As he is leaving the Lightfoot Centre in Walker, Steve Harper’s BlackBerry bleeps. “Shearer,” he says. “He wants to play golf tomorrow.” So far, so standard: just another scene from that all-devouring soap, “The Premier League”. Steve Harper: Newcastle goalie, golf with Alan Shearer, fancy mobile phone, nice car that he is now strolling towards. Would you expect anything else?

But Harper is no stereotype. His time at the Lightfoot Centre was spent with children from the deprived east end of Newcastle who were being rewarded for school attendance of 90% or upwards as part of a successful campaign by Newcastle Education Welfare Service. Harper was not just there to give out prizes and take part in a gruelling Q&A grilling (sample question from a nine-year-old: “Do you think you’re better than Shay Given?” Response, blushing: “I’m really not going to answer that.”). He also refereed a mini-football tournament involving the kids.

Another thing that confounds cliche is this player’s empathy with men in the middle. Before playing commitments forced him to give up, Harper was a referee himself. He began in his teens and progressed to officiating in the Peterlee and District League in his native County Durham. It seems appropriate that he is from Easington, the pit village where they filmed Billy Elliot, the story of a youngster with an unusual, supposedly shameful interest. Harper’s history can make him the odd man out. “The other week (when Newcastle beat Everton 3-2 at St James’ Park) Emre’s gone down in the box and all the subs and coaches are screaming, ‘Penalty’. I said straight away, ‘It’s not’. They all had their black and white eyes in,” Harper grins. “I get some abuse when I stand up for the referees; ‘It’s not a penalty, and here’s why it’s not a penalty’. I suppose I’m a bit of a calming influence on the bench.”

Poachers and gamekeepers. Harper, 32, is at an age footballers, even goalkeepers, begin thinking about life after playing. An intelligent fellow who has completed one year of a social science degree at Durham university and already dabbled with media punditry, he will not lack options but if he follows one idea for a new career he might help change the face of the game. “I’d love to stay in football and if there was a fast-track option for former players to become referees I’d consider it. I don’t think I’d be the only one,” he says.

Mark Clattenburg’s calamities last week at Goodison Park put English refereeing in the stocks, and not for the first time this season. Standards need improving, but how? Other sports capitalise on the knowledge of former participants by encouraging them to become arbiters. Peter Willey and Mark Benson are among cricket’s top umpires. The Rugby World Cup final was refereed by Alain Rolland, who won three caps for Ireland at scrum-half. In football, the number of former players now officiating is negligible. There is Graham Hor-wood, capped by England schools and now in his first season as a Football League referee. More prominent is Darren Cann, who has been assistant referee at an FA Cup final and reached the Fifa list. Cann was on the books of Norwich and Crystal Palace before swapping his boots for a whistle aged 22.

No prominent player has done similar, however, and nor has one whose career has lasted a normal span. Time is an issue. It takes most referees between seven and 10 years to progress to the highest echelon, meaning a player quitting at 35 might not get there until aged 42 at least – and referees retire from the Fifa list at 45 and from Premier League duties at 48. “In the past, a fast-track option has been mentioned but never realised,” says Harper. “I don’t know if people don’t take it seriously but the more we can keep former players in the game, whether it’s coaching or refereeing, the better, because the experience you pick up from playing that could get lost is invaluable.”

The good news for Harper is that change is on the way. The Football Association has responsibility for training referees and Neale Barry, its progressive head of senior refereeing development, has spent the past six months working in conjunction with the PFA, Premier League and Professional Game Match Officials Board on a system to allow players to become officials more quickly. It may be in place for footballers retiring next year. “It’s not fast-tracking because you can only climb the ladder on merit,” says Barry, “but it should give players a proper chance to be referees, which they don’t have currently.”

Players would be able to take refereeing courses while playing, in much the same way they gain coaching badges. They would be given mentors and develop their officiating by handling academy games. They could then, if good enough, enter at Supply League level (nonleague football, just below the Conference) when they finish playing. At that point, they could be as few as three years from becoming part of the PGMOB select group – referees who handle Premier League matches, are eligible for Uefa and Fifa consideration and earn around £70,000 per year. The PFA is looking at supporting players through the transitional period with a bursary system.

“The standard of refereeing in the Premier League is already very high,” says Harper, “but there are certain situations where former players might have the eye. Simulation and gamesmanship especially; with players going to ground more easily than in the past, former players might have that little advantage, that bit of insider knowledge, in seeing what those players are doing. Communication; knowing dressing-room banter and how it works on the field would help you understand how to talk to players.

“The argument from some existing referees is, ‘I’ve refereed since the age of 14, done 15 years in all weather and began on the parks, so what gives a professional footballer the right to cut out all those years of hard work?’ They have a point. Players should have to earn the right to referee like anybody else.”

For Barry it is an extension of a philosophy that refereeing should be opened up to new talent and favour anyone showing excellence. Recently, Michael Oliver became a Football League referee at the age of 21 and Stuart Atwell, 25, and Steven Cook, 22, have also progressed rapidly through the system.

Barry’s success in convincing the often-conservative county FAs – barriers in previous attempts to alter the face of refereeing – to accept the promotion of the likes of Oliver makes him optimistic that they will not stand in the way of the scheme involving former players. “We’re trying to break down barriers and allow whoever’s good, whether they’re 21 or 31, to rise to the top,” he says. “Just because someone was a good footballer it doesn’t mean they’ll make a good ref, but they might. I refereed for 32 years and felt I was a pretty good judge of what’sa foul, but I’m not saying that makes me a better judge than a player. Let’s give the players a chance to referee and see.”

Poachers turned gamekeepers

Rugby

England versus South Africa in a World Cup fi nal is a testing game to handle and the IRB entrusted it to Alain Rolland, whose calm and authoritative offi ciating has made him one of the sport’s top referees. Rolland is a former international who played for Ireland, winning three caps at scrum-half. Joel Jutge, another World Cup referee, played for French side Colomiers at 18 but had his career cut by a knee injury

Cricket

The practice of fast-tracking former players into the highest echelons of umpiring is now well established. Peter Willey, inset, the former England allrounder, was a leading Test umpire before quitting to spend more time with his family. Mark Benson, who played for England, is on the ICC elite panel of umpires as was former Test player John Hampshire

Football Francisco Bru Sanz played for Barcelona and Espany ol and refereed in the 1916 and 1917 Spanish Cup finals