Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2014 | Page 22

INTERVIEW

Ref Lee
reaches
ultimate
goal

By Peter White

F

rom the notorious slopping
pitch of Niton Football Club
to the hallowed turf inside
Wembley Stadium. That is the
incredible path trodden by top flight
football referee Lee Probert, who learned
his skills here on the Island.
Lee received the ultimate honour earlier
this year when he was chosen to referee
the FA Cup final between Arsenal and
Hull City. It was a day he and his family
will never forget, and one that he never
expected until he received a surprise
phone call from the Football Associat ion.
He smiled: “I picked up the phone at
10.58am on Tuesday April 8, about a
month before the final. A voice said ‘good
morning Mr. Probert, or should I say can I
speak to the 2014 FA Cup Final referee’? It
really was a dream come true, being asked
to take charge of the biggest game in
22

www.visitilife.com

English football. As an Island boy I used
to watch the whole build-up to the Cup
Final on TV, from 9am until it finished,
and then go and ‘replay’ it with mates at
Ferncliff Gardens in Sandown afterwards,
using jumpers as goalposts.”
The appointment realised a lifetime
ambition for Lee, 42, who came to the
Island from Aylesbury as a five-year-old
when his parents moved to Sandown
to run a guest house. Stepping out at
Wembley in front of 89,345 spectators,
and being watch on TV by hundreds
of millions worldwide, was a far cry
from the days when Lee took charge of
schoolboy games on the Island.
He attended Sandham Middle School
and then Sandown High School, and
like virtually every youngster he loved
playing football, although he admits: “I
wasn’t that good. Funnily enough after
refereeing the FA Cup final I received a
message from my old master at Sandown
High School saying ‘we knew you would

succeed at refereeing because your
footballing skills were never the best’. But
I loved all sports, and never ever thought
of becoming a referee. It was the last thing
I wanted to do.”
But eventually that was the route he
took, passing his initial refereeing exam,
and officiating schoolboy matches on
Saturday mornings. He said: “One day
my sports teacher asked me what lessons
I had that afternoon, and I told him
‘double French’. He said we were going off
to Cowes High School for a game which
he wanted me to referee, adding ‘forget
about double French, you will never be
any good at French, but you might have a
chance as a referee’.”
Although youngsters had to be 16 to
take their first referee’s exam, Lee took his
at 15 because his family were going on
holiday to Spain when he was due to sit
it. When he returned he was told he had
passed, and as soon as he was 16 he was
out every weekend around Lake, Binstead