Cape referee Damon raring to go to Germany

Unlike Bafana Bafana, Jerome Damon is going to the World Cup finals in Germany.

And unlike many of South Africa's so-called star footballers, the Cape Town school teacher will be on top of his game should he get onto the pitch... a prospect looking more likely by the day.

Damon is one of South Africa's top referees and leaves next Friday for Germany where he will be one of five stand-by referees for the World Cup tournament that starts on June 9.

Twenty-three referees, along with 46 assistants, have been selected by soccer's world-governing body Fifa to officiate at the finals while 15 extra officials will be waiting in the wings should a ref or linesman pull out with injury, illness or for any other reason.

Earlier this week the Italian Football Federation withdrew three of its officials from the World Cup after the "referee-tampering" scandal that has rocked soccer in Italy.

Now there is a chance Damon will be the man to replace Massimo de Santis, the Italian referee who - with assistants Marco Ivaldi and Alessandro Griselli - is no longer going to Germany.

"I haven't heard anything and don't know the ranking order for replacements... Fifa may chose to replace them with Uefa officials," said Damon during break at Bridgetown High School in Athlone where he is an English and life orientation teacher .

And each day while in the classroom, Damon keeps in "training".

"Controlling footballers or a class of learners is very similar... I use the same approach.

"It's all about managing people. You've got to be incisive, look out for trouble and nip it in the bud immediately. If you don't your control is shot," said Damon. "It's the same on the pitch."

Besides the daily "sessions" at school, Damon works out at a gym three times a week and observes as many match officials in action as possible.

And it's not only soccer officials 34-year-old Damon keeps tabs on. "Steve Walsh (top rugby referee) is one of my favourites... how he handles different situations. Now that rugby refs are wired you can hear them explaining their decisions."

Damon said he's also picked up a lot from (former top SA rugby ref) Andre Watson's auto-biography. "There are so many helpful things in that book."

English football referee Graham Poll is another man Damon follows closely. "I'll watch a Premiership game he handles and SMS him, asking about some of his decisions," said Damon.

Another decision the South African wouldn't have queried was Terje Hauge, the Norwegian referee who sent Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann off 18 minutes into Wednesday night's Champions League final.

"It was the correct decision; in a position like that (a deliberate foul) you instinctively blow... I would have done the same."

As with many successful managers, Damon is proof that playing at the highest level is not a requisite to becoming an excellent referee. While his schoolmates played soccer, rugby and cricket, Damon was the star of Spes Bona High's chess team.

"My dad and uncles played soccer but I never had the inclination, I just wasn't interested and didn't think I would take to it... I decided to give refereeing a try."

That was 17 years ago when he was in matric and some of his first games were school fixtures.

"The comments would fly when the opposition saw the ref arrive wearing the school uniform of the team they were about to play," recalled Damon.

"But they never had a thing to worry about. I was always stricter with my schoolmates, by the end of the game most of the complaints were from my own school."

And since then, as Damon has risen through the ranks, almost all the complaints have proved to be unfounded. Such as the fuss over Didier Drogba's goal against Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations semifinal in Egypt earlier this year.

"Although none of the Nigerians - including their bench - complained, a CAF referee inspector said I'd got it wrong and pretty soon the media picked up on the story," said Damon who sensed trouble as he walked off the pitch. "I immediately called my father in Cape Town and asked him to scrutinise the incident in slow motion.

"Half an hour later he called back to say I'd got it right.

"I also asked Mark Gleeson (SuperSport presenter) who couldn't see a problem."

Damon went to the CAF referee's' committee, who eventually vindicated the Cape Town ref. "They said we made the right decision."

Getting it right is the result of hard work more than luck for Damon who is in regular contact with Erroll Sweeney, the former PSL referee who returned to Ireland a few years ago.

"If I know one of my games will be on Eurosport, I ask Erroll to watch and he critiques me afterwards."

Today Damon still refers to advice he received from Sweeney a decade ago: "He said a ref gets one chance to make a good impression. If you have a problem early on and don't deal with it, you deserve all the trouble the rest of the match is sure to throw up," recalled Damon.

A year ago the Capetonian was in charge of a Croatia-Iceland World Cup qualifier in Zargreb and a week today he leaves for the finals not knowing if he'll take the stage, with a host of superstars, at soccer's greatest event.

If called on, though, he is match-fit and primed.

"I'm ready for the challenge, no problem, I'll go on."