Former Premier League and FIFA referee Bobby Madley is the man in the middle for Dale’s trip to the Sands Venue Stadium (Glanford Park) to take on Scunthorpe United on Saturday.

This is the second time Bobby has refereed this fixtures as he was also in charge at Scunthorpe in February 2012, where John Coleman’s Rochdale side went down to a 1-0 defeat.

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 oversaw 36 matches last term, including Morecambe v Newport in the League Two play-off final.

Dale actually saw him three times last season, as Mr Madley refereed our home defeat to Salford in the Papa John’s Trophy, the 3-3 draw with Wigan (in which Jim McNulty was sent-off) and the 1-0 loss at Fleetwood late in the campaign.

Saturday will be Mr Madley’s tenth Dale match, a list that started 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
Apr 2021 Fleetwood (a), L 0-1

Bobby’s brother, Andy Madley, is currently a Premier League and FIFA referee and on Saturday he is in the middle at Southampton v Everton.

Back to Bobby and this will be his 26th game of the season, with the previous 25 yielding 83 yellow cards and three reds. His most recent appointment was Cheltenham v Fleetwood last Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

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