated, but I haven't found such data in my few minutes of searching.

However, I did find this Guardian story from March 2010 about football (soccer, whatever) referee Peter Walton, who said he trains four days a week to keep in match condition.

The interview is fun, and it's particularly interesting to learn what Walton sometimes eats for breakfast. Ummmm, baked beans!