Happy New Year. 2 (old) blokes sat next to me yesterday spent whole match debating the accuracy or otherwise of the referees decisions. Not a word about players footballing ability. Are we becoming obsessed with referees performances rather than the game itself. And another observation - the older the supporter the more likely he/she is to complain about referees.
I am 65 years young, and I spend a lot of time complaining about most things. The problem is perspective. We have a lot to look back upon, and not all of the changes that we see are an improvement. For instance referees. It used to be argued that the less you saw of the ref, the better, and for me that still applies. And yet, the changes that we have seen in our game encourage them to get more and more involved. Before you know it, they think that they are the star of the show, and everyone has turned up to see how well they can play the whistle. Managing the ref has become as important a player skill as kicking the ball, and everyone knows how to fall over to emphasise that they have been touched or even nudged. As a result, play is stopped more than it was and the game is not allowed to flow naturally. Frankly it annoys the hell out of many of us old timers, and the undoubted improvements in the game are for nought if gamesmanship and referees are allowed to dominate it.
Fair point. But the quality of the ref is central and has a massive bearing on the outcome of the game. We (all in our late 30's/40's) seem to spend a lot of time criticising the refs these days, but when the F.A. send clowns like the guy yesterday it's going to happen. Media coverage is no different, to be fair. Pundits on Sky/BT Sports spend a lot of time critiquing the refs these days, in fact BT have an ex referee to explain the decisions given and if they are correct or not. Part of the modern game, I guess.
This is Avery good point. The referees job would be a lot easier if players did not resort to cheating. The unfortunate thing is that the governing bodies have let,this malaise go too far to reign it back. An example of this is holding and shirt tugging at set pieces. Officials were tasked with stamping it out by awarding penalties or free kicks. The problem is that if every time it happened a ref awarded a penalty virtually every corner would result is a penalty being awarded so refs only penalise the really blatant offences so players will continue to offend. Gamesmanship b keepers of teams holding the lead is another area where action could be taken. Officials tend only to warn and insome cases subsequently book offenders towards the end of the games after a series of episodes of time wasting. Having paid handsomely to watch (particularly but not exclusively in the Premier League) fans, who pay players wages are being short changed. Happy New Year for all BBS Contributors.
I'm might be a lone voice here, but by and large, I think that the refs, and assistants, get more of the big decisions correct than in years gone by. Where I think they are deteriorating though is through petty and fussy inconsistency, such as where Morsy was down, play went on when Birmingham had possession but when we countered it was stopped. Such as Hourihane being carded for thinking about tripping their player, but their defender not getting a card for going through Watkins, or Gleeson for actually trying to ref the game. I don't think refs are helped by the rules now either, but I'd love to see consistency in the same match.
The problem is that referees know when they are being conned, but the rules, as the FA wish them to be applied are too prescriptive. They seek consistency, when it is next to impossible when judging with the naked eye, events that are taking place at speed. But they threaten referees that they will take away their living unless they comply to the letter, and a referee, any referee, will therefore try to ref by the rules and guidelines laid down, whether he thinks it right, whether he knows he is being conned, whether he thinks his blind adherence to the rules is spoiling the game, or not. So now we have referees who do not use their experience, who do not use their intelligence, but who referee exactly by the book. All the players, their coaches and manager have to do, is learn how to exploit the book of rules and interpretations the referees use and they can exploit that blind application of those laws. You see it in every game, there is contact which the referee sees as a normal part of the game, he is going to play on, but then one player goes to ground and the referee immediately blows his whistle and signals a foul. The player has gone to ground because he knows it will result in the referee awarding him a foul, the referee knows that it is the reason he has gone to ground, but also knows what his rule book says, and he knows that he will lose his job if he fails to apply the rule book correctly. So he give the foul. I could quote other examples, but you do not need me to do that, because we all see it in every game. They have legislated to try and get consistency, but instead they have given us a game where the cheats prosper. It regularly makes my blood boil. They are taking away my game.
I disagree. I think we have referees trying to use their 'common sense' and make a judgement based on their own opinion far too often. The rules say that if a player is down injured with what may be a serious injury then play stops but yesterday we saw the referee force his opinion on the game. In his opinion moray was faking injury so he carried on and only stopped playing when moray sat up facing him and he saw the body dripping from his face. Now I'm sorry but that isn't the referees job to give his opinion that moray is faking, he isn't a doctor. He should have stopped the game. Other ones are where a referee sees a player pull another one back but decided to use his opinion and ignore the rules which state it is a yellow card because in his opinion it wasn't too much of a serious pull. The ball goes out for a throw in in a certain place, the referee knows where that place is but in his opinion the taking player moving a few yards forward isn't too serious so he lets it go. No, sorry, the rules are clear and they don't mention 'if it's not too serious let them pinch a few yards'. The game is blighted by referees forcing their opinion and their level of common sense into games and it causes inconsistency because they all have different levels of common sense. If they were to stick rigidly to the rules then sure the games may be a bit more stop start for a while but it would cut out a hell of a lot of this gamesmanship (cheating) that we currently see and at least everybody would know what to expect from the referees. I also disagree about the threat of having their living taken away. In all my years watching football I don't recall a single referee being sacked regardless of how badly they've performed. Perhaps if that threat actually did exist we wouldn't see such disgusting performances as we have lately
He only seemed to have that opinion with our players though. It's all well and good saying he was honestly judging when it wasn't the case for both teams
I think we're getting shafted in this league. I've had 2 seasons in league one where I've never really noticed the referee or got irate at the decisions made. We've come back up to the championship & it's the same as last time we were at this level with the big teams getting favouritism over us. I'm not sure why it is but I'm certain it's happening.
I guess it depends upon what winds you up most. In my case, it did not wind me up that he only stopped play for the injury to Morsy only when we had the ball. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and he could not play on once he saw the injury could he. It was a one off incident. In my view a referee must always use judgement about what does or does not constitute foul play, and that judgement can never please all watchers. I must also confess that it does not bother me too much if a player gains a few yards at a throw-in. I just want play restarted as quickly as possible. What does annoy me is cheating and referees aiding and abetting it. There are many other examples, I just quoted the one that annoys me most. Referees who do not apply the rules as they are required to simply do not make progress through the leagues to the top money, which differentiates the semi-pro from the pro. As I say, I am older than most and I feel that in many ways the game is better now than it was. But gamesmanship, faking and plain cheating are spoiling it and I just want to have my say.
I do not think that it is favouritism. I think that the established teams know how to play the system and know how to play the refs. Give us another season and we will be throwing ourselves to the floor instead of trying to keep our feet, and that will be just as wrong as it is now.
My thoughts re some of the referees goes like this .... Are you on the Are you on the Are you on the bloody take Referee are you on the take Makes you wonder at times.... Like some one posted on another thread it wouldnt surprise me too if a few of them were in my opinion.
I think there is an element of rose tinted nostalgia about how the game used to be. Going back 20 years or so and we're looking at the likes of George Courtney, George Cain and Gary Willard. Surely nobody is hankering for the return of those days! That said, we've certainly seen some shockers this season but perhaps the reason it tends to be the older supporters who complain more is that you'd have to be over 50 to remember the last time we had a good one!
Think i will probably way off beam here but i think during the summer Sky should be asked to provide all their material from this season, we'll start with premier league, a small but high powered committee sits down goes thru everything, slow mo and all and spots ALL the cheaters whether the ref has or not, and ban them at the start of net season. The clubs should be then put on notice about their players' future conduct.
