John Riordan: It's all about educating next generation of referees for retiring Alan Kelly

After over two decades of a high level career on both sides of the Atlantic, a new chapter begins for Cork ref

Eight years ago, Alan Kelly relocated his wife and — at the time — two young children to the States for a new challenge after 14 years in the League of Ireland. In December, he called time on his career as an MLS referee. Picture: Bill Barrett/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Alan Kelly will never forget his last match as a professional referee. And he still remembers his first one as a young amateur back home in Cork, newly qualified but inexperienced and wracked with fear.

The torrential rains that ruined the spectacle of the MLS Western Conference final at the start of December caused a little bit of chaos for him and his assistants. Just five minutes into the game, Felipe Mora gave Portland Timbers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish but what stands out for Kelly is that one of his assistant’s Jeremy Hanson bounced back up athletically from a dramatic slip, just in time to allow him dutifully verify that opening goal.

Later in that same half, his other assistant Cameron Blanchard was struck so significantly by a wayward pass to the face that 2010 World Cup final referee Howard Webb, now the head of the Professional Referee Organization (PRO), popped his head in at half-time to check on the health and sanity of Kelly’s crew.

Webb made a crack about how Kelly’s swansong was a little more eventful than expected and told him to enjoy his last 45 minutes. Kelly’s assistants shot him a confused glance. They weren’t supposed to know it was his last match and Webb had given the game away.

The Boston area-based Blackrock man went public with his retirement a few days before Christmas and swiftly joined Webb’s team as Manager of Senior Referees at PRO, the North American organization which provides professional referees to the region’s domestic leagues as well as international games worldwide.

He has hit the ground running this week after a Christmas trip home to visit family and with an earlier start to the MLS season enforced by events in Qatar in November, it’s already full throttle.

Eight years ago, Kelly relocated his wife and — at the time — two young children to the States for a new challenge after 14 years in the League of Ireland. He was enjoying some Champions League and Europa League opportunities but he had accepted that a World Cup or a European Championships was not on his horizon.

“The question I was asking myself was ‘is this as good as it gets, from an international point of view?’” he told me Wednesday morning. “It was just wanting to experience a different footballing environment, a different cultural environment for us and for the kids.”

Kelly had watched the MLS grow steadily, even during the pre-Beckham years, so he knew a little of what to expect.

Almost 180 games later as the man in the middle (plus another 100 or so as Fourth Official or in the VAR booth), he is content to move on in spite of the fact that physically and mentally, he still feels like he has a couple of seasons in him.

But it was a haphazard 2020 which convinced him that being in control of his own final act would be the ideal way to blow it up for full-time.

“There is no retirement age anymore as long as your performances on the field are up to standard and as long as the fitness requirements are matched.

“I didn’t want to be the one that hung around too long and went through the motions on the field. I didn’t want to risk undoing the good work I had put in.”

Having enjoyed a career free from serious injury, Kelly sustained a misdiagnosed calf injury while sprint training before the beginning of the 2020 season.

The inspiration for recovery soon became simply getting back to referee one last game, such was the bleakness of the prognosis. Ultimately he snagged three MLS clashes before that Covid-impacted campaign played out but he could not countenance this being the way the end of the road was reached.

His goal last year was to get selected for 15 or 16 games but with Fifa referees called away for Olympics and Concacaf duties during the summer, his workload was dramatically increased.

“I ended up doing 25 or 26 regular season games and two play-off games. That’s a lot of travel. A big physical toll on your body. But I was enjoying it.

“Three-quarters of the way through the season, I was starting to think, yeah, this might be it.”

He spoke with his wife and he was reprimanded by his disappointed children who had grown up enjoying his career and, most importantly, being able to brag to their friends about their dad being on TV.

“I’ve enjoyed the season. I’ve put everything into it. I’m happy with my performances apart from a couple of decisions here and there.”

Referee education is his major focus now.

“It’s always been a big thing for me, the game evolves all the time. The referee that I finished being at the end of 2021 is is a completely different referee to the one that started in 1994.”

He describes it as his responsibility to pass on his experience to the next group coming through although he admits that it feels strange to transition so quickly from being an experienced member of the group to now managing that team.

“I’ll still go out on the occasional Sunday morning and referee a local U8 game and I’ll take the flack from the coach who will be questioning the 50/50 decisions. But I’ll be in a good position to be able to educate that coach a little bit to give a younger referee the benefit of the doubt the next time.”

The shortage of referees across the game is naturally a key concern for him and he fears for how that will impact the game if the current trend continues. He talks about a depressing experience when, for the first time, he went to watch his teenage daughter become the fourth generation of Kelly to take up refereeing after her great grandfather Tim, her grandfather Pat and her uncle Graham.

At half-time she approached him in tears, frustrated by the criticism being thrown her way from the male adult coach of one of the teams of Under 6s. Her father was prepared to step in and make sure the young players were able to keep playing but she gamely continued. He was also forced into action last summer at a regional tournament for Under 15s in Massachusetts where he was on site to mentor young referees. Overused over the course of the long weekend, they began to “drop like flies” and Kelly was sent to his car to retrieve his whistle, notebook, and cards.

“You can put me in a stadium with 50 or 60,000 people and I won’t flinch. But refereeing young players surrounded by parents, that’s true pressure. In a professional game, you’re used to a certain pattern of play.

“By the end of the game, there were a lot of the younger referees around the field because word filtered through that one of the mentors was out there refereeing. I had been advising them what to do in terms of development so I was telling myself not to do the opposite. It was a little bit intimidating but it was fun.”

It feels inevitable now that he would follow in his father’s and his father’s father’s footsteps but, in reality, it was a bumpy landing. After an intense five-night refereeing course in the old boardroom at Turner’s Cross, all of a sudden he was a registered referee and he was immediately thrown in at the deep end for an Under 11s game in Tramore Park a day later.

“I had no real time to think and I kind of gathered whatever kit I had. I was never so afraid or intimidated in all of my life — 22 11 year-olds and me… ‘alright, how is this gonna work?’ The game ended 7-6. I didn’t know where to stand. Probably four or five of those goals might have been offside.”

He fondly remembers his first year and great characters who mentored him: Ed Mullins, Jim McGrath, Christy Byrnes, Tony Gunning, and the late Tom Tully among many others.

“Really good local referees, good characters. Over the course of time, those guys dwindled away and all you can do is hope that the next generation comes through. That’s always been the way.”

- @JohnWRiordan