Arsenal and David Elleray - refereeing documentary from 1989 

This was from Arsenal's Championship-winning season, 1988-89. We won the game 2-1, thanks to a brilliant half volley by Brian Marwood.

Today's coverage with yesterday's football, now that would be heaven!

Tony Adams girlie voice screaming "That was over the line...That was over the line.....It's a goal!!"... hahahaha.

i love how offended he got by "cheat', it'd be like telling a comedian he's not funny

Elleray rarely got flustered. 22 angry men hurling insults and intimidation he wasn't having any of it. People at the time considered him strict but he was very fair but didn't let players take the piss with flying tackles and abuse.

If players treated referees with respect there wouldn’t be a need for the Sgt Major approach. They make mistakes like players do. Part and parcel of the game - like penalty misses, own goals and so onz

Sporting Spotlight: David Elleray In February 1989 you famously wore a microphone while refereeing Millwall v Arsenal. The subsequent documentary caused a media frenzy and officials haven't been recorded since. Do you regret taking part in the project? It was a shame the programme was corrupted. The original show looked at violence towards referees, particularly on local parks. They filmed me officiating the top game of the day as well as a local referee to see how we were both treated. I saw a preview which was very balanced, but it was then hijacked to become a witch-hunt of Arsenal. Bleeps were put in to give the impression that players were swearing when they hadn't. They only showed the occasions when there was some sort of dispute between the players and me. They edited out all the good exchanges and gave the impression that Arsenal had behaved appallingly. They destroyed the opportunity for people to have a really good behind the scenes look at refereeing. A balanced documentary would have given them greater access to referees wearing microphones in the future, which hasn't happened since. And it probably won't for a long time.

“Tony Adams went mental” says one commentator very astute of you sir the shrieking pisshead the George Graham bit was gold dust at the end🤣😉

To be fair, Elleray was not a brilliant referee. He was far too strict in a sense. He wasn't a cheat, or biased, but he was just too strict for the time. Back then, football was still a physical game, but Elleray didn't like physical football. He had a tendency to give soft penalties for 50/50 challenges. Elleray also had a tendency to over-rule his linesman, which unless you can be absolutely sure of your own decision, you should NEVER do as a referee.

It’s OVEERRrrrrr the LiineeEEE 😂

I love the old school football the players were proper blokes and matches had that whiff of menace on the terraces. Nowadays it's like disneyland only more expensive and more quiet

“Name” 😂😂

KEVIN DAY SHOULDNT BE CLASSED AS A COMEDIAN, HES BOUT AS FUNNY AS PILES

It's from 1989, I doubt there's an uncensored version

Adam's was just trying to get sent off so he could partake in his favorite pass time of drink driving through people's front gardens. George Graham didn't want to be caught on film handling brown envelopes

Distorted view of relationship between players and referees? More like an honest view. Elleray is an uptight deluded man.

That's my goal. I love Tony Adams 😂😂😂

As a MILLWALL fan since my 1st match in 1962 I KNOW we got away with murder at The OLD Den where referees were slaughtered if they gave the opponents a corner or free kick so did not want the publicity of a BLATANT Arsenal goal not given when it clearly crossed the line. Other side of the coin i AWAY we rarely got any decisions of significance over the last 55 years..lol

Bleeping out the swear words...REALLY?

Lord Elleray

full version anywhere?

Overrated referee one of the worse

undeserving champions