Former Premier League and FIFA referee Bobby Madley is the man in the middle for Dale’s trip to the Peninsula Stadium to take on Salford City on Saturday.

Based in Ossett, Madley took charge of his first Premier League game — Southampton v WBA - in April 2013, before joining the Select Group list permanently for the following season.

He then progressed to become a FIFA referee and regularly took charge of high-profile Premier League fixtures, as well as games in 2017/18 like the Community Shield and Liverpool v Everton in the third round of the FA Cup.

Bobby ended that campaign with Middlesbrough v Aston Villa in the Championship play-offs and a friendly international in Iceland, before he was hit by scandal involving an ill-advised video sent from his phone.

He was forced to resign from the Premier League and FIFA lists and went to live and referee in Norway for over a year, before releasing this statement in December 2019: https://therefereesword.blogspot.com/2019/12/time-to-move-on.html?m=1

It was then announced by Bobby (https://therefereesword.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-new-chapter.html?m=1) that he would be returning to England to resume his refereeing career in the EFL and he oversaw 36 matches in his first season back (2020/21), including Morecambe v Newport in the League Two play-off final.

Dale actually saw him three times in that season, as Mr Madley refereed our home defeat to Salford in the Papa John’s Trophy, the 3-3 draw with Wigan (in which Jim McNulty was sent-off) and the 1-0 loss at Fleetwood late in the campaign.

Last term Bobby continued to referee in League One, League Two and the cups, before being promoted to the Select Group 2 list of officials in the summer, which allows him to officiate up to Championship level.

He oversaw plenty of matches in the second tier, as well as Brentford v Wolves in the Premier League, up to the end of October, before injury kept him out until last weekend when he was in charge of Peterborough v Portsmouth in League One.

Saturday will be Mr Madley’s 11th Dale match, a list that started with a 3-1 home win over Bristol Rovers in February 2011.

More memorably, he refereed our FA Cup tie at home to Spurs in February 2018, a game he described as “One of the best matches I ever refereed and one of best atmospheres I have experienced in my career,” when I asked him about it on Twitter.

The full list of his Dale appointments is:

Feb 2011 Bristol Rovers (h), W 3-1
Feb 2012 Scunthorpe (a), L 0-1
Oct 2012 Bury (h, JPT), D 1-1 [lost on pens]
Dec 2012 Burton (a), L 2-3
Dec 2014 Fleetwood (h), L 0-2
Feb 2018 Tottenham (h, FAC), D 2-2
Nov 2020 Salford (h, PJT), L 1-2
Jan 2021 Wigan (h), D 3-3
Apr 2021 Fleetwood (a), L 0-1
Feb 2022 Scunthorpe (a), W 2-1

Bobby’s brother, Andy Madley, is currently a Premier League and FIFA referee and on Sunday he is in the middle at Tottenham v Manchester City.

Back to Bobby and this will be his 16th game of the season, with the previous 15 yielding 68 yellow cards and five reds.

Photo: Action Images

Lossudya added 02:34 - Dec 18 Back to Bobby, he has played in 16 games this season https://driftboss.io, with 15 of those games resulting in 68 yellow cards and 5 red ones.
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