I'm actually quite surprised by this, to be honest. I fully expected the FA to stick by the decision, despite it being wrong, as they've done so repeatedly in the past. No ban for the big man, so he'll be available for our upcoming games. Whether he actually gets any game time is a different matter, but at least he could potentially play for the reserves, if he's not needed in the first team.
haha, you must have pressed "post reply" about 5 seconds before me. i've put it in the Norwich match thread. http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/Disciplinary/NewsAndFeatures/2012/tom-huddlestone-red-card-upheld-norwich
Good to hear The problem tends to be that the ref refuses to admit any mistakes in his match report which leaves arrogant referees the opportunity to stick by even the most ridiculous decisions under any circumstances. Fortunately Halsey isn't that kind of ref, even if he's prone to the odd howler.
Great news. Funnily enough, when I saw the challenge from where I was sitting I thought "no way is that a booking, let alone a red, both dived in" and then MOTD backed up my claims and in fact, actually think Snodgrass went into the challenge more recklessly! His leg was higher than Hudd's, had Hudd been standing, he could well have been leaving the pitch on a stretcher.
Refs are assessed and can be dropped or relegated, so they are sort of punished if they consistently make mistakes. EDIT: I think that the ban should actually transfer to Howson. Hid ludicrous play-acting provoked Halsey's mistake, in my opinion. Nothing wrong with him.
Yes, I believe that both managers still give their written assessment of the Ref's performance to the F.A after each game. Maybe that's the PL now? Presumably, these are looked at at the end of the season, and under performers dumped, or at least warned.
having been a referee i do feel for them. Its a very hard job with basically 22 players trying to con you. Add on 40k people in the crowd shouting at you (which i obviously never had to deal with) and i can imagine it not being very pleasant. Mind you, they probably get more than £10 a match which is what i got If its anything like the lowly level i did it at then if you get 2 low scores from the same match its looked at straight away.
I'm sure it is - I really think the authorities need to do something to change this: the ref ought to be able to rely on the integrity of the players just like in snooker or golf where players call foul against themselves. A big step but it would make the whole football experience much better for me
The Italian papers also rate the referee's performance in their match reports. If this was the case over here, soon The FA might catch on to the fact that Premier League referees are bloody atrocious.
Couldn't agree more, but it just won't happen til the FA start retrospectively banning players for 3+ matches for diving/shouting at ref/brandishing fake cards/feigning injury etc etc. I did a bit of kids football and they do it too, little ****s. But at that level its the parents that are te worst, no wonder the kids do it when the parents are cretinous and the players they worship are nobs. Maybe its bedded in by the time they get to pro level? I think i was about 15 (started at about 14) and one of the dad's actually came up and grabbed me by the shirt and threatened me (luckily, for me, he got pulled off) because i had the audacity to miss his son getting injured 70yards away while i was facing the other way (towards the play). Admittedly i was young but it really **** me up, and these guys have thousands of people calling them names etc etc. Horrendous job if you ask me.
I'm refereeing tonight - the game kicks off shortly, in fact, so you won't be hearing from me for a couple of hours, at least. Hope I don't have any difficult decisions to make. Those 12 year olds can be right terrors!
There was plenty of time for a fourth official to have a look at a video replay while Howson was rolling around play acting. It doesn't have to be an official thing, the fourth official could just give the ref a bit of off the cuff advice such as 'he's play acting, Thudd never touched him'. It would help the ref in deciding on the correct punishment. Additionally, if the players knew that there was the possibility of the ref getting advice from a replay, they might not roll around quite as much.
