The new Stroud and District Football League has just started and chairman Gary Chapman couldn’t be happier.

The 61-year-old took on the top role in 2022 and is someone who is very much hands-on when it comes to grassroots football in Stroud and the surrounding area.

His influence is felt on the pitch as well off it because as well as overseeing  things in his role as chairman, he is also a referee and takes charge of games pretty much every weekend.

He’s been a referee for well over 30 years and he loves doing his bit on match days to support the Stroud and District Football League, a league he refers to fondly as “the SDFL”.

“I hold the SDFL very close to my heart,” said the one-time Katherine Lady Berkeley School and Manor School pupil.

“I was born in Minchinhampton – my dad still lives in Minchinhampton – I’ve always been a Stroudie.

“It’s where I first played football and where I first refereed.”

The SDFL was established way back in 1902 and is a big success story - a few weeks before the season was due to start the league had 92 teams entered for the 2024/25 season.

“I think we’re the biggest grassroots league in the country,” said Chapman, who lives in Kingsway, near Quedgeley.

“We’re not just made up of Stroud teams, we’ve teams from Gloucester too – Quedgeley, Hardwicke, Tuffley Rovers.”

And all of those clubs will be delighted if Chapman takes charge of any of their games this season because he is a seriously good official, someone who was good enough to work as an assistant referee for the Premier League and the Football League for 13 years back in the day.

“I went to all the top grounds – Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City,” he said.

He also refereed in the Football League and at the top levels of non-league football and added: “In my whole career I’ve done something like 2,500 games, 275 of those were in the Premier League and the Football League as either a referee or an assistant referee.”

So how did he get into refereeing?

“I gave up playing football in 1988 when I did my ACL,” said the one-time Brimscombe and Thrupp, Alkerton and Ebley striker.

“Somebody suggested I take the referees’ course, I passed that and started refereeing in 1990.”

And it was clear he was good almost from his first whistle.

“In 1997-98 I was getting fourth official appointments in the Football League and in 1999 I was officially appointed to the Conference as a referee and to the Football League as an assistant referee.

“I refereed teams like Forest Green, Cheltenham and Yeovil in the Conference, which is the National League today.”

By 2000/01 he was given his chance as an assistant referee in the Premier League but although he was involved in some high-profile games he finds it difficult to pick out a favourite.

“There were loads, too many,” he said. “Every game was a good game.”

Press him and he’ll say: “If there is one that sticks out it’s the year that Man United won the treble.

“I was the fourth official at their game at Leicester City and I was on Match of the Day that evening.”

In those days the BBC’s flagship football programme was a ‘must-see’ for all fans of the game but while Chapman obviously enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Roy Keane and David Beckham, he was also determined not to forget his roots.

“The following week I was refereeing Stratford Rangers against Slimbridge Reserves in the Stroud League,” he said with pride.

“When I turned up people said, ‘What are you doing here, you were on Match of the Day last week!’.

“I told them that I hadn’t got a game and that the best way to keep my fitness levels up was to do a match in the Stroud League.

“We were doing something like 78 games a season. You accepted any appointments with glee because you didn’t know if it was going to be your last, either because of your age or because you were no longer considered good enough.”

Chapman, who has been an engineer all his working life, retired from the Football League in 2012 and these days is the Referees’ Support Officer for the Stroud League.

As the title suggests, that means helping any referee who may need support and guidance, so what makes a good referee?

“I always referee the way I wanted to be refereed when I was a player,” Chapman explained.

“As a player I could deal with a push or a shove but if I was kicked up in the air I wanted the referee to do something.

“It didn’t have to be a card, it could be a telling off. As a referee I talk to players all through a game.”

He considers himself to be a much better referee than he was a player although it’s fair to say he was quite a decent player.

“I was a nippy striker, quite fit,” he said. “I played for Brimscombe in the County League, I could score 35 to 40 goals a season when I was younger.”

Those were happy days, of course, and Chapman is very happy that these days he is able to give back to the game he still loves as much as ever.

And that most certainly includes his role as chairman of the SDFL.

“I oversee everything,” he said. “I conduct meetings and make sure everything is in order, including the clubs.

“I knit everything together,” adding modestly, “it’s not too vigorous.”

So what does he do when there isn’t any football?

“There’s always football,” he said with a laugh. “In the summer we have meetings, we have literature to get to the clubs, cup draws to make.

“We’re footballing people, we do it for love.”