● A personal memoir into a little recorded, but highly visible, aspect of football from someone who spent nine seasons on the National List of Assistant Referees.
● Includes encounters with big names including: Gary Lineker, Paul Gascoigne, Arsene Wenger and Roy Keane.
● The perfect stocking filler for fans of the beautiful game.
They come out of the football stadium’s tunnel first, but all eyes are on the well-paid athletes behind them. No one pays the Referee or the Referee’s Assistants any attention – until they make a mistake. Then all hell breaks loose.
My Life On The Line
They can’t explain themselves – or defend themselves against the crowd’s abuse. Who would want the high-pressure job of running the line in professional football? Gavin Muge for one and he threads a personal football memoir together with is own attempt to scale the peak of the professional game. He officiated at the infamous Riot of Upton Park in August 2009, and has witnessed many examples of the darker side of football. After nine seasons on the National List of Assistant Referees, Gavin has pretty much seen it all and has his own unique take on the modern game. My Life on the Line will have a wide appeal to the hundreds of thousands of fans who loyally follow their clubs up and down the countryside every weekend.
Gavin Muge: when Hertfordshire born Gavin was five, he began is lifelong devotion to football. His first live game confirmed his undying allegiance to Luton Town FC. Although a keen schoolboy player, he realised his talents would only take him so far and he started refereeing youth matches at the age of 15. After a lot of hard work he progressed through the ranks to reach the National List of Referees in 2008. In nine seasons on the Football League line, Gavin officiated in over 250 matches. He retired in 2017 and has a successful career in sports and leisure management.
Simon Rae: Prolific author and poet Simon tried supporting Canterbury City but switched to Liverpool FC for the 1965 FA Cup final against Leeds. He is still a dedicated supporter although his first love is cricket and his definitive biography of W.G Grace (1998) was praised by John Major. In addition to his second cricket book, It’s not Cricket, he has published six novels and several volumes of poetry. He presented Poetry Please! on BBC Radio 4 for five years and wrote satirical verse for The Guardian.
My Life On The Line From Nine Elms Books out 1st December 2022 in Paperback £9.99 available via Amazon and to order in all good bookshops
Read more from Gavin as he reveals all in his 7 things an assistant referee comes across while officiating during a game CLICK HERE
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