Refereeing Standards

...is just appalling at the moment.

The latest travesty was the penalty West Brom were just given against Arsenal, hard on the heals of Palaces penalty earlier today.

I am gobsmacked that a grown, mature, experienced (supposedly one of the best in the business) referee can be certain that Chambers deliberately handled the ball today, and that another at the top of his career can be certain Zaha was definitely fouled.

But then I also know that even people on here will likely dispute the WBA penalty decision, such is the wide interpretation of the laws.

Then I wonder how Wague can get punished for the merest nudge yesterday by a referee who was standing immediately behind Wage, whilst the guy that took Burnley's Hendricks legs away from him, was deemed as making a fair tackle.

I saw Poll today agree with the referee that Puncheon only deserved a yellow for the tackle on De Bruyne, and then 20 minutes later say that he should have got a red, but without having the balls to admit that he got it wrong the first time (obviously hoping people won't notice ). He, like other referees have seemingly forgotten what their first duty is, in favour of what their "brand" means.

I know how difficult it can be for them, particularly when players are getting praised by pundits and fans for deliberately trying to fool/cheat the referee, but something seriously needs to be done. the game is becoming little more than a lottery.

"Back in the day" (25 -30 years ago) when I was playing referees were merely there to arbitrate and see fair play. But today they are seen as potential match winners by players and their bosses.

I said this a few years ago. I believe the biggest problem is the players trying to cheat. It means that the referee doesn't just have to consider the interpretation of the law, but also whether he is being fooled by a player, making the job doubly difficult.

Personally, I think there are massive differences in interpretations of the laws and I think the first step must be to restate/clarify the contentious laws of the game, with notice given (say the summer break for players and their bosses to understand the rules. To work with and understand the notion that blatant cheating will be dealt with extremely severely and that football is a contact sport - and for referees to learn what the difference is (for example) between "intentional" and "unintentional", and the difference between certain/uncertain/guesses. Only when that has taken effect (with the backing of replays) will the authorities be able to better concentrate on the actual referees competence and interpretations.

I think it would mean a season or so of some really difficult decisions, often retrospective, fall-outs, etc. but I think a period of "zero tolerance" is necessary to get things back on track. It won't happen though, the authorities havn't got the bottle.

Sorry, this post is a bit of a ramble as I have started my new year celebrations a little early, but I despair for the games future, I really do.

 

I think Mike Dean interpreted Chambers’ movement of his arms to steady himself as a movement towards the ball. Would clarification of the rules have helped with that? Not sure. But yes, no way he could be sure it was deliberate (it clearly wasn’t).

 

Obviously I am not suggesting that clarifying the rules alone would sort out every decision.

 

Its been obvious for years football needs a video replay refereeing for certain events, it's nonsense that it would slow games down, a replay and feedback to the ref could be given in seconds

 

Jumped up,namby pamby,egotistical,self serving,mealy-mouthed,flea ridden,half witted,malodorous,steaming pile of puss emitting,filthy,stinking gits.
And they are the better ones.

 

This is the biggest blight on the league today I think. Though I know they're like catnip for some on here, Bournemouth and Callum Wilson are actually the best recent example I can think of. Wilson handballs to equalise for them against West Ham. He clearly denies doing so when West Ham players say he did. The referee ends up making the wrong call, amid the confusion of an offside decision to make. After the game Wilson tells MOTD he used 'magic' to score. To me if that isn't 'bringing the game into disrepute' what is? Why has he not been charged with misconduct, fined and banned? The lack of action by the FA ends up by a tacit endorsement of his behaviour.

 

Personally I would like refs miked up and having to explain their actions like they do in rugby. Would make them think twice before making hasty decisions.

Football not helped by cheating players timewasting, feigning injury and going down in anticipation of contact (i hate the phrase 'player had right to go down'). Retrospective bans a start

Some refs have always been attention seeking t**ts ..... Roger Milford springs to mind, the Mike Dean of his day

 

Roger Milford.
He of the 'Wham' sweatbands IIRC?!

 

Yes that's the one but sadly better remenbered for sending Rostron off at L*t*n and depriving him of his FA Cup appearance and the Rush penalty in the FA Cup

 

For a perfect example of how bad officiating is at the moment, look at the position of the officials when Naughton stamped on Okaka. The linesman is looking directly at it from a few feet away, and the fourth official is just down the touchline, also looking at it. Carvalhal clearly saw it as he immediately puts his hands up to his head as though he's expecting a red card. Yet two officials who are no more than ten metres away, both seeing the same thing from different angles saw nothing. Brilliant.

