Referees, too big for their boots ?

[johntheclaret]

This is my 1st ever poll so I hope it works.

Anyway, there is a lot of talk about referees going on right now. There is the "Respect" campaign and has / is it really worked / working.

There have been some appalling decisions this year including a phantom goal, Gerrards goal that was disallowed, the list goes on, topped off with he disgraceful decision by the ref to only issue a yellow card for that dreadful elbow that fractured Ian Hume's skull.

Players are getting frustrated, managers are getting more frustrated to the point that every week there is a healine about one being hauled over the coals by the FA, and the fans are getting frustrated. Yet the ref seems to be above it all and their attitude on the field leaves me wondering if they think that they are the star of the show.

You fella's see a lot of EPL these days so what do you think?

What steps do you think the footballing authorites should take to rectify what is obviously something that isn't working?

THought ?

[Dirko]

John, I don't think the EPL is the only problem. The standard of the A-League is frankly not up too scratch.

I believe there are no FULLTIME refs in Australia every one is part time although we have 2 refs (Shield & Breeze) that are at a FIFA level.
How can you justify having part time refs, for a league that employs FULLTIME footballers ?

The other point is imagine doing a game when someone like Ronaldo earns more in 90 minutes then you'd earn in a year. No wonder you'd like
to disallow a goal.....

The other point is there are no characters that are well known since Pierluigi retired. He was a good ref that had the respect of the players.

[johntheclaret]

3 good points Jabber.

I think with a few adjustments we could improve the standard and quality.

Firstly, I would take away the responsibility for time keeping. Much like it is in Aussie Rules, and have an independant time keeper. I would also stop the clock when the ball is in play to stop time wasting. It shits me to death that a ref can decide how much time and even then still decide to allow more or less time at his own discretion.

I would also adopt a similar " cricket 3rd ump", to take away some of those spot decisions. To be fair the ref gets one split second to decide foul / no foul etc. I think we should intorduce camera's with another ref who can view the play back. It won't work for every decision, but it could help for those deadball situations.

[JK]

I agree with your point there Johnny ... Similar to Cricket where bad decisions can be confirmed/exposed by the level of technology, so too are Referee's mistakes now being made very aware to the public.

I think a 3rd umpire intervention and also technology to prove whether the ball has completely crossed a goal line are becoming necessary, unfortunately.

[heater31]

admittedly I don't watch that much of it but I found it interesting that on the SBS show on Sunday arvo they had the ref (Shield??) from the A-League GF where Danny V got sent off. He openly admitted that he didn't see the initial incident to cause the Central Coast's GK to blow up neither did his assistants see it either.


IMHO it is time they are given a little bit of help. They have far too much to worry about so maybe they could get video refs and/ or another Field ref. Aussie rules started with one ump then went to two and now at three. Having said that the 3 Aussie rules umps still make obvious mistakes

[johntheclaret]

Definitely agree about a 2nd ref. One for each half of the filed. The ball just moves to quickly these days for them to keep up and they are making crucial decisions from 30+ yards away.

Also agree about some other method of determing if the ball has crossed to goal line, because the linesman just isn't working.

In fact the linesman does very little these days. Most often or not, they don't even make the decision as to who's throw in it is.

[JK]

Definitely agree about a 2nd ref. One for each half of the filed. The ball just moves to quickly these days for them to keep up and they are making crucial decisions from 30+ yards away.

As long as Styles isn't one of them!

Actually come to think of it, there's really only a handful of English ref's that are well known, does the FA need to look at it's own methods for developing Referee's, specifically looking at:

1. Wage
2. Identification of potentials
3. Breeding grounds
4. Training Systems

I'm not sure how much they currently spend on the whole referee system, but if it needs additional funds then they have no choice but to inject them as the game clearly doesn't survive without them.

What's the standard like outside of the EPL on the whole, do EUFA or FIFA need to step and take an umbrella approach on it?

[johntheclaret]

I can't speak to much about UEFA standard as I don't watch that much European football, but I can say that I find the lower league referees pretty poor.

They seem to be following in the footsteps of the EPL refs in that they seem to forget they are there to referee and not be the star of the show.

And in many ways, that's what I think I was getting at. To me a good ref is one that you hardly notice. How many games do you see nowadays wherfe you hardly notice the ref.

The game at Wolves on Saturday was a complete joke, and I came away from the game totally pissed, not because of the result but becasue of the way he reffed the game.

Made some very, very poor decisions including the obvious handball for their 1st goal, but then lost control and it ended up with everyone focussed on him instead of the game.

I guess what I am asking is, have the referees got too full of their own importance these days.?

[JK]

Your definition of a good ref mate is pretty much the same as we think the Ump's should be over here in Aussie Rules (sadly they were once upon a time).

Now that the game has become almost "gala" like, the umps have been given far too much license to become involved ... Personally I don't like hearing them say "Bucks, your ball mate (then to the opposition "No you got Buck's too high it's his free kick, give the ball to Bucks now")"

Same seems to happen in the EPL, and there's no doubt that the bigger and better players like Gerrard, Ronaldo, Lampard etc probably receive more than their due rewards from ref, just from their standing in the game or perhaps even their relationship with a ref.

Even if it's not valid, it still becomes a perception among the fans and has a follow on affect imho.

Less time talking/being buddies, more time reffing/umpiring IMHO.

[johntheclaret]

No doubt you've called that right.

I think Man U once went about 4 years without having a penalty given against them and then when there was on (andy D'Urso was the ref I think), there was uproar in the Mancs.

The team surrounded him and was so menacing he backup all the way down the touchline.

It made a bit of news at the time. If anyone knows how to use that youtube thing I'm sure it will be on there.

[JK]

No doubt you've called that right.

I think Man U once went about 4 years without having a penalty given against them and then when there was on (andy D'Urso was the ref I think), there was uproar in the Mancs.

The team surrounded him and was so menacing he backup all the way down the touchline.

It made a bit of news at the time. If anyone knows how to use that youtube thing I'm sure it will be on there.

Reckon something similar happened in an FA Cup Semi-Final Man U v Portsmouth last year