WHEN referee Geoff Harding-Roots started out, Stanley Matthews was a household name and players wore long, baggy shorts.

Now the game is

littered with stars from the continent who are attracted to these shores by sky-high wages and lucrative sponsorship deals.

But 73-year-old Geoff has remained part of the furniture at non-league football matches in Sussex despite all the changes in the game.

He has been refereeing for more than 40 years and officiates in the Mid Sussex League and for schools, universities and centres of excellence.

Geoff, of Portslade, who took charge of his first match in February 1953, has no dreams of putting away his notebook and cards just yet.

He raises a few eyebrows among young footballers with his trademark beard and receding hair but he gains nothing but respect from players.

The former Football League referee still believes he has much to offer the game, especially to the youngsters.

He said: "So many children nowadays don't have a clear understanding of the rules, it's because they're not really taught them properly at school.

" I'm quite prepared, if head teachers get in touch with the Sussex FA, to go to schools and teach children the laws of the game."

Geoff has officiated over 1,300 matches, which started with the Croydon League Division Four meeting between Old Selsdonians and Bailey Athletic.

The ageing official remembers Old Selsdonians won the match

2-1, but then he can recall every game he has

officiated.

For the Grade I ref keeps a log of his best moments, allowing him to recall the time he went to Walsall to take charge of a cup match against Shrewsbury and when he was the man in black in Cape Town, South Africa, in front of 40,000 spectators.

He moved to South Africa in 1967, where he ran a chartered airline company for five years, and then to Saudi Arabia for 10 years to work for their national airline.

While in South Africa he took charge of its national league games and in the Middle East officiated a few Saudi Arabia internationals against the likes of Korea, Thailand, Libya and Algeria.

He said: "It was quite an experience and when finally arriving back in England in 1987, I decided it was probably time to retire. But the Sussex FA said they would like me to keep going."

Geoff's long service to refereeing was rewarded in 1997 when he received a medallion from the FA for 50 years as a Grade I official.

He is an assessor for the County League and is often involved with the Albion's Centre of Excellence. To keep himself in shape, the father-of-three plays tennis three times a week and goes jogging every day.

Does he find it taxing running around the park? "Not at all. I keep myself in good shape and have been told I run around like a man in his 30s!"

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