It seems he's been dropped from the PL this weekend because he 'broke protocol' by speaking personally to Neil Warnock alone about his decisions and then travelling from the stadium alone - apparently they are supposed to travel with their assistants. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29813870 It's amazing how quick a ref can be dropped for bulls**t protocols like these yet when they give appaling, disgusting decisicions like we've been on the end of recently not much is done about it. What a pile of stinking fecal matter.
While I agree that talking to Warnock shouldn't have been done. The leaving of the stadium to go to see a concert is ludicrous.
The rules are there for a reason. Clattenburg would have been aware of them, so he's only got himself to blame
'He knows the rules' isn't the point being made by Stereo who is correctly highlighting the fact that the authorities are quick to act for trivial infractions of the rules but don't seem to act on incredibly incompetent performances.
But they have to apply them in milli seconds. they are bound to make mistakes and they happen on a frequent basis. The FA do take action against referees, but if they did it on every occasion they made a bad decision there would be no officials on a Saturday afternoon. Clattenburg has a set protocol to follow at every match and broke that protocol. The FA has decreed that is unacceptable. If they don't act other referees will do the same and the integrity of the refs could be undermined as they are opening themselves up to all sorts of accusations.
Refs have to make split second decisions and it's clearer than ever that they need help from technology. It's a difficult job for sure. However, call me old fashioned but I'd have thought the most important job for a referee is to get most of the big decisions right. Anything else is incompetence. I seem to remember BK saying recently that a recent study of one referee's performance found that he got 0% - yes, zero percent - of the big decisions wrong. Sorry, but that's unacceptable. There seems to be a lack of will on the part of the authorities to demote or suspend referees who consistently perform poorly whilst they take action for this trivial nonsense. I think most football fans only care that a referee is competent and they don't really give a **** who rides in his car with him.
I read in todays Times, (Yes I know ) that Stuart Atwell was demoted from the PL list for the best part of three years because of his displays. He's about to make a comeback on Saturday reffing the Leicester game. Makes you wonder what the hell Mike Dean has to do to get dropped down to the Championships.
Yes, Never it does happen I know but I agree with Stereo that it seems a little incongruous to punish one of the best refs in the Prem for something so trivial when there are bigger things to concern the authorities.
I think it's perfectly acceptable to stand Clattenburg down. He's obviously shown a massive flaw in his decision-making process. I mean Ed Sherhan?!!!!
