How can we get better referees in professional football?

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Trouble is, that opens yet another can of worms. No distinction between deliberate and accidental? In which case you may as well give away a penalty by making a diving save. If you do distinguish, you’re back to subjectivity again.
I think the red card for a clearly outrageous bit of cheating rule would cover that. Was it outrageous? Yes. Totally outrageous. Red.

Easy peasy.
 
Trouble is, that opens yet another can of worms. No distinction between deliberate and accidental? In which case you may as well give away a penalty by making a diving save. If you do distinguish, you’re back to subjectivity again.

Not sure I follow your logic. Under Lineker's rule you'd give away a penalty. Same as you would now. That's one thing that would remain unchanged. The disincentive is unchanged.

Vin
 
Not sure I follow your logic. Under Lineker's rule you'd give away a penalty. Same as you would now. That's one thing that would remain unchanged. The disincentive is unchanged.

Vin
How about deliberately kicking the ball at a defender’s hands? Do you give a red for a deliberate handball denying a goal scoring opportunity? If so, how do you decide whether it’s deliberate?
 
Deliberate requires intent. Impossible to assess or prove in 99% of cases without a confession.

I think outstretched or similar descriptors are clearer. Handball shouldn’t be applied when the player has his back to the ball. Etc.
 
People, quite rightly in my opinion, were fuming at the "attacking handball" law last season, which ruled out all goals where any sniff of a handball was involved.

It was a dreadful law, and thankfully has been cut right back this season (it's barely featured at all as a consequence).

Penalising all and every handball would indeed be simple. It would also be much, much worse than the old law above - because it would apply to all 22 players, all over the pitch. More handballs would be given than fouls. Penalties would be given for fun. Goals would once again be pathetically ruled out. Fans, players, coaches, pundits would hate it. The likes of Big Sam would exploit it, by instructing their players to aim for the hands/arms of opponents. It would completely change the game, and completely for the worse.
 
How about deliberately kicking the ball at a defender’s hands? Do you give a red for a deliberate handball denying a goal scoring opportunity? If so, how do you decide whether it’s deliberate?

Yes. That's a penalty. So you end up with defenders doing what Morgan did. He always approached in the penalty area with his hands behind his back. It's clear and there's no doubt about the rules. I also suspect that very few players would fanny about trying to hit an arm if they have the ball at their feet in the box.

The rule change GL suggests is purely for the awarding of a penalty. The punishment apart from the pen is a different matter and I can't see why it should cloud judgment on whether this might be a good idea. It takes the Minority Report mental guilt aspect out of the question. It either hits the arm/hand or doesn't.

Vin
 
Yes. That's a penalty. So you end up with defenders doing what Morgan did. He always approached in the penalty area with his hands behind his back. It's clear and there's no doubt about the rules. I also suspect that very few players would fanny about trying to hit an arm if they have the ball at their feet in the box.

The rule change GL suggests is purely for the awarding of a penalty. The punishment apart from the pen is a different matter and I can't see why it should cloud judgment on whether this might be a good idea. It takes the Minority Report mental guilt aspect out of the question. It either hits the arm/hand or doesn't.

Vin
OK that’s fair enough, I could live with that.
 
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I’ve not had chance to read the posts yet; I will soon, but the headline brings me to something I’ve said for years and in this forum too.

Thousands of young wannabes fall away from the game by not making it as a pro, or failing after a year or two as a pro. Some go down the leagues, some go non-league, a lot quit the game.

Right there is a huge amount of understanding on how the game is played, how players react, run and try to do things on a pitch. Get hold of them and give them a chance of a career still in the game. It’s a huge resource just going to waste and I’d say a damn good chance of being fitter and better once qualified than the current lot.
 
I’ve not had chance to read the posts yet; I will soon, but the headline brings me to something I’ve said for years and in this forum too.

Thousands of young wannabes fall away from the game by not making it as a pro, or failing after a year or two as a pro. Some go down the leagues, some go non-league, a lot quit the game.

Right there is a huge amount of understanding on how the game is played, how players react, run and try to do things on a pitch. Get hold of them and give them a chance if a career still in the game. It’s a huge resource just going to waste and I’d say a damn good chance of being fitter and better once qualified than the current lot.
If you read my original post that’s kind of where I was heading with this.
 
