Stephen John Baines (born 23 June 1954) is an English former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

and later a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other tit ...

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

. Born in Newark,

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

, during his refereeing career he resided in Chesterfield,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. He is the only referee in the League's history to have had a significant career previously as a professional player.Playing profile
: Chesterfield FC Official website.

Playing career

Baines started his career with nearby Nottingham Forest, and made his debut in the 1972–73 season, but only played twice before being transferred to

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

. He made over one hundred appearances for that club before moving to local rivals

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

in 1977. After 99 league games for them he departed to

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

. There was a loan spell at Bury before he returned on a permanent transfer to Walsall. A final move to Chesterfield, where he spent the final years of his League career as player/coach, ended in 1987, after which he played briefly for various non-League clubs. At the close of his playing career he had made almost 450 League appearances. He had generally operated as a

centre-half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, scoring 42 goals – a good record for this position. In the period from 1979–80 onwards he was sent off once, while on loan at Bury in January 1982.

Refereeing career

Baines remained in Chesterfield and worked in

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

. In a rare move for an ex-player he soon took up refereeing. He made good progress, reaching the Panel Leagues and becoming a Football League assistant in 1994. After just one year he was promoted to the Referees List. Only one other referee had ever been promoted that quickly – former

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...

referee Joe Timmons, in 1987. Only two other referees – Bob Matthewson and John Lloyd – had previous professional playing experience but the pair only made five League appearances between them. Baines had made the List after less than ten years refereeing. However he was still able to serve eight years as a Football League referee during which he had a low rate of red and yellow cards. He handled matches involving most of his former clubs although not Chesterfield, in line with League policy.

References

Print

*Football League Handbook (1994) *Rothmans / Sky Sports Football Yearbooks, 1995–2003 *Barry Hugman (1998) The PFA Premier and Football League Players' Records 1946–1998, Queen Anne Press *Tony Brown (2001) Red-Missed: Sendings-off in English Football 1979/80 to 2000/01, Soccerdata *Gilbert Upton (2005) Football League and Premiership Referees 1888 to 2005, Soccerdata

External links

Steve Baines Referee Statistics
at

soccerbase ''Racing Post'' is a British daily horse racing, greyhound racing and sports betting publisher which is published in print and digital formats. It is printed in tabloid format from Monday to Sunday. , it has an average daily circulation of 60 ...

.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Baines, Steve 1954 births Living people Sportspeople from Newark-on-Trent Footballers from Nottinghamshire English footballers Association football defenders Nottingham Forest F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Bury F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players English Football League players English football referees English Football League referees