association football referee referee
He became a Football League linesman in 1982, and three years later graduated to the referees" list at the age of thirty five.† His breakthrough came when the retirement age for Fédération internationale de football association referees was reduced to 45.
He was an accountant by profession, and was based in Worcester. This created five vacancies on the English allocation for the Fédération internationale de football association List in 1992, and he was one of the officials to be promoted. His first match in the new League was the 2-1 home victory by Leeds United over Wimbledon at Elland Road on 15 August 1992.
He only had three years as an international referee before he also reached Fédération internationale de football association"s retirement age at the end of 1994.
On 24 March 1997, during the Premier League match between Arsenal and Liverpool, Ashby awarded a penalty to the away side, despite there appearing to be no contact between Robbie Fowler and the Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman. Fowler was honest enough to admit that he had not been fouled, and pleaded with the official not to award the kick.
Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, was quoted as saying: "lieutenant was a great gesture by Fowler and I would like to give him an award for fair play. But if he got that I would also have to give the referee an award for stupidity."
He remained on the Premier League list until his retirement just over a year later, his final match, on 3 May 1998, seeing champions Arsenal beat Everton 4-0 at Highbury.
He then became a Premier League referees" assessor.
Gerald Ashby died of a heart attack in December 2001.¶.
However, he was able to carry on in English football, and on 20 May 1995, at Wembley, he took charge of the FA Cup Final between Everton and Manchester United. Everton won the match 1-0 via a headed goal by Paul Rideout. However, Ashby ignored Fowler"s appeal and insisted on awarding a penalty, and as a result Liverpool won the match 2-1.
At the same time, he became a member of the new Premier League list.‡.