If you read my original post that’s kind of where I was heading with this.

I have now. And yes. Do you recall this coming up a few years back? I’ve barked on about it for years. I’d have considered it when my full time career stopped. Can you just imagine me reffing a final at Wembley, “calmly” listening to the player questioning my decisions point of view, before eloquently putting my opinion .....?? “Oh **** off keano, what do you know? You’ve never reffed the game” <laugh>
 
I have now. And yes. Do you recall this coming up a few years back? I’ve barked on about it for years. I’d have considered it when my full time career stopped. Can you just imagine me reffing a final at Wembley, “calmly” listening to the player questioning my decisions point of view, before eloquently putting my opinion .....?? “Oh **** off keano, what do you know? You’ve never reffed the game” <laugh>
<laugh>
 
I'm not expecting many people to agree with me but I wonder if we've ever considered going down the NFL route with a team of 10 officials to cover the entire pitch from different angles. Two on each of the four touchlines / bylines and one in each half of the pitch (still moving to get a second angle on the same incident). A brief discussion with the official nearest and with the best view of the incident should be just as good, if not better, than VAR.

For me, the only reason Moss looked 'invisible' last week was he struggles to keep up with play! You have to wonder what the fitness regime is for some of these officials.
Didn’t European games have 5 officials at one point. From what I remember, the officials at each end of the pitch never appeared to do anything, certainly never questioned the refs decision or offered advice. One of the problems is that the team of officials has a boss, the ref, and he cannot be challenged. Any Lino doing that will quickly be demoted. More officials that back up a useless ref won’t solve the problem.
 
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I’ve not had chance to read the posts yet; I will soon, but the headline brings me to something I’ve said for years and in this forum too.

Thousands of young wannabes fall away from the game by not making it as a pro, or failing after a year or two as a pro. Some go down the leagues, some go non-league, a lot quit the game.

Right there is a huge amount of understanding on how the game is played, how players react, run and try to do things on a pitch. Get hold of them and give them a chance of a career still in the game. It’s a huge resource just going to waste and I’d say a damn good chance of being fitter and better once qualified than the current lot.
I think the underlying problem Fats is the culture of football towards referees. A stiker can miss an open goal and his teams fans can sigh and moan and opponents fans laugh. A ref makes one mistake in a game and he is vilified by the whole crowd. The players abuse and argue back with refs at every given opportunity and further undermine their credibility with the fans.

There is little incentive for any young wannabes to take up the mantle of being a referee and until football learns from its peers in Rugby Union and undertakes a fundimental and sustained long term campaign towards it treatment of referees at every level of the game, the situation of developing a cadre of quality referees and a rolling conveyor of talent is never going to materialise.
 
I think the underlying problem Fats is the culture of football towards referees. A stiker can miss an open goal and his teams fans can sigh and moan and opponents fans laugh. A ref makes one mistake in a game and he is vilified by the whole crowd. The players abuse and argue back with refs at every given opportunity and further undermine their credibility with the fans.

There is little incentive for any young wannabes to take up the mantle of being a referee and until football learns from its peers in Rugby Union and undertakes a fundimental and sustained long term campaign towards it treatment of referees at every level of the game, the situation of developing a cadre of quality referees and a rolling conveyor of talent is never going to materialise.

Agreed. The powers that be missed a trick when they bottled the 10 years rule 25 years ago, or whenever it was.

10 yards, 10 yards, another 10 yards? Ok, penalty!

Would stop any player reactions over night, IF they stuck to it.
 
Agreed. The powers that be missed a trick when they bottled the 10 years rule 25 years ago, or whenever it was.

10 yards, 10 yards, another 10 yards? Ok, penalty!

Would stop any player reactions over night, IF they stuck to it.
To be fair the introduction of sin bins at grassroots level has helped a lot with dissent. Teams have discovered that being down to 10 men for 10 mins isn't fun.

And when I go over to The States to referee in a youth tournament over there in the summer all the American players and coaches called me Sir which I really liked!