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Dan Robathan

@danrobathan

10.7K

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Former PL/FIFA Assistant Referee
Rebuilding after spinal tumours
The real story - beyond the pitch👇🏼
Ambassador @sayitlad

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More men need to speak up.

It’s not weak. It’s not a failure. We all have a responsibility.

Let’s all play our part.

#mensmentalhealthawareness #suicideprevention #premierleague #football #athlete taken in London, England by @danrobathan

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12 days ago

My full story is now live with BBC News — the one I’ve never told publicly, about the tumours, the surgery and stepping away from the game. It means a lot that they’ve told it so carefully.

Have a read/listen, link in my bio.
#BBCSport #referee #premierleague #recovery

@bbceastofengland @bbcnews @ndesouz95 taken in Norwich, Norfolk by @danrobathan

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20 days ago

The most misunderstood job in football? The assistant referee.

We’re not ‘just the linesman.’ At the top level you’re sprinting, tracking offsides measured in centimetres, feeding the ref, managing benches, and making split-second calls that decide seasons.

Swipe for what the role actually demands - because you can’t understand my story without understanding the standard I had to hit.

Which one surprised you most? Drop a number in the comments. 👇
#assistantreferee #offside #matchofficials #pgmol #footballexplained by @danrobathan

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3 months ago

Everyone thinks the assistant referee is just there for offside.

The flag is the one bit you see, behind it I’m tracking fouls on my side, the ball in and out of play, my own positioning, and a constant conversation with the referee you never hear.

200+ Premier League games taught me the hardest part isn’t the offside decisions.

Swipe 👉

#assistantreferee #premierleague #refereelife #footballinsider football taken in London, England by @danrobathan

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3 hours ago

The last few months have been a lot. . .podcasts, TV, conversations I never imagined having. I’m grateful for every one of them.

But I noticed I’d started telling my story on everyone else’s platforms, and stopped telling it here. So I’m bringing it back.

Over the next few weeks I’m sharing the parts that didn’t make the headlines, the symptoms, the moment everything changed, and what I’m building now.

This is the real version. Stick around for it.

#danrobathan #mystory #lifeafterfootball #premierleague #resilience taken in London, England by @danrobathan

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3 days ago

It stopped being about back pain.

Between 2022 and 2025, what started as “just sciatica” became something else entirely. The pain deepened. My left calf began to waste away. The fatigue in that leg took over. And symptoms started appearing that I didn’t understand and was too embarrassed to talk about.

My body was escalating its warning. And I was still out there, refereeing at the top of the world, telling myself it was normal.

It wasn’t.

This is my story, right from the start. Follow along, there’s so much more to come.

#chronicpain #sciatica #spinalhealth #referee #recovery taken in London, England by @danrobathan

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2 months ago

I thought I was fit.....

During filming a few weeks ago Dan took me through an example session he would do to ensure he could stay at the peak of his performance during his time as an assistant referee.

Naturally I thought this would be fine, during my time within sport I had ran many high intensity sessions.

Nothing like this though! The intensity and volume really got a hold of me and safe to say which one of us struggled and which one got the best camera shots.....

Hats off to all match officials out there that are putting in these hard yards weekly.

Genuine athletes.

#referee #founder #sportstech #athlete #refrech by @danrobathan

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4 days ago

The last time I walked out at Wembley, it was the FA Cup Final. 🏆

This time, I came back for something completely different… to sit down and tell my story properly, for the first time.

Coming very soon, with @centrecircleapp
#wembley #facup #referee #premierleague #podcast taken in Wembley Stadium by @danrobathan

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22 days ago

@danrobathan joins the Say It Lad team as an Ambassador. The heights he's reach in football and the aftermath hes dealing with now made our partnership an obvious one and we couldn't be happier to call him one of our own.

Dans reached the very top of English football. But the relentless drive for perfection came at a massive personal cost.
Full conversation is out now on YouTube. Link in bio.

**The full video is graphic and contains conversations around suicide**

#sayitlad by @danrobathan

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7 days ago

Meet another of our founding members @danrobathan

Dan is a recently retired @premierleague assistant referee and is bringing his wealth of officiating experience to EIP.

Dan has been instrumental in ensuring our product fits seamlessly into the refereeing standards across all levels of the sporting pyramid.

#referee #soccerreferee #sportstechnology #reftech #refereeing by @danrobathan

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9 days ago

You asked how we actually judge offside, so here’s the honest answer, from someone who has done it at the highest level.

From the assistant’s point of view, here’s what we’re really looking at in those split seconds 👇

How do you see it?

#offside #VAR #referee #premierleague #football taken in London, England by @danrobathan

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a month ago

Former Premier League assistant referee Dan Robathan worked more than 200 matches at the highest level of English football while his personal life fell apart in private.

He joins our latest podcast episode to talk openly about finding two benign tumours in his spine, coping with that diagnosis, and reaching a breaking point that led to two suicide attempts.
This episode contains frank discussions about suicide, self-harm, and mental health crises.

Dan shows that severe distress happens to people at any professional level. The full interview goes live Saturday, 10th October on our YouTube channel.

The link is in the bio. by @danrobathan

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9 days ago