http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30704681 Former referees' boss Keith Hackett claims officiating standards in the Premier League over Christmas were "bordering on appalling". Hackett, 70, has named five current top-flight referees who should be removed at the end of the season. In addition, he believes successor Mike Riley should step down from his job. Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has rejected Hackett's claims, stating standards have risen since Riley replaced Hackett in 2010. Former Fifa referee Hackett claims he counted "over 20 major errors" during the Christmas period. Marriner is one of the five referees identified by Hackett in his blog, You Are The Ref, who in his view should finish at the end of the season. Mike Jones, Lee Mason, Chris Foy and last season's FA Cup final referee Lee Probert are the others.
but where does he say liverpool ****ed up big time and are clueless for letting Stevie go ? Every other **** is chipping in so surely Keith Hackett had his tuppence worth.
Refs do make some baffling decisions, but to be fair to them, their every move is scrutinised to death from as many different angles and opinions as is possible, then pontificated upon by stupid, self-important talking heads who have to have something to say to justify their existence-so they're on a hiding to nothing most of the time. Refs only get one chance, and one point of view, to get it right. There can't be many jobs where your every move is subject to such detailed analysis. I mean, it's a form of entertainment, not brain surgery.
Hackett is right to call them out. Riley is invisible and is not leading this group of hapless officials and challenging them to improve. Most of them simply don't understand the game. They barely know the bloody rules, but are easily conned by a player making a tangle of legs look like a bad foul, or a player feeling the slightest touch and going down like he's been shot. IMO this is because most of them have never played the game at any level whatsoever, they referee like they've never even watched a game half the time. The likes of Mason, Probert, Friend and Foy need shunting, they're ****ing useless, and are being paid 100 bags a year for being so.
I do agree... the most annoying thing as a fan watching any game is watching defenders flop over at the first contact. Every player knows hands are used to asses distance and a hand on the back is not the same as a push in the back... however these days it seems par for the course that any time a defender gets caught facing the wrong way they flop over and get a free. this year has ben particularly bad for refs showing zer inclination to somehow show weakness to give themselves 10 seoncs to think about it before pulling a card and we saw that red that was never even a yellow recently that got then rescinded. agbonlahor went in hard on a 50/50... yet a couple weeks later we see a wimbledo player pile in a catch manquill on the ankle and not even free. there was a prem list ref on that game... no free... then every tie their fat lad up top touched skertl he was blown up and he went nuts... he did push him a lot but once he started blowing up minor contact he kept at it and at it.
completely agree. Plus they are spineless, cannot handle pressure lack common sense in most cases. It's pretty tragic when Dowd is one of the best.
that brings up an interesting point. in my time watching football.... i have to say the very worst refs of any one period seems to end up growing into the better or best refs of the next. Its like a race to the bottom.... or... conversely... perhaps they just get wise to the whistle blowing and just mind themselves after enough whacks i dunno. I remember distinctly graham poll starting out was a complete and utter buffoon of a ref and whistle happy. the's now writing about how bad refs are...
Fixed. Unfortunately like any other organisation, refs have to deal with the internal politics and keeping their boss happy. one thing they do in this context, and possibly ordered or "directed" to do, is not sending someone offf that deserves red, because it will ruin the game. Then there is the judging payers on reputation, they do that a LOT, these calls usually involve them not even seeing what happened and their disposition towards the player fills in the blanks!
there is certainly a view of the you can have one tackle mentality.... younger refs seem to give cards and older refs learn to hold them and then level out thier numbers as soon as the second half starts. its amazing how a real dirty nasty game and an absolutely clen great game to watch will each have 2/3 cards per team.
I think the standard has been very poor but it's a horrible job. And it won't improve until we introduce video technology so refs can make better informed decisions. The only way for it to improve is to have a ref in the stands surrounded by numerous TV's so he can see the incidents, and then relay that message onto the ref who is on the field who is simply there to enforce the decisions made by the 'TV Ref'. The only 'downside' to that is you will eliminate 99% of errors, and football can become a bit boring without controversial talking points.
Don't really agree on those points I'm afraid. There are far more situations where the the video evidence is inconclusive or open to interpretation than 1% of the major incidents - how many times do people have differing views despite having it seen it many times over from various angles? That said, there are very few games where I've thought "You know what, a bad decision who have really made that game better!" I think they're more likely to ruin a game than make it better. I'm definately for video technology though
Who wants to be a ref? Either the kid who loves football but is **** at it or the kid who thinks Porridge's Mr Mackay is mint but is too scared to join the prison service. As a result, referees have no feel for or experience of the game. That's easily fixed by encouraging ex-players to become referees once they've retired from playing. At the minute the money on offer won't turn the heads of League 1 players but if a top refs' salary was 250k a year then I'm sure a few of them would fancy that as a 10 year job post-playing. It's a lot of money to the man on the street but in football it's peanuts. Or spend it on video technology like other sports have done. It's not exactly rocket science!
Premier league refs earn £100k, not bad for an afternoons work a week. What do you think league 1 players earn as a matter of interest? As I can assure you that the majority aren't pulling a 100 bags. That's before you consider league 2 or conference players. I'm certain that an FA scheme that sought to encourage ageing lower division players to train as refs during their twighlight years as a pro, along the same lines a pros take their coaching badges if they want to follow that path, would succeed and develop a generation of refs who were capable of both gaining respect on the field and making calls that weren't ridiculously naive
But you would still eliminate majority of the mistakes. Personally, I wouldn't want it to happen because you would lose the talking point which I feel is a big part of football and it's culture. In addition, players may go down easily or exaggerate contact etc etc but I think it's clever play and I wish our own players would do the same.