 

Ah yes Paul Elliot if I recall.
I'd just started to recover from those two decisions,I'll add them to my 'blue blanket' list again!

You forgot the penalty for Dier's handball but it's hardly surprising as it's longer than a Christmas list for an eight year old!

 

Man City, huddersfield and Swansea scored a combined 4 offside goals against as well. Plus how Chalobah didn’t get a penalty in the City match was absurd.

 

Don't think it's any worse than in the past. With the multiple camera angles and slo-mo quality we're just picking up more. What is worse is the diving cheating and whinging though.

Agreed about video reffing and challenge systems. The fact it hasn't been implemented can only be down to invested interests now as the argument for the game being the same at all levels has been broken with goal line tech.

 

Hazard fools the ref, ref takes it hook line and sinker, what a cheat and what a ****.

 

The ref was about 2cm away, absolutely pathetic penalty. He grazed his shin with the top of of his toe and he went down like he’d been rugby tackled by our very own Troy. I wonder if he’ll get a retrospective ban though, because as pathetic as it was there was (ridiculously minimal) contact?

 

It is what the retrospective bans are made for, if he isn't banned, then the system is a complete farce.

 

...but what a great game that was.

 

Dermot Gallagher says that if a defender misses the ball but contacts with the other player then it is a penalty. The ref is "duty bound to award a penalty." So effectively he is saying that football is a non-contact sport.

Well, that is news to me.

 

It's just a symptom of the ridiculous position football has got itself into. Players regularly cheat. Referees can't detect it with any reliability. Pundits generally talk nonsense. And so the show keeps rolling on relentlessly.

 

The supply of top line quality referees is drying up. In seasons to come it will be even worse. This is the slippery slope. The current PGOML refs would've started out at park land or youth football level 10-20 years ago, when grass roots Sunday and Saturday pub league football was much more prolific and young and OAP refs weren't subjected to so much abuse.

Sky, the BBC, Talksport, The Premier League, The FA and their experts and pundits couldn't give a toss about the popularity of the the national sport while their viewing figures and revenues have boomed in the last 20 years.

Yet in the same time, participation in competitive football in schools has fallen off a cliff, umpteen hundred football pitches and playing fields have been lost, local clubs and leagues have disappeared or shrunk dramatically.

Young men just don't play team sports in the numbers they did for all sorts of reasons; this is where the supply of new refs is developed - the numbers and quality simply is not there - so there is a huge problem now being seen and its going to get much, much worse if grass roots football isn't encouraged and even subsidised.

20 years ago when the Premier League started, senior non league officials were the 4th officials at Football League and Premier League grounds.without the need for another Michael Oliver to be holding the subs boards up and standing their to be a verbal Aunt Sally for your Wengers and Eddie Howes. I know 'cos I was one once a month instead of reffing VS Rugby or Cambridge City that weekend. I never got any abuse at all, not even from Joe Kinnear and Wally Downes, as it wasn't acceptable and commonplace then....I wouldn't have stood for it anyway.

 

I coach a 16 year old who is in the top 8 of his age group in Herts tennis. He does some football refereeing,he's done two or three at Colney.
He is a slim lad but 6'2" so of an imposing stature.
He says he regularly has vile abuse shouted in his face by 10 and 11 year olds and their parents from the touchline. He's no Walter the Softy and is able to deal with it but together with the points that WW raises in post 24,the base of the pyramid for both players and refs is diminishing.

 

It does to an extent show that footballers are a role model whether or not they want to be and their actions are going to be emulated.

Shame they are mostly too stupid to understand this.

 

Apparently it won’t even be referred to the panel.

 

Maybe not a current ref, but still only recently retired - kind of sums up how poor the officiating is, when they publicly contradict themselves. It's almost as if they're making it up as they go along..............


(commenting on Bellerin v Richarlison):


(commenting on Bellerin v Hazard):

 

Another joke of a referee tonight. Holgate throws Firminho into the boards off the pitch. Not even a yellow.

 

Holgate had to be sent off for that. For once it was a proper push, dangerous and straight into the stand. If Deeney did it he'd be banned til next Christmas.

 

This the sort of thing I am talking about when I say the rules need to clarified. It really is a mess.

 

He was a joke tonight. Never a penalty. Standard of refereeing is absolutely shocking.