Who would be a referee?

This weekend alone there have been 3 high profile referee "mistakes" which have been in massive games.

Ashley "Tom Daley" Young, once again wins a penalty for Man Utd in a crucial game. I know they won 4-0 but this was for the opening goal in a game Utd needed to win.

The "goal" for Chelsea in the F.A.Cup semi-final was unbelievable, and again although Chelsea won 5-1 eventually, this came when the game was finely balanced. The F.A. have this morning backed calls for goal-line technology to be introduced, but that hardly helps Spurs now does it?

I can understand the frustration Spurs players and fans are feeling today because it was so obviously not a goal, and it would be so easy to have made certain whether it had crossed the line or not.

For me the worst incident of the weekend came in the Scottish Cup semi-final. Neil Lennon's Celtic lost to a controversial injury time penalty, and were denied a penalty themselves right at the death. I don't know if either of the penalty decisions were wrong or right, but Neil Lennon's behaviour was disgraceful. He practically assaulted the referee and to say he acted threateningly towards the ref is an understatement. Not content with that in the heat of the moment, he then takes to twitter several hours later and tells the world that the referees decisions were personal. I don't know of any other sport where an official is abused in such a way, unless you're a tournament official in snooker and Alex Higgins is on the warpath, and it isn't the first time that Lennon has acted in this way. If this kind of behaviour isn't stamped out pretty soon, I don't think it will be long before a manager or player actually hits a referee.

Lennon deserves a long ban and a hefty fine. No good giving him a 3 game ban where he's sat in the stands for games against St.Mirren, Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers, and a £10,000 fine. It just won't deter him at all.

I hope firm action is taken by the Scottish F.A. before Lennon goes even further.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this weekends decisions, a referee in a high profile game must be one of the worst jobs in the world, and behaviour like Neil Lennon's has got to put off potential referees from continuing.

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It's a vicious circle.

Referees are attacked in this way by high-profile names within the sport. People further down the football pyramid see this as an acceptable way to behave towards the referees at the games they are involved in - see any game at Devonport Park of a weekend for examples of what I mean.

That leaves people at grass-roots level unwilling to become referees because of the abuse they have to take. Fewer referees at grass-roots levels means fewer referees to progress through the ranks until they attain Football League status.

Net result - the standard of refereeing falls as a result of fewer refs coming through the ranks. More mistakes are made at the higher levels, and those high-profile names start abusing refs for their errors, and off we go again.

Strong action needed against managers and players who abuse refs. Those guys are human. Humans make mistakes.

I would love to see a rugby style rule where only the captain can approach the referee. If a gobby player starts snarling at the ref, yellow card and free kick. It will soon stop.

As for managers, there is no need for them to go onto the pitch whatsoever. Mourinho is another manager who oversteps the line frequently and should be punished. This weekend it's Barcelona v Real Madrid and I would not want to referee that game for all the tea in China. A referee should look forward to being in charge at big games, but some of them must dread it.

Just to clarify as well, I'm not anti Celtic or pro Rangers either. I support Argyle and Scotland, and if I have any allegience to a Scottish club side it's Hibs because my father supported them. Having said that it only stretches to looking out for their result and watching if they are live on TV. If an Argyle player or manager acted in the same way I would say exactly the same.

I agree Jock. Most refs seem to run around in a state of panic, grinning and stammering ,'Calm down Wayne...........please'.

All available technology should be used as in rugby, cricket etc. The ref simply points time out and they go to the video ref for confirmation or otherwise of the on pitch decision. If that was used Wigan would probably have beaten Chelsea, Ashley Young would have been booked twice for diving , no penalty, no sending off, no second goal for Chelski etc etc etc.

What are football morons afraid of............. getting things correct ?

Also nobody should be allowed to approach the ref other than the captain.,

The only problem I have with that is that it would stop us from giving the ref a tough time and removes another slice of atmosphere.

