What exactly are we respecting here?

From Loft For Words - QPR Website:</p>

http://www.clubfanzine.com/QPR/v2.showNews.php?id=15869 </p>

<font size="1"><span style="font-size: 11pt">The authorities continue to stamp their feet and demand respect, but the actions of their officials are a long way short of anything commanding anything close to that. Meanwhile Andy Woolmer is the man in charge of the Burnley match.
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Respect
&bull; noun - a feeling of admiration for someone because of their qualities or achievements.

I&rsquo;m not an avid reader of the dictionary as regular readers of this site will testify to, however I absolutely love this definition of the word &lsquo;respect&rsquo;. It&rsquo;s been the most used word in football this season, particularly this week, as the authorities try in their usual cack-handed way to stop arseholes like Ashley Cole behaving as he did at Tottenham last season. The fact that we already had rules against dissent that just needed to be more strictly enforced was missed, no the solution is obviously some pathetic campaign where we all sign a contract in front of Richard Keys.

Keep an eye on the definition at the top of the article as you answer the following questions. Is Rob Styles worthy of respect when, after awarding a pathetic penalty to Man Utd against Bolton, he was allowed to keep his place in the Premiership after issuing a forced apology and then promptly awarded an even more disgraceful spot kick in the Newcastle Man City match? Is Mike Riley, a man who systematically ruined the Man Utd v Chelsea game with one stupid booking and free kick after another, worthy of respect after booking Fraiser Campbell for over celebrating at Tottenham on Wednesday? For the record Campbell ran up to the Tottenham fans and slapped a few high fives.

Should we stand back and show respect as Stuart Attwell first awards a goal that didn&rsquo;t actually go anywhere near the goal, then sends off a Tranmere player and the appeal is rejected, then wrongly sends off a QPR player and the ban is extended, then makes such a pig&rsquo;s ear of Derby v Forest that you&rsquo;d think the soppy idiot had never seen a game of football before? Should we continue to show respect when it turns out that Attwell&rsquo;s mentor is Mike bloody Riley and his punishment is fourth official duties at a Premiership matches?

Is Andy D&rsquo;Urso worthy of respect for his handling of Barnsley v Sheff Utd last weekend? A game where Chris Morgan, a man with a reputation, elbowed various Barnsley players in the head with no come back from the official who then laughed off complaints about these offences from the Barnsley players and manager at half time. When one of Morgan&rsquo;s elbows finally did find its target, the side of Iain Hume&rsquo;s head, it left the Barnsley man in hospital with a fractured skull and internal bleeding. D&rsquo;Urso showed a yellow card. Is that worthy of respect? A man left with life threatening injuries after warning an official about just that possibility and the perpetrator gets a yellow card? Managers are meant to respect that?

Andy D&rsquo;Urso gets to referee again this weekend, Chris Morgan gets to play again this weekend, Barnsley manager Simon Davey now has a touchline ban hanging over him for pointing out that fracturing one of his players&rsquo; skulls is a sending off offence and Iain Hume is on a high dependency ward at the hospital. Respect? I can barely conceal my contempt. We of course wish Hume a speedy recovery &ndash; after which his first trip should be to the solicitors to begin proceedings against both Morgan and D&rsquo;Urso.

The one thing missing from that definition is the word &lsquo;earned&rsquo;. Respect is something to be earned. Respect is not something incompetent people deserve or should receive simply because they stand there stamping their feet saying &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in charge, without me you wouldn&rsquo;t even have a game.&rdquo; Rather than charging people like Davey, Aidy Boothroyd and Joe Kinnear with speaking their mind after games the FA should be focussing on the people most guilty for the failure of the &lsquo;respect&rsquo; campaign &ndash; the referees themselves.

As far as I&rsquo;m concerned you can stick your respect up your arse &ndash; the referees bring it all on themselves and deserve everything they are getting at the moment. They want respect, they should start bloody earning it. And if I was Simon Davey I would stand on the touchline at every game for the rest of the season, even if he does get a ban, just to protest against the ridiculous situation where the only person punished for a filthy challenge from a vile player that leaves a man in intensive care is the victim&rsquo;s manager.

