AS AN ASSISTANT referee, Phil Sharp has seen it all. He ran the line in the 2002 World Cup final in Japan, between Brazil and Germany, and still shivers at the memory of how, in the opening minutes, he had to face down Roberto Carlos, the Brazil defender.
“Germany were going forward and Roberto decided that an attacker was not going to go past him,” Sharp recalled. “I flagged, it was a natural instinct. It was a foul but Roberto came close to me, his arms in the air. I didn’t know what to do. There I was ten minutes into a World Cup final and the world’s greatest left back was giving me stick.
“I’m thinking: ‘Oh, my God. I’ve got another 80 minutes of this.’ So I looked him in the eye, shrugged my shoulders and put a smile on my face and said: ‘Sorry, but it was still a free kick.’ He winked, smiled back and trotted off. And the game went very well. Maybe it was a test but it helped me to settle.”
Sharp, a former printer, is still one of the world’s leading assistants. He ran the line at the 1999 FA Cup Final, between Manchester United and Newcastle United, and the Olympic Games final in Athens, between Argentina and Paraguay. He is a regular in the Barclays Premiership and international matches.
Next month, he will be involved in the Grass Roots Football Show at ExCeL. “It’s the first show but we’re already planning for year two,” Sharp said. “Maybe we can move it around the country, wherever it’s most beneficial. We believe it will be a great success. It’s where we all started and we’d never want it to die.”