Referees

[is4]

Alan Shearer has said that the standard of refereeing is not up to standard.
What is the forum's views on the standard in the league?

[garethl]

Saturday’s one was very good I felt and barely noticed. Generally don’t think it’s been a great standard but where would we be without them. Difficult job and not one I’d even want to attempt.

[pauld]

I remember reading once that a referee makes the following decisions:
Statutory: (The Laws of the Game)
Interpretation: (How the Referee interprets the Laws)
Impossible: (A 'best guess' or 'benefit-of-the-doubt' or equal decision)

He/She makes on average 250 in the Intepretation bracket

Tough gig.
Especially when you have the likes of Shearer pouring over them.
And the Laws themselves sometimes make you want to scratch yer head
And Players are encouraged to get in the ear of officials as part of game management

[Kebab Belly Bob]

Kane - yellow card v Liverpool
Eastmond - red card v Newport
Enough said.

Kbb

[is4]

Have seen Newcastle are to make a formal complaint about the standard of refereeing!!

[pinewalker]

I have been pleasurably surprised by the standard of refereeing at GGL this season, with the exception of one ref who we also had last season in the conference. U's deserved their promotion, he didn't. I have an impression still that if a Southern team plays in the North and has a Northern ref that ref is stricter with them than the home team. I am not sure if there is a mirror Southern bias.

Kane was lucky, he was off the ground so out of control and made no contact with the ball, but hit the middle of Robertson's shin. All you could say of that challenge is it was aimed at the position of the ball when Kane started, but the ball had been replaced by the shin when he arrived. Robertson's challenge was worse in the sense that it was aimed at the legs not the ball to start with.

Since the return of the crowds to Premiership games the decisions swayed by the crowd have returned. An illustration involving Liverpool again: Jota did not get a penalty at Spurs when he slowed deliberately to cause a Spurs player to run into him; in exactly the same situation last week - but at Anfield - Salah stepped across Mings forcing the collision and did get the match-winning penalty.

[brisfitboy]

I think some of the linos need to up their game as well, there again they probably haven’t had an eye test to qualify for a refs position and are not fit enough to keep up with play, especially for offsides🙆🏼‍♂️🙆🏼‍♂️🙆🏼‍♂️

[davethegrave]

I agree that Saturday's ref was almost perfect but regarding linos they don't seem to be given enough authority these days.

[sallycat]

One of the biggest problems referees have is that they're continually judged and criticised by people who are very, very, very biased and therefore not actually capable of judging them fairly.

Some of you, if we had an objectively terrible referee who made every single decision in our favour, if 90% of those decisions were wrong but gave us an advantage, would walk away saying "we had an excellent ref today."

The reason we need referees is because competitive sport by its nature is very emotive and so it's hard for either side to apply fairness and logic. So we need someone who's unbiased. But the heavily biased will tend to perceive the neutral as being biased against them, because we'll naturally tend to make calls in our own favour. Similarly, decisions we agree with tend not to stick in our memories like those we don't agree with.

I saw a post recently (probably on this forum) that said most referees we've had this season have clearly been biased against us. Laughed out loud when I saw that, but it's a good example of how utterly illogical we football fans can be. Like fans who say "they've had all the decisions, when will we get something?" as if the referee's job is to make an equal number of decisions in favour of each side, rather than making each decision in favour of the side that hasn't infringed the laws of the game. All clubs' fans (and players/management!) are guilty of that lack of logic when we're in an emotionally charged situation, so the ref has a very hard job!

It's very likely that the standard of refereeing at our level could be better, but I don't feel qualified to judge that and if it is poor then it's hardly surprising given what a thankless task it can be. The attitudes they come up against are hardly going to bring people flocking to do the job.

[markf]

Fans are biased, true but most of the time all they want is consistency. And we don't get that not even across the duration of a match let alone a season.

Some of the refs we have seen at away matches this season seem swayed by the home crowd. Not so much at GGL because I am of the opinion there is less abuse offered. The club is still building its fan base plus the open nature of the ground dissipates noise levels. The ex league clubs in the NL in particular, really give refs a hard time, some of it warranted but a lot, not

With regards to lack of consistency, that was never more evident than in Spurs v Liverpool match at the weekend. You certainly didn't need to be qualified to realise that both the Kane and Robertson challenges were red cards, not just the latter's. The ref on VAR should be stood down after that fiasco. PL refs are well renumerated and he doesn't deserve to be.

My main bug bear is the lack of consistency with regards to the use of yellow cards. I think it has got worse in recent seasons when really it should be improving.

Standards have fallen since the introduction of a 4th official reducing the availability of referees down the levels. They have also coincided with the current man at the helm of PGMOL. He was a poor ref in his day so hardly a surprise. Clattenburg is of the opinion the current PL panel of refs is the worst it has ever had. He is probably not wrong.