Players, managers and fans over react at every little incident, witness bellowing masses even for a throw in, it's part of football DNA. It's not been helped by 2 dozen cameras pointing at every conceivable angle for televised games. There was a incident on MOTD the other week where to show if contact was made for a penalty or not they had to slow down the frames and magnify the players foot. How can refeeres cope against that. Even the best and fittest referees are not going to be keep up with play and linesmen are always going to be a good distance from most incidents. Offsides are a case in point you are actually asking a human being to look at two places at once i.e the player kicking the ball and another player advanced of that. Thats bound to be flawed especially for marginal decisions. Add in complexity whether a player was trying to get back onside or in other instances whether a player was interering with play or ball to hand or hand to ball and it becomes very difficult to make a decision that will stand up against pundits who can draw lines across the pitch or call on 3D representations of everyones position on the field.

Thats not to say that referees shouldn't be held to acconut for glaring mistakes but the minutae by which decisiosns are analysed is conuter productive. I beleive in American football, and maybe something similar is now in place in our football, all games are reviewed in the week after the game.

As it happens most goals come etc come about because of player error rather than bad refereeing decisions but because managers are hard wired not to criticise their own players in public referees are a very easy target. Watching managers remonstrating over something that happens in a penalty box half a pitch away is turgid. And how coe they see nothing when there own player or team is at fault.

Referees should be allowed to referee with an acceptance that they won't get everything right as it is now they are chastised for having anything less than a perfect game. And sometimes it is quite possible they just didn't see something.

Supporters will always have a go at Referees and that is part and parcel of attending a live game. We all see incidents our own way. Referees will always make glaring errors from time to time because they are people with normal human frailties. Even in Rugby mistakes are made and not everything is referred to the 4th official. Tries come from those decisions just as goals come in football from the same thing. Players have created the situations where errors are bound to be made by diving about and simulating injury. Spurs players have done that as have all players at times so if things go against them from time to time then they are partially to blame themselves for being part of the play acting. I hate it even when one of my own clubs players does it. Managers don't discourage it and are complicit with the practice.

I used to do a lot of sport in my Naval days. I was a half decent swimmer and got asked to play water polo one time never having played before. It is quite cruel for what goes on under water by the way if you have never played. I was knackered after about 10 minutes of keeping afloat as you can't stand on the bottom and sprinting for the ball. I aksed the Ref how long to the break and he blew his whistle and ordered me out of the water. I was told the reason was that you are not allowed to speak to the Ref at all for any reason. No appealing or anything else. When a manager comes off the bench and shouts at the 4th official he should be instantly sent out of the ground. If a player speaks to the Ref at all he should be booked and doing it twice is of course a sending off. The only player to "ask" a question should be the Captain. Do that as well as review the dives after the game and ban players after the event if proved guilty. Bet managers would soon put a stop to the antics.

Sensiblegreeny wrote:

Supporters will always have a go at Referees and that is part and parcel of attending a live game. We all see incidents our own way. Referees will always make glaring errors from time to time because they are people with normal human frailties. Even in Rugby mistakes are made and not everything is referred to the 4th official. Tries come from those decisions just as goals come in football from the same thing. Players have created the situations where errors are bound to be made by diving about and simulating injury. Spurs players have done that as have all players at times so if things go against them from time to time then they are partially to blame themselves for being part of the play acting. I hate it even when one of my own clubs players does it. Managers don't discourage it and are complicit with the practice.

I used to do a lot of sport in my Naval days. I was a half decent swimmer and got asked to play water polo one time never having played before. It is quite cruel for what goes on under water by the way if you have never played. I was knackered after about 10 minutes of keeping afloat as you can't stand on the bottom and sprinting for the ball. I aksed the Ref how long to the break and he blew his whistle and ordered me out of the water. I was told the reason was that you are not allowed to speak to the Ref at all for any reason. No appealing or anything else. When a manager comes off the bench and shouts at the 4th official he should be instantly sent out of the ground. If a player speaks to the Ref at all he should be booked and doing it twice is of course a sending off. The only player to "ask" a question should be the Captain. Do that as well as review the dives after the game and ban players after the event if proved guilty. Bet managers would soon put a stop to the antics.

I think you're right sensible. Start cracking down on play acting and any abuse towards a referee and it will stop. Whatever happened to the respect campaign? 75% of managers give out abuse to refs, so the players are bound to follow suit. I would be in favour of banning managers from the whole ground, never mind just sending them to the stands, if they persist in screaming and shouting at refs.