Mark Halsey of Bolton will referee his third Anfield visit of the season as we sign off from Anfield with a match against Manchester City.
He returns to the Premiership after a two week stint in the Championship.
Last season he was sensored by the Premier League after an article by him appeared in the Bolton Wanderers v Liverpool match programme were he wished a victory for the home team back in October. He was taken off his Premiership match the following weekend as a punishment.
The 46-year old has been a Premiership referee since 1999 after only 10 years of learning the trade in the lower leagues. His first major appointment of professional career was the second division play-off final between Manchester City and Gillingham in 1999. He has since gone on to referee in FIFA World Disabled Cup in Japan 2002 after being the 4th official for the FA Cup final the previous month. He has been a FIFA registered official since 2000. His first international match as a referee was in February last year as France beat Belgium 2-0 in a friendly in Brussels.
Mark has continued to impress and along with Howard Webb and Rob Styles is a UEFA Category 2 referee. He has had a taster of the Champions League last season, albeit a first round qualifier between Sheriff Tiraspol and FC Pyunik. He has also got a UEFA Cup under his belt as the team we knocked out of the Champions League Maccabi Haifa in their home leg against Litex Lovech. The game ended 1-1 and was played infront of only 300 fans in Nijmegen, Holland.
This season he was awarded the Community Shield at Wembley as Manchester United defeated Chelsea on penalties.
Mark is one of our luckier officials, with only two defeats in the last 16 games with him in the middle. His last Anfield game saw us lose our unbeaten record at home as Manchester United went away with all the points.
This will be the fifth time in charge of Manchester City, all previous games have been on the road and City have yet to register a win with 2 draws, 3-3 at Fulham and 0-0 at Portsmouth, followed by two defeats, 2-1 at Tottenham and 1-0 at Everton.
He has refereed us three times this season, a win at Sunderland early on, a draw against Tottenham and a defeat against Manchester United at Anfield being the results.
His assistants will be Andy Garrett and Mick McDonough with Keith Stroud as the fourth official.
Some memorable matches involving Liverpool and Mark Halsey.
5th May 2001- Hat-trick at Anfield for Michael Owen as we beat Newcastle United 3-0.
20th October 2001 - Another hat-trick, this time for Robbie Fowler as we beat Leicester City 4-1 at Filbert Street. These were to be the last goals Robbie scored for Liverpool.
5th January 2002 - Nicolas Anelka scores his first Liverpool goal in a 3-0 FA Cup win over Birmingham City at Anfield.
4th December 2004 - Antonio Nunez plays in his first full Premiership game as we draw 1-1 at Aston Villa.
13th August 2005 - Pepe Reina, Momo Sissoko and Bolo Zenden make their Premiership bows for Liverpool in a goalless draw at Middlesbrough.
29th April 2006 - Anfield says goodbye to Traore, Kromkamp, Cisse and Morientes who all play their last game there. Morientes signs off with a goal in 3-1 win against Aston Villa
29th September 2006 - Dirk Kuyt scores his first Liverpool goal in Luis Garcia's 100th game during a 2-0 win over Newcastle at Anfield. Alonso scores the second from his own half.
30th December 2006 - A Luis Garcia goal late in the first half gives us all three points at Tottenham Hotspur. This was his last Liverpool goal of his career.
10th February 2007 - Craig Bellamy scores after 6 minutes, it was his last Liverpool goal in the Premiership. Arbeloa makes his Liverpool bow but Newcastle come back to win 2-1 at a rain soaked St James Park.
25th August 2007 - Momo Sissoko scores his first Liverpool goal and our 7,000th in the league during a 2-0 win at Sunderland. Voronin gets his first goal on his full Premiership debut, Ryan Babel also makes his first start.
7th October 2007 - Fernando Torres heads a late equaliser against Tottenham Hotspur.
