Bob Sawtell and Neil Ellett inducted to Canadian hall of fame

[whistle blower]

OTTAWA, ON -- Neil Ellett, John Limniatis, Joan McEachern and Mike Stojanovic head the list of 2009 inductees to The Soccer Hall of Fame. The four players will be inducted next 6 June along with builders Bob Sawtell (referee), Derek Wisdom (administrator) and Colin Jose (historian). Also to be honoured is Pioneer Award winner, the late Ted Slade, and the Team of Distinction Award winner, the 1986 Canadian FIFA World Cup™ team.

Limniatis represented Canada in three FIFA World Cup™ Qualifiers campaigns and three CONCACAF Gold Cup competitions. He made 44 appearances for the national team between 1987 and 1997. He played professional soccer in Canada, the United States and Greece and was an original member of the Impact de Montréal. McEachern represented Canada at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Sweden 1995, Canada’s first-ever appearance in the women’s world championship. She made 32 appearances for the national team between 1987 and 1995 and was a two-time Jubilee Trophy winner with the Edmonton Angels in club football.

Both Ellett and Stojanovic, meanwhile, represented Canada in one FIFA World Cup™ Qualifiers campaign, Ellett in 1972 and Stojanovic in 1980-81 when Canada came oh-so-close to Spain 1982™. Ellett also represented Canada in two Pan American Games (1967, 1971) and was a Challenge Trophy champion with British Columbia in 1966. Stojanovic played professional soccer in Yugoslavia, Canada and the United States. He scored 83 goals in the old North American Soccer League.

Sawtell was a FIFA referee from 1990 to 1995. He won the Ray Morgan Memorial Award in 1991 and the Sport BC Official of the Year award in 1993. Wisdom was a long-serving administrator in New Brunswick, earning the nickname Mr. Soccer over the course of his 41 years in football. He was Soccer New Brunswick’s Executive Director from 1992 to 1998. Jose is the historian who has spent much of the past 40 years writing about North American soccer. Jose was presented the Canadian Soccer Association’s President’s Award in 2007.

Slade, the 2009 Pioneer Award winner, was a player, coach and official in Ontario for 60 years. He got his start as a player with the Toronto Willys Overland in 1913 before serving in the first Great War. He then turned to coaching and later was appointed to the Committee for Minor Soccer Development. He wrote perhaps the earliest book on coaching that was published in Canada, Soccer Coaching for Schools and Colleges.

The 2009 Team of Distinction award, at last, goes to the 1986 Canadian national team that participated in the 1986 FIFA World Cup Mexico™. That 1986 team featured coach Tony Waiters, assistant coach Bob Bearpark, and manager Les Wilson – all of whom have been inducted to The Soccer Hall of Fame. The team also featured trainer Joe Parolini, equipment manager Kevin Muldoon, physiotherapist Barry Crocker and doctors Tom Fried and Ed Johnson. Fifteen of the 22 players from that team have already been inducted into The Soccer Hall of Fame: Ian Bridge, Paul Dolan, Gerry Gray, Paul James, Bob Lenarduzzi, Tino Lettieri, Colin Miller, Dale Mitchell, Terry Moore, Randy Ragan, Randy Samuel, Branko Segota, Mike Sweeney, Carl Valentine and Bruce Wilson. The team also featured players Pasquale DeLuca, Sven Habermann, Greg Ion, James Lowery, David Norman, George Pakos and Igor Vrablic.

 

[johnnybluenose]

Canada has a Soccer Hall Of Fame!? Surely you jest?

 

[Captain Shamrock]

Congratulations..........two quality referees. Bob Sawtell was ALWAYS in the top 3.......Bobby Brown was there too............I can't think of a third at the moment though. I will throw Rene in there.

 

[Balsa]

Referee earns place in Hall of Fame
-SOCCER/Surrey's Bob Sawtell continues to contribute to referee development

Michael Booth
Surrey Now


Friday, December 19, 2008

Veteran referee Bob Sawtell is hoping to return to the soccer pitch to officiate kids games in the new year.

As Bob Sawtell surveyed the packed stands of Mexico City's famed Azteca Stadium before the start of the 1993 Gold Cup final between the United States and Mexico, one thing was certain: he had come a long way from refereeing matches with the Whalley Soccer Club.

"That game was amazing," Sawtell recalled. "There was not a seat left in the house -- they had 138,000 people there, more people than there were seats. People were sitting on the steps and on the gangways and there was no way out. We told security that the situation was unsafe and they turned around and told us that it was not safe if we didn't play the game. To stop the game and then have all those people trying to get out of there in an agitated state was not a good plan."

Mexico won the game 4-0 and the happy fans departed the stadium at their leisure. Sawtell returned to Surrey and began preparing for his next assignment as one of Canada's top FIFA-carded referees.

Sawtell's contributions to the game and to the officiating fraternity associated with it will be recognized next June when he is inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in Toronto in the builder's category. The honour marks a career in soccer that spans 50 years and two continents by a man who is still contributing to this day.

Sawtell, 58, grew up in England before immigrating to Canada in 1977. After three years in Winnipeg, the Sawtell family moved to Surrey. At the age of 30, Sawtell made what seemed to be a logical move, hanging up his playing cleats and turning his attention to refereeing.