As for getting stick when they start off, generally in park or youth football. If they can't hack that then getting it off 40,000 partisan fans isn't going to be an option for them, nor, probably is a few hundred at Isthmian level and the like. Most have started young and thus never played the game to a decent standard and their understanding of football suffers as a result.

To raise through the ranks you need to have confidence in your own ability (not an ego like some appear to have), the fitness levels to be constantly on the move and a very thick skin. You also need to enjoy it as enjoyment enhances performance, or should.

Refereeing is not easy and no one expects them to get every decision right but some of the refs really are inconsistent and that is unfair on the players and the paying public too. They don't make life easy for themselves.

[davethegrave]

Dec 22, 2021 20:08:34 GMT markf said:

Fans are biased, true but most of the time all they want is consistency. And we don't get that not even across the duration of a match let alone a season.

Some of the refs we have seen at away matches this season seem swayed by the home crowd. Not so much at GGL because I am of the opinion there is less abuse offered. The club is still building its fan base plus the open nature of the ground dissipates noise levels. The ex league clubs in the NL in particular, really give refs a hard time, some of it warranted but a lot, not

With regards to lack of consistency, that was never more evident than in Spurs v Liverpool match at the weekend. You certainly didn't need to be qualified to realise that both the Kane and Robertson challenges were red cards, not just the latter's. The ref on VAR should be stood down after that fiasco. PL refs are well renumerated and he doesn't deserve to be.

My main bug bear is the lack of consistency with regards to the use of yellow cards. I think it has got worse in recent seasons when really it should be improving.

Standards have fallen since the introduction of a 4th official reducing the availability of referees down the levels. They have also coincided with the current man at the helm of PGMOL. He was a poor ref in his day so hardly a surprise. Clattenburg is of the opinion the current PL panel of refs is the worst it has ever had. He is probably not wrong.

As for getting stick when they start off, generally in park or youth football. If they can't hack that then getting it off 40,000 partisan fans isn't going to be an option for them, nor, probably is a few hundred at Isthmian level and the like. Most have started young and thus never played the game to a decent standard and their understanding of football suffers as a result.

To raise through the ranks you need to have confidence in your own ability (not an ego like some appear to have), the fitness levels to be constantly on the move and a very thick skin. You also need to enjoy it as enjoyment enhances performance, or should.

Refereeing is not easy and no one expects them to get every decision right but some of the refs really are inconsistent and that is unfair on the players and the paying public too. They don't make life easy for themselves.

Well said from one ex-Ref to another.

[jr]

Dec 22, 2021 21:44:55 GMT davethegrave said:

Dec 22, 2021 20:08:34 GMT markf said:

Fans are biased, true but most of the time all they want is consistency. And we don't get that not even across the duration of a match let alone a season.

Some of the refs we have seen at away matches this season seem swayed by the home crowd. Not so much at GGL because I am of the opinion there is less abuse offered. The club is still building its fan base plus the open nature of the ground dissipates noise levels. The ex league clubs in the NL in particular, really give refs a hard time, some of it warranted but a lot, not

With regards to lack of consistency, that was never more evident than in Spurs v Liverpool match at the weekend. You certainly didn't need to be qualified to realise that both the Kane and Robertson challenges were red cards, not just the latter's. The ref on VAR should be stood down after that fiasco. PL refs are well renumerated and he doesn't deserve to be.

My main bug bear is the lack of consistency with regards to the use of yellow cards. I think it has got worse in recent seasons when really it should be improving.

Standards have fallen since the introduction of a 4th official reducing the availability of referees down the levels. They have also coincided with the current man at the helm of PGMOL. He was a poor ref in his day so hardly a surprise. Clattenburg is of the opinion the current PL panel of refs is the worst it has ever had. He is probably not wrong.

As for getting stick when they start off, generally in park or youth football. If they can't hack that then getting it off 40,000 partisan fans isn't going to be an option for them, nor, probably is a few hundred at Isthmian level and the like. Most have started young and thus never played the game to a decent standard and their understanding of football suffers as a result.

To raise through the ranks you need to have confidence in your own ability (not an ego like some appear to have), the fitness levels to be constantly on the move and a very thick skin. You also need to enjoy it as enjoyment enhances performance, or should.

Refereeing is not easy and no one expects them to get every decision right but some of the refs really are inconsistent and that is unfair on the players and the paying public too. They don't make life easy for themselves.

Well said from one ex-Ref to another.

Ditto

[Big Al]

The players cheat a lot (how ludicrous is it, for example that they place the ball a half inch outside the corner quadrant) and have little or no respect for the referees. The crows add pressure and they certainly make no more mistakes over 90 mins than any outfield players.  Refs are indeed under enormous pressure and I personally don’t believe they are intentionally biased.  

Having said that it is fair to say that, at the top level at least, football referees are simply not as competent, consistent or reliable as their equivalents in the games of cricket or Rugby Union.

[jr]

Neither the ref or the linos can spot a foul throw these days. It’s a joke. This season I’ve seen countless foul throws in L2 with only one been spotted. It really isn’t that difficult to spot

[is4]

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