Pause for breath. The man in the middle at Loftus Road this weekend is Andy Woolmer. He&rsquo;s best remembered as the guy that looks like the bloke with the pet mouse in The Green Mile. So far this season he has shown 31 yellows (2.214 a game) and three reds in 14 matches, including three yellows and two reds in the Millwall v Hereford game. Four of those matches have been in the Championship producing 11 yellows and one red. Last season he showed 103 yellows (2.641 a game) and two reds in 39 matches including 25 yellows (2.77 a game) and one red in nine Championship matches.

His last QPR game was two seasons ago at home to Sheffield Wednesday, a game that finished 1-1 with seven yellow cards. His rating of four for that performance saw him finish joint 26th on the referee league.

Referee: Andy Woolmer 4 Over fussy throughout, made Rangers take the kick off again and got steadily more pedantic from there. Seven yellow cards is a ridiculous haul for that game, especially when Whelen didn't get one despite countless fouls and dissent, and Wood didn't get a second one for the penalty incident. Carding Cook for diving was a joke decision - there are occasions when players go to ground and it's neither a dive nor a foul you know. LFW Sheff Wed Match Report

By strange coincidence his last Burnley game was also a match against Sheffield Wednesday, this one was in 2005/06 and finished 2-1 to the Owls - one player was booked.

Elsewhere interesting to see the Premiership referees dropping down this weekend &ndash; Richard Beeby has obviously upset somebody as he has Gillingham v Rotherham, Chris Foy is probably on special assignment rather than any kind of punishment as he has Huddersfield v Leeds which promises to be lively. As Iain Hume struggles to come to terms with his skull fracture, Andy D&rsquo;Urso has no punishment at all and referees Wycombe v Bradford this weekend. Respect?
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Top, top article.

I keep hearing the comparison between football and Rugby (both codes) and how the match officials are treated.</p>

It might occur to someone somewhere along the line that Rugby officials are better at their job and understand the game better than their football counterparts who seem to be adept at applying rules (mostly) but are an extension of football's administrators - ie petty minded self important incompetents.
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RE: Top, top article.

I agree about the &quot;petty minded self important incompetents&quot; but I think the problem comes from above. If the top people ordered refs to take action the players would stop. Any swearing at the ref gets a card. Any surrounding the ref, all players booked. Any contact in the head with arm/elbow, straight red. Any blatant dive, sent off. And all could be done after the game with video evidence. </p>

It might take a couple of weeks with 6-a-side and half the team banned, but they would learn pretty quickly. Whilever they can get away with it, they will.
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show ree spek dirk

 

RE: Top, top article.

Whilst ever we have the full time professional refs in The Prem - who supposedly would be better but instead become 'familiar' with the top names and thus apply the laws unequally and let the top names get away with dissent - which is picked up by most people (but of course it doesn't really happen it's all in the mind of the 'smaller' clubs etc) then nothing will change. Some refs are star struck.
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Football has to change its entire ethos. The pursuit of money is at the root of it all. Winning at any cost is paramount - kids watching SKY go out and copy what they've seen. Until the top names adhere to the 'respect' campaign - Lampard, Ferdinand, Terry, Rooney etc then nothing will change. </p>

Refs need to be consistent as well. I've lost track of the no. of times dissent goes unpunished - kicking the ball away etc and then in the next match the same offences get yellow cards. No wonder managers get annoyed.
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**** respec' innit.

 

They need to stop fining millionaires a couple of thousand quid and start deducting points.

 

Correct.

 

Excellent post mate...

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The real question for me and has been for a long time is why can't we seem to get ex players to become referee's.</p>

Other sports such as Cricket and Boxing seem to manage it quite well, and the financial rewards for football referee'sare now very lucrative. The article you posted mentiones &quot;earning&quot; respect. I'm sure an ex pro, who maybe hasn't played at the top level but still had a career in the lower leagues would command the respect of players. Not to mention having a knowledge of the game.</p>

Its my opinion that the powers that be at the referees association don't want ex professionalplayers as referee's, otherwise i'm sure there would have been an initiative by