What a card!

No nonsense Nick Davis will be refereeing the highly-competitive Bahrain Expat League with a steely determination to firmly but fairly enforce the rules Ö with a smile on his face.

Davis, a technical manager by day and a referee by night, started refereeing at the age of 17 in England after a nasty knee injury scuppered his football-playing career and now boasts more than 26 years of experience under his belt.
 
The 44-year-old Jasra resident moved to Bahrain a couple of years ago and within days of arriving on the island was asked to referee a tournament at the Rugby Club.

Davis was one of the founding partners of the eight-aside expat league which kicked off in 2010 and has been regularly referring fixtures assisted by his colleague in black, Peter Hunt.

Davis said: ìThe league is a family that brings together people for sport, fun and enjoyment and this way everyone has made new friends from the footy.

ìIt is fun to referee and not hard – you just have to be fair. It really is meant to be enjoyable for the players.

'You will always get complaints though – it happens in all the best leagues – even the English Premiership. When you go out onto a pitch you will have 22 refs, or in our case 16, who think they know better than you on some decisions.'

Davis continued: 'People will then mark down the referee if something goes against them or they lose. While I have experienced many ‘moments’ in the league, there isn’t a particular one that sticks out in my mind, but what I can tell you is that I always referee with a smile and a laugh Ö like I said, it’s about enjoyment.'

The league matches are played on the newly-renovated artificial pitches at the British School of Bahrain in Hamala every Monday and Wednesday evening. Each team play each other once for the league title and the sides will also play for the coveted GulfWeekly Cup in an end-of-season bid for glory.

Players are expected to follow the same set of disciplinary codes and rules created by the sport’s leading authority, the FÈdÈration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Davis added: 'I expect fair play and respect from the teams this season as Peter and I will not tolerate any dissent.

'We are already witnessing some good competitive games and hopefully it will be a very close contest for the title.'