Darren Cann is the most experienced match official in Premier League history – and he has a simple strategy for dealing with the verbal abuse that sometimes inevitably comes his way.
The 55-year-old from Norfolk, who last month surpassed Mike Dean's record of 562 games in the top flight, has been refereeing and refereeing in front of over 50,000 spectators for two decades – often passionately making decisions against his team.
Cann, who was an assistant referee at both the Champions League final and the 2010 World Cup final, envisages returning to some of the lesser-known venues in Norfolk, where he began his career as a match official.
“They don’t usually say particularly pleasant things. I started refereeing in Norfolk and I remember exactly the same thing, so I’ll take those things.” [from that] “I’m in every Premier League game now,” Cann told BBC Radio Norfolk.
“I pretend I’m at Eaton Park or Sloughbottom or somewhere near Norfolk where it’s just 11-a-side on the green pitch. If you can tune out the noise, you can focus and hopefully make the right decisions more often.”
“There's a lot more questioning these days and I make the same mistakes as everyone else, but you can't get upset about it. The next decision will also be wrong if you think about it too much.”
“It's a bit like a center forward missing an open goal. If you think about it, you will miss the next opportunity. You can't change the decision, the most important thing is to get the next one right.” “
Cann, a former Norwich City and Crystal Palace youth player, has taken charge of more than 1,000 professional games since starting in 1991, gaining promotion to the English Football League roster in 2001 and the Premier League four years later.
He is currently one of three assistant referees from Norfolk on the Premier League list, along with Lee Betts and Dan Robathan, and is keen to help more aspiring referees progress down the county route.
“There are only 30 Premier League assistant referees in the country and we have three of them in Norfolk, but it would be great to see more come to the Premier League in the future,” Cann added.
“Norfolk FA run regular refereeing courses and I would recommend them to anyone interested.”
“I still enjoy doing it and am lucky to have the best seat in the house, but when time permits and I finally hang the flag it would be great to give something back to the local referees.”
