Keith Stroud (referee)
Encyclopedia
Keith Paul Stroud is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 referee, who officiates in the Coca-Cola Football League. He is based in Gillingham, Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

.

Career

He first took up refereeing in 1988. He progressed via the Wessex League
Wessex League
The Wessex League is an English association football league formed in 1986, with its premier division currently at the fifth step of the National League System, or the ninth tier of the overall English football league system...

, becoming a National List assistant referee in the year 2000, and a Select Group assistant referee in 2002. Also in 2002, he was an assistant referee for the old Division Three play-off
Football League Play-Offs
The Football League play-offs are an annual series of football matches to determine some of the promotion places within the Football League. Essentially, each division of the league offers a certain number of automatic promotion places to the top two or three clubs. A further promotion place is...

 final at the Millennium Stadium
Millennium Stadium
The Millennium Stadium is the national stadium of Wales, located in the capital, Cardiff. It is the home of the Wales national rugby union team and also frequently stages games of the Wales national football team, but is also host to many other large scale events, such as the Super Special Stage...

, Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

, between Cheltenham
Cheltenham Town F.C.
Cheltenham Town Football Club is an English football club playing in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. Founded in 1887, the team has played at four different grounds, namely Agg-Gardner's Recreation Ground, Carter's Field and now the Abbey Business Stadium, although it is more...

 and Rushden & Diamonds
Rushden & Diamonds F.C.
Rushden & Diamonds Football Club was an association football club based in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England. Formed by a merger of Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds in 1992, the club played in the Conference National following a short spell in the Football League at the start of...

.

Stroud was appointed as one of the assistant referees to Graham Barber
Graham Barber
Graham P. Barber is an English former football referee. He was based in Tring in Hertfordshire during his career, but now lives in Spain.-Career:...

 during the FA Cup Final 2003
FA Cup Final 2003
The 2003 FA Cup Final saw the holders Arsenal, beat Southampton. The match took place on Saturday, 17 May 2003 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and ended 1–0 with a 38th minute goal by Robert Pirès separating the sides....

, when Arsenal
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

 defeated Southampton
Southampton F.C.
Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...

 by 1-0, again at the Millennium Stadium, on 17 May 2003.

He was promoted from the Football Conference
Football Conference
The Football Conference is a football league in England which consists of three divisions called Conference National, Conference North, and Conference South. Some Football Conference clubs are fully professional, such as Luton Town, but most of them are semi-professional...

 to the National List of referees in 2004, and became a FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...

 assistant referee in the same year. His first Football League
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 match in control was the League Two encounter between Cheltenham Town and Scunthorpe United
Scunthorpe United F.C.
Scunthorpe United Football Club is an English association football team based in the town of Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, who play in the Football League One....

 at Whaddon Road
Whaddon Road
Whaddon Road is a football stadium in Cheltenham, England. It is the home ground of Cheltenham Town F.C. and shared with Gloucester City A.F.C.. It has a total capacity of 7,066, with a mixture of seating and terracing...

 on 10 August 2004, which finished as a 2-0 away win. Also in that year, he was in charge of the Football Conference
Football Conference
The Football Conference is a football league in England which consists of three divisions called Conference National, Conference North, and Conference South. Some Football Conference clubs are fully professional, such as Luton Town, but most of them are semi-professional...

 play-off final, at Stoke's Britannia Stadium, which saw Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury Town F.C.
Shrewsbury Town Football Club is an English Association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, who play in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. The club was formed in 1886 and has played in all the bottom three divisions in various guises since being elected into the Football...

 beat Aldershot
Aldershot F.C.
Aldershot Football Club was an English Football League club, which was wound up in the High Court in March 1992. They became the first Football League club since Accrington Stanley to resign from the League during the course of a season. The club was nicknamed the Shots for both the last syllable...

 3-0 on penalties
Penalty shootout (football)
A penalty shoot-out, referred to as kicks from the penalty mark in the Laws of the Game, is the FIFA official term for a method used in association football to decide which team progresses to the next stage of a tournament following a tied game...

, following a 1-1 scoreline after extra time.

He handled a League One play-off semi-final first leg in 2006, and a League Two play-off semi-final first leg in 2007.

In season 2006-07
2006-07 in English football
The 2006–07 season was the 127th season of competitive football in England.-Overview:* The number of divisions at Level 8 of the English football league system increased from four to five...

, he was 'trialled' for the Premier League, being given the match on 17 March 2007 between Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough F.C.
Middlesbrough Football Club , also known as Boro, are an English football club based in Middlesbrough, who play in the Football League Championship. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadium since August 1995, their third ground since turning professional in 1889...

 and Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...

 at the Riverside Stadium
Riverside Stadium
The Riverside Stadium is a football stadium in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Middlesbrough F.C. since it opened in 1995...

, which City won 2-0. Stroud cautioned three players.

On 26 July 2007, a Press release from the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, which employs Premier League referees full-time, stated that he had been included in the Select Group of 19 referees for season 2007-08
2007-08 in English football
The 2007–08 season was the 128th season of competitive football in England.-European competitions:In October 2007 Arsenal equalled the UEFA Champions League record victory with a 7–0 win over Slavia Prague at the Emirates Stadium. The record was broken the following month when Liverpool...

. At the same time, he stepped down from the FIFA list of assistant referees.

He is also currently the Referees' Development Manager for the Hampshire Football Association
Hampshire Football Association
The Hampshire Football Association, also known as Hampshire FA, is the governing body of football in the county of Hampshire. It was formed in 1887.-External links:* * *...

, being an associate member although living in Dorset.

It was confirmed in May 2009 that Stroud had been dropped from the Select Group of referees, along with Steve Tanner and Uriah Rennie. Kevin Friend was promoted to replace him. However, in July 2009, it was reported in The Times that Stroud, along with Tanner, had been reinstated as it found out his demotion breached regulations. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1196820/Embarrassment-outgoing-refs-chief-Keith-Hackett-told-decision-axe-refs-flawed.html

Career statistics

SeasonGamesTotal per gameTotal per game
2003/2004 8 30 3.75 2 0.25
2004/2005 30 113 3.77 1 0.03
2005/2006 39 139 3.56 9 0.23
2006/2007 38 96 2.52 3 0.08
2007/2008 34 111 3.26 6 0.17

External links

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