No exceptions. Managers have to, refs should have to. To many controversial moments are left ignored and questions left unanswered. Players, managers, fans and reporters left in the dark. Refs should have to publicly explain decisions. This rule seriously has to be made, and I have had this opinion for a long long time.
Also technology should be brought in, it will relieve so much pressure of the ref's shoulders. At the end of the day they are only human and so many factors can impact their decision. The challenge that should have been a peno is an easy mistake for anyone to make watching in real time at pitch level, a challenge system should be implemented.
What would be the point? "Why did you send off Jay Spearing?" "Because he made a dangerous tackle. Both feet were off the ground, his studs were showing and he followed through on the player, despite getting the ball pretty cleanly initially" "Oh. Ok." "Why did you disallow the Suarez goal?" "My assistant flagged for offside. He was in a far better position than I was, so I took his advice."
Are refs ever called to account for their decisions? Is their a review panel every so often that looks at how they've performed? The soone Blatter leaves the better, video technology is the way forward.
They're watched by an assessor, Red. The obvious problem there is that you don't know how good the assessor's going to be.
Cheers for the reply, had no idea. I suppose but the assessor will have access to play back features and the rule book itself, surely? It's not so much for the spearing incident but what happens when refs do just make decisions (which happens) which are based soley on the reaction of the home fans when he couldn't have seen the incident from his position (as is often the case with penalties for example).
Usually when we have decisions against us we get mauled for complaining about ref's decisions. This time, even our rival fans knowledge last night was an awful display by the ref. Doesn't mean they don't find it amusing but had it been their team they recognise that they would feel hard done by. I'm not one to blame the result on refereeing decisions as we should have buried the game before the red card, but the ref didn't help matters at all.
Here's a PDF link to the assessor's guide for lower level games, Red: http://www.corshamref.org.uk/files/fa_assessorshandbook0708.pdf Not sure whether replays for assessors are a good idea, as the ref doesn't get them. How can you mark someone down for making the same mistake that you would have made in their position?
In general when assessors review Premiership referee decisions (which they do on every game), they only use camera angles which are similar to the angle that the referee had/could be expected to have in the game. So if the camera behind the goal seems to show a shirt pull, they won't take that into account.
