Former Premier League and FIFA referee Bobby Madley is the man in the middle for Dale’s trip to the Fylde coast to take on Fleetwood Town on Saturday.
This is the third time we have seen Bobby this season as he was also the referee for Dale’s Papa John’s Trophy defeat to Salford in November and the 3-3 draw with Wigan in January, both of those games taking place at Spotland.
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 has overseen 13 matches this term, including BBC Radio Bolton v Oldham and Fleetwood’s home fixture versus Sunderland.
As far as we are concerned, Saturday will be Mr Madley’s ninth Dale match, starting 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
Bobby’s brother, Andy Madley, is currently a Premier League and FIFA referee and on Sunday he oversaw Aston Villa v Fulham.
Back to Bobby and on Monday he refereed Shrewsbury v Plymouth, which was his 28th game of the season. Those matches have seen 87 yellow cards and four red, one of those going to Dale’s Jim McNulty at the Wigan game three months ago.