Mark Halsey - Career

Career

Halsey, a native of Hertfordshire, spent 12 years playing non-League football with teams such as Cambridge City and Hertford Town before he started refereeing in 1989. In December 1984 he played one game for Barnet before joining St. Albans City.

Halsey has been a National List referee for the Football League since the mid-1990s. He refereed the 1999 Division 2 play-off final between Gillingham and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium, which City won 3-1 on penalties, the match finishing 2-2 after extra time.

Also in that year, he was promoted to become a Premier League referee, his first appointment being a 1-1 draw between Wimbledon and Coventry City on 14 August 1999.

In 2000, Halsey was added to the FIFA list of referees, officiating in the Toulon Tournament in that year. In 2001 he was a referee for the football tournament at the World Student Games in Beijing and in 2002 at the FIFA World Disabled Championships held in Japan.

Also in 2002, he was appointed as fourth official to Mike Riley for the FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium, where Arsenal defeated Chelsea 2-0.

Halsey's first major FIFA appointment came in 2004 when he refereed a friendly match between Belgium and France in Brussels.

In August 2009 it was announced that Halsey was suffering from lymphoma of the glands and had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous tumour in his throat. He relinquished his refereeing duties during treatment.

In March 2010 Halsey passed a referee fitness test. His first game back after his illness was Leicester City Reserves against Scunthorpe United Reserves. Halsey was due to referee a League 2 match between Accrington Stanley and Barnet on 30 March 2010, however it was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. He returned to oversee the League 2 fixture between Rotherham United and Port Vale on 3 April. On 9 August, following his officiating at a friendly at Everton, it was confirmed that Halsey was to return to officiating in the Premier League, starting with the opening-day fixture, five days later, between Wigan Athletic and Blackpool.

In September 2012, Halsey made a formal complaint to the police after two abusive messages were posted to him on Twitter that referred to his treatment for cancer. The messages were sent following a fixture between Liverpool and Manchester United in which Halsey sent off Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey and awarded United a late penalty kick to win the match 2–1. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson said after the match that he thought Shelvey's tackle was a "clear" red card but Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers suggested that Halsey should also have dismissed the United player, Jonny Evans, who was involved in the challenge.