[Football] Ref blaming

Swansman said:

Going to eat the sport from the inside.

Must be punished very harshly if there's going to be anyone at all willing to do the job in due time.

If you dive down the newspaper archives, one thing gets obvious: every referee in every country in every sport has been shite at least since Gutenberg invented the printing machine in 1450.

This strikes me as quite odd and makes me believe that it is really our perception of refereeing that is entirely ****ed up. We simply don't understand how difficult it is. A flaw in the human brain.

As such, you have to expect that common people for the next 500 years are also going to consider every referee as a shite one. That is fine I suppose, or rather: it is what it is.

But when players and managers puts all the blame on the referee after any game they didn't win, it fuels the situation. The Tuchels of the world are for whatever reason seen as people you should listen to, and so the fans do - and at some point or another it is going to end really, really badly as one of the hundreds of death threats top refs & their families recieve are going to turn into reality. At that point it is going to be very difficult to find people willing to do the job at any level.

I really hope the PL (and the EFL for that matter) goes further to protect the referees. Of course, some balanced criticism could be acceptable, but when managers and squads group up to do verbal gangbangs on the refs in the media after games, it is borderline the act of inciting violence towards the involved ref, and should be punished with a 10 game ban or similar.

Click to expand...

Swansman said:

Going to eat the sport from the inside.

Must be punished very harshly if there's going to be anyone at all willing to do the job in due time.

If you dive down the newspaper archives, one thing gets obvious: every referee in every country in every sport has been shite at least since Gutenberg invented the printing machine in 1450.

This strikes me as quite odd and makes me believe that it is really our perception of refereeing that is entirely ****ed up. We simply don't understand how difficult it is. A flaw in the human brain.

As such, you have to expect that common people for the next 500 years are also going to consider every referee as a shite one. That is fine I suppose, or rather: it is what it is.

But when players and managers puts all the blame on the referee after any game they didn't win, it fuels the situation. The Tuchels of the world are for whatever reason seen as people you should listen to, and so the fans do - and at some point or another it is going to end really, really badly as one of the hundreds of death threats top refs & their families recieve are going to turn into reality. At that point it is going to be very difficult to find people willing to do the job at any level.

I really hope the PL (and the EFL for that matter) goes further to protect the referees. Of course, some balanced criticism could be acceptable, but when managers and squads group up to do verbal gangbangs on the refs in the media after games, it is borderline the act of inciting violence towards the involved ref, and should be punished with a 10 game ban or similar.

Click to expand...

Swansman said:

Going to eat the sport from the inside.

Must be punished very harshly if there's going to be anyone at all willing to do the job in due time.

If you dive down the newspaper archives, one thing gets obvious: every referee in every country in every sport has been shite at least since Gutenberg invented the printing machine in 1450.

Click to expand...

Guinness Boy said:

So this has been going on since 1450 but only now will people be unwilling to referee?

There will always be people who want to ref. People who like being in charge, being in the limelight and, let's face it, staying fit, being well paid and seeing Premier League football from the best vantage point possible. Tends to offset Thomas Tuchel having a bit of a moan about a goal decision.

Click to expand...

Uh_huh_him said:

Interesting take.

But I think that having been given the tools to improve the situation, the refs have seemed unwilling to take advantage and improve their performance.
Which is leading to increased frustration from fans/managers and players alike.
I don't know how well other leagues have taken to VAR, but the EPL officials seem hell bent on undermining it.

Click to expand...

axscott said:

Refereeing is one of the hardest and most unforgiving jobs in the world. The world, who gets to see an incident over and over again from multiple angles, has a go at the referee who must make a decision within a split second from his 1 angle if he's managed to see the incident through the cluster of bodies on the pitch.

What needs to happen is for the man in the middle to become less and less important, speeding up and increasing the usage of VAR. Have a couple of cameras along the edges of the pitch and VAR can tell the ref when the ball has gone out and who it's come off, reducing wrong corners/throw-ins and not slowing down the game. Make it so that the ref only makes the quick calls needed (small fouls, time-wasting etc) and prioritise getting decisions right over making the referee feel important.

Click to expand...

Nobby Cybergoat said:

But are we attracting the right people? The larger the pool of potential refs we have the more chance we'll be able to find those who are in it out of a basic sense of wanting to achieve fairness and a love of football rather than those wanting to be some minor celeb or get off on wielding power in an arbitrary way.