"I started in refereeing because I still wanted to be involved in soccer but I realized that playing wasn't going to be an option forever," Sawtell said. "To me, refereeing has allowed me to stay involved in the game and to still be around people that I like."

At that time, the normal referee career path called for a player to hang up his cleats at around 30 and make the jump to refereeing. As he progressed in his new role, he would move up the ranks of officials until the point when, if he was lucky, at around 38 he would earn designation as a FIFA referee for international competition. (At any time there are only seven FIFA referees in each country). He would then have a dozen years of service until his card expired at the age of 50.

Sawtell followed this path up through the ranks, acquiring his FIFA card in 1990 when he was 39. He began working international matches only to have his FIFA refereeing career cut short not by injury but by bureaucracy. In the early 1990's, FIFA opted to cap the age of international officials at 45, a move that lopped five years off of Sawtell's international career.

"That was a surprise," he said. "I thought I had eight years left and all of sudden it was, 'What? I'm done in two years? No; tell me it isn't so.'"

Sawtell was considered for an officiating position for 1994 World Cup in the United States and while he made the final six, he was not chosen to work on the big stage. Missing the World Cup actually increased his workload as non-cup officials were required to officiate in the games leading up to the big tournament. Sawtell ended up working the final of the 1993 Gold Cup between the U.S. and Mexico as well as an exhibition game between Germany and Mexico. Both games were played in Mexico City's massive Azteca Stadium, a venue that was as much a thrill for the officials as the players and fans.

"I loved Azteca Stadium," Sawtell recalled. "There was a moat around the field and it was kind of elevated. So the players were actually standing above the first row of seats and can look down on the fans. Even though it was a huge stadium, I felt really big in there.

"You can't hear anything when you're on the field. It's just one steady buzzing noise. It's pretty cool when a shot goes in and the roar of the crowd is amazing."

That same year, Sawtell also blew the whistle for an international match between the U.S. and Russia at the Kingdome in Seattle. Even with all these prestigious events on his resume, Sawtell said his favourite assignment actually came years earlier when he was still just a national carded referee,

"One of my fondest memories actually came in 1986 when England was going to the World Cup in Mexico," he recalled. "They played an exhibition game here at Swangard Stadium and I was selected to run the line as an assistant referee. So it was a game between my old country and my new country and I loved it. I still have the ball from that game."

After his FIFA designation expired, Sawtell continued to be involved in the soccer community. At different times he has served as president of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia and Canadian soccer referees associations. He has worked as a referee instructor and assessor at all levels in the country and he still sits on the referee development committees for B.C. Soccer and the Canadian Soccer Association. He works as a referee assessor with Major League Soccer in U.S. and regularly holds clinics to teach new referees the skills necessary to call the shots in the world's beautiful game.

"I was working at a clinic in (Coquitlam) just last week," he said. "One of the guys there was a player I had refereed for many years in the Chinese league. He sat in the front row and was going, 'Oh, so that's why you gave me the yellow card. Now I understand.'"

A bum hip put an apparent end to his officiating two years ago but a hip replacement surgery earlier this year has rekindled his fires.

"Because I had written it off, I really didn't miss refereeing but ever since last November when I learned I could get a new hip, I can't wait to get out there again," he said. "I really miss it now and I hope to get back to refereeing the kids after Christmas."

Sawtell received the news about his selection for the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame on Remembrance Day. He appreciates the honour but is under no illusions about what it means to the players in the games he officiates.

"This means a lot to me but it won't affect me or what I do," he said. "I know that when I finally do go back out on the field as a referee next year, this won't mean anything. To the players, the only thing that matters is my next decision."

 

[Rangerforever]

As Burnsie mentioned, those three guys I have very fond memories from my youth where I had the most immense respect of them as mens referess when I started out.
I'd like to say I learned a lot from from them and their quality refereering.
No disrespect to any other referees when I say that.
I am a fan of many others but as I said, in the early days first coming into mens, you learn a lot.
Fast.

Bob reffed us a lot in the FVSL Premeir League.
He always got the big games against our most bitter rivals.
I can honestly say I seriously was never disappointed in any of his calls or the job he did.
It was always excellent.

I love referees that you speak with during games.
Compliments both ways along with the odd yell at each other.
Explanation of calls, calming tempers between players, etc.
That being said, there were games when you didn't even notice Bob or talk to him.
You didn't realize until you shook his hand that he had even been there because every call was spot on.
Another testament to the man.

I think the respect of your peers defines a man.
I remember going to the Man U /Celtic match and it was the referees that organized it.
You can tell he's a leader in that circle and you see how the other refs gravitate to him in a social atmosphere.

The last time I spoke with Bob was at one of our games last year where he was assessing the ref.
He has recovered from hip surgery now quite nicely but I made it known to him how much we have missed him on the pitch.

Congratulations Bob on this amazing award and all your accomplishments.

And thank you for being such a class act and an ambassador to the local game.

Cheers and Merry Christmas my friend,
Frase

 

[larsson]

CALLIES were inducted a couple years ago!

 

[badknees7]

Congrats to Bob!! A classy guy and great ref!