It's even getting to our own Mr Sunny, Adkins. When asked if refs were fair to Saints, he said, 'No.' Then added, 'But they will be.' Sounded like a threat...perhaps The Don is drawing up a list of future refs who will get a little midnight visit
The frequent changing of directives to the officials does not help. Bringing in goal line technology is a very small step forward as it will only show whether the ball has crossed the line or not. It will not show the foul as in the case of Oxo pushing the defender in the back before he got the ball. Last week we had a goal denied although the ball was clearly well passed the line even though there is an official that is supposedly there to spot such things. I feel that the standard has slipped slightly and will continue to do so with the referees getting more and more stick. This alone could be why there are only a limited number of qualified officials which is a possible reason for declining standards. We have the technology and should be able to use it. There is no reason on earth why the fourth official can't view the various incidents and report to the match referee that such a thing has happened and this would on occasion allow an error to be corrected. The Cazorla(?) penalty incident could have been seen and before the kick had been taken the decision could have been reversed. Nearly every time there is a major disagreement from the players the game stops so saying that the use of technology would slow the game is in fact not a valid statement. IMO.
IMO if players knew that technology was to be used at matches ,their diving and cheating antics would decrease dramatically .
But they know that their antics are seen by millions on TV as it is! It's not technology that's needed to stop cheating, it's retrospective bans for offenders.
Unfortunately, I think they would be subjected to unbearable abuse from the more primitive apes in the stands/commentary boxes.
I knew a woman about 25 years ago who used to referee rugby matches and she was good at it too. I also remember a female referee's assistant running the line at St Mary's about 10 years ago but that is it. I would however caution you that because some men are pretty useless at something it does not necessarily follow that all women will necessarily be any better. The one thing women are very good at though is saying the same thing often enough that they end up believing it is true even when there is absolutely no evidence to substantiate it. eg Women multi-task but men can't. American research has shown that men cannot multi task and the same reearch proved that women can't either.
i honestly think the standard of referring might go up and hopefully the players would be a little more respectful towards them
Which I have always thought was a load of old cobblers said by people who can't be bothered to analyse the statistics, but it makes a good sound-bite for a pundit. You also tend to find that the pundits who say it are former players who have half-a-dozen league championships in their CVs so they can afford to be vague. They never mention the one bad decision that possibly relegates a club or promotes another, or unfairly put one of their abundant league championships into their CV.
Breath of fresh air to see a referee come out and do this...The officials would gain more respect if this was seen more often IMO
The FA or FIFA could get rid of the diving by simply having long bans retrospectively applied. It just needs the will. The wrong offside decisions have been blighting the game since time immoral, and it's about time the technology was used. It's surely not beyond us and bearing in mind the money riding on the outcome of games, not too expensive for the EPL or Champions League. I also agree that for a player to get a second yellow, he must have received a first. If that was earned by shirt removal or petulance then my sympathy is limited. Refs may well be better than they have ever been, but we see their errors and and the players dive like never before. It's not an easy job.
Didn't change the end result though. Sometimes saying sorry is not enough. Where have I heard that recently?
Any diving incident in the penalty area, or anywhere else for that matter, should be revued by officials after the game. Tv evidence is used by officials to capture off the ball incidents. So why not revue the whole games antics. Not to change the score but to punish the wrong do-ers. I E diving, off the ball incidents, also to issue warnings about other nasty things going on, on the pitch. Would eventually cut a lot of the crap out of the game perhaps.
