THE Ballon D’Or voting might not show it – but Lionel Messi is way behind Cristiano Ronaldo when it comes to who is the best player on the planet.

I had the pleasure of refereeing Cristiano many times and got on well with him when he was at Manchester United, and since he moved on to Real Madrid.

Despite all his fame I find him to be down to earth and genuine and he would appreciate it when you spoke honestly with him.

I remember one occasion at Anfield I was jogging off the pitch just before kick-off to hand my fourth official the coin and I shouted over at Cristiano: “If I see you go down too easily once, you’ll get nothing from me again all day.”

He smiled at me – and was good as gold for the rest of the afternoon.

Since he left Manchester I’ve been invited over to Madrid as a guest of Jose Mourinho and was honoured to stay in the hotel and eat with the players, and Cristiano is just as good company off the field too.

He is good friends with Sergio Ramos and Marcelo, and they all enjoyed ribbing me about how many yellow cards I’d dished out.

A class act through and through, I can’t think of anyone who deserves the accolade any more.

Now Cristiano is a player who isn’t shy about taking off his shirt and I’m sure he has picked up a few needless cautions down the years.

But isn’t it time we abolished this silly law and just admit that it is done in the name of entertainment?

If a player whips off his shirt and there is a political message underneath then fine, punish him retrospectively if you have to.

But if it is done in the heat of battle, showing the passion we have in our game, I think we should let it slide.

Referees don’t want to enforce that law, they are made to. It is exactly the same when a player is made to leave the field of play after picking up an injury.

I saw in the Swansea v West Ham game that James Collins collided with his own player and was then forced to go off as his team was defending a corner.

How does that make sense? Your best defender forced off because he clashed heads with his own man?

My advice to any club would be that if you have knocked heads with a team-mate, both of you should stay down. That way the laws say you can’t re-start the game until everyone has been treated.

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TIME waits for no man – and there are signs it is catching up with Premier League ref Phil Dowd.

We’ve all read what Jose Mourinho is alleged to have shouted from the dugout in a recent game against Tottenham. It isn’t the first time questions have been asked about Phil’s fitness levels and he’s quite experienced enough to deal with it.

I know from experience that once you get into your fifties, it is tough.

By the time I finished, I didn’t recover as quickly after my illness and my body basically said ‘no more.’

Now I’m retired I’ve put on a few pounds, I still go to the gym but I enjoy my red wine and cheese, because I can.

You can see by looking at Phil he’s a big lad. He’s got a sweet tooth and I know he likes his biscuits.

He lost a lot of weight at the start of last season but like a lot of people, you find it goes back on a lot easier.

Every referee has to download their data every week to the sports scientists and they give you a training regime to stick to. It does get more difficult as time goes on.

It’s important to note that Jose didn’t question Phil’s ability as a referee, just his fitness. Mourinho has been slapped with an FA charge and it seems they both made up afterwards.

But I’m sorry to say that the perception across the rest of Europe is that our officials are not in the kind of shape they should be. It needs the powers that be to take a grip.

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REFEREEING in the Football League hasn’t changed in donkey’s years.

The way officials are coached, the way they are assessed, it belongs in the 1980s. And sadly I’m seeing the standards are slipping too.

I see Neil Lennon and Neil Redfearn were both in agreement that Andy Woolmer had a poor game on Saturday at the Macron, and it seems to be every week we are seeing some major mistake highlighted in a Bolton game.

Andy is a postman, a part-time referee, but I don’t think that can excuse a bad performance.

The system is failing, that much is true, and you can tell that by speaking with players and managers up and down the country.

The way we assess our referees at that level hasn’t changed in decades but the other major failure is the way we coach them.

Currently you have four regional ex-referees who look after their patch but, in my opinion, their standard is very ordinary.

I’ve offered my services to the Lancashire Football Association in the past but my phone has never rang – and I find that astounding.

I’ve said before that the whole refereeing system needs a complete overhaul, top to bottom.

I understand Mike Riley has been appointed to the board of the PGMOL and maybe that’s a sideways step to allow someone else to lead.

People assume Howard Webb will be the man to step up but I still have reservations about whether he’s the right man.

He still has friends in the job, trains with them, and is a bit too close to make the major decisions, in my view. He’s also lacking on the business side of things.

We need someone from the outside with a fresh perspective.