Click to expand...

axscott said:

Refereeing is one of the hardest and most unforgiving jobs in the world. The world, who gets to see an incident over and over again from multiple angles, has a go at the referee who must make a decision within a split second from his 1 angle if he's managed to see the incident through the cluster of bodies on the pitch.

What needs to happen is for the man in the middle to become less and less important, speeding up and increasing the usage of VAR. Have a couple of cameras along the edges of the pitch and VAR can tell the ref when the ball has gone out and who it's come off, reducing wrong corners/throw-ins and not slowing down the game. Make it so that the ref only makes the quick calls needed (small fouls, time-wasting etc) and prioritise getting decisions right over making the referee feel important.

Click to expand...

nickbrighton said:

I think its fair to say that refs get a huge amount of unwarranted criticism, and for the most part are simply doing their level best to ref whatever sport it is they are participating in, and do so without favour the vast majority of the time. All fans will look at decisions through glasses coloured the same as their teams, and that is also understandable.

Referees will always make mistakes, and it is simply not possible to get all decisions correct, and as is often said, over the course of a season these errors generally even themselves out.

The problem of dodgy decisions does seem much worse in football though s. If you look at some inexplicable decisions, that even the most pro ref pundits can not explain away (The Welbeck penalty shout) which despite the footage clearly showing the contact was from behind and squarely between the 1 and 8 on Welbecks shirt was let go as presumably a fair shoulder challenge then questions need tyo be asked how, in the days of VAR do these blatantly wrong decisions continue to get made
Every decision like that, just feeds the fire and the idea that referees are dodgy becomes more and more popular

I actually think that there are some relatively easy way to cure the vast majority of these contentious calls. Firstly, the intimidation of refs has to stop- and that is quite easy- only the captains are allowed to approach and talk to the ref unless the ref approaches a player. Yellow cards for any player/ manager etc failing to comply. All this surrounding and shouting at the ref stopped. That removes a lot of pressure from the ref. The refs audio should be available for VAR calls, not necessarily at the time and broadcast live, but just to explain why a decision has been made. It works for cricket and rugby, it would work for football.

Click to expand...

Guinness Boy said:

I'm saying that's the only type available. If you don't want to be in charge you won't control an Under 11s game watched by thirty biased parents who don't know the rules, never mind reffing at Wembley with millions watching you.

Click to expand...

Icy Gull said:

It’s been said a thousand times but the FA should take a leaf out of Rugby Union. Dissent is punished and you very very seldom see any because of it. The captain is the only acceptable mouth piece and he is often just shut down by the ref.

Click to expand...

Guinness Boy said:

So this has been going on since 1450 but only now will people be unwilling to referee?

There will always be people who want to ref. People who like being in charge, being in the limelight and, let's face it, staying fit, being well paid and seeing Premier League football from the best vantage point possible. Tends to offset Thomas Tuchel having a bit of a moan about a goal decision.

Click to expand...

Guinness Boy said:

But decisions are also explained to fans. Refs in top level rugby are miked up and you know exactly what they're discussing. Same for DRS in cricket. VAR decisions are not replayed on screens, nor are the refs' conversations published. Makes you wonder what they're hiding.

Click to expand...

Swansman said:

Going to eat the sport from the inside.

Must be punished very harshly if there's going to be anyone at all willing to do the job in due time.

If you dive down the newspaper archives, one thing gets obvious: every referee in every country in every sport has been shite at least since Gutenberg invented the printing machine in 1450.

This strikes me as quite odd and makes me believe that it is really our perception of refereeing that is entirely ****ed up. We simply don't understand how difficult it is. A flaw in the human brain.

As such, you have to expect that common people for the next 500 years are also going to consider every referee as a shite one. That is fine I suppose, or rather: it is what it is.

But when players and managers puts all the blame on the referee after any game they didn't win, it fuels the situation. The Tuchels of the world are for whatever reason seen as people you should listen to, and so the fans do - and at some point or another it is going to end really, really badly as one of the hundreds of death threats top refs & their families recieve are going to turn into reality. At that point it is going to be very difficult to find people willing to do the job at any level.

I really hope the PL (and the EFL for that matter) goes further to protect the referees. Of course, some balanced criticism could be acceptable, but when managers and squads group up to do verbal gangbangs on the refs in the media after games, it is borderline the act of inciting violence towards the involved ref, and should be punished with a 10 game ban or similar.

Click to expand...