Referee Atkinson says wife and brother’s frontline war on coronavirus puts VAR flak into perspective
REFEREE Martin Atkinson ruefully recalls when VAR was the biggest issue in English football.
But with his wife and brother at the NHS frontline in this coronavirus crisis, the Premier League whistler does not need a second opinion about what is most important.
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He said: “It puts everything into perspective when you see what’s happening over these last few days, where the fatalities are increasing.
“We get wound up about a VAR call that we may or may not have got right, then we look at this and think, ‘There are people dying from a virus we have no control over’.
“It puts football into a position… it certainly isn’t life and death.”
Atkinson, 49, certainly is far from alone in realising that Bill Shankly’s old saying simply is not true.
But few in football will have a better understanding of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic — because of the risks wife Julie and brother Jonathan are taking.
He said: “My wife works at St James’s Hospital in Leeds in the neo-natal unit, looking after the babies that have come out of intensive care.
“People don’t stop having children during the virus.
“My brother is a nurse in Halifax and he does a lot of community work. So the awareness of the seriousness is massive.
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“You think we’ve got an important job in football but it pales into insignificance when you look at what they’re doing.
“Everybody that works on the frontline has that risk when they go to work.
“But they do it because they love their jobs.”
Atkinson loves his, too, despite all the abuse he gets.
With football suspended, each elite group referee has a personalised physical training programme and their fortnightly technical meetings at St George’s Park have been replaced by weekly cyber-gatherings on Zoom.
There are far more important things in life than football and refereeing. When the time comes and we go back out there, we will realise just how lucky we are.
Martin Atkinson
They have access to a psychologist but the close-knit team is continuing to support each other on an informal basis, as normal.
When Atkinson needs to clear his head, he gets on his bike and heads into the countryside near his home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
He said: “I’m a mad keen cyclist so I can do my daily session on the bike.
“It gets me out in the Yorkshire fresh air and I’m not close to anybody. It’s a good way to blow the cobwebs away.”
But the coronavirus put paid to Atkinson’s plans for a big charity bike ride this summer.
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He and two friends, with guest appearances by fellow match officials, raised more than £85,000 with events in 2016 and 2018.
The ref said: “Jon Moss normally does two or three days with us and Mike Riley normally does about 20 miles and then stops.
“We were planning to do another one this summer around the Euro host cities — 2,020 miles in 20 days in 2020.
“But that’s by the by now. Charities are now losing out with the London Marathon and other events cancelled.”
Atkinson hopes this virus will be beaten to allow football to restart quickly.
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He said: “It’s my life. It’s what I’ve done for the last 20 years. I miss it a lot.
“But there are far more important things in life than football and refereeing.
“When the time comes and we go back out there, we will realise just how lucky we are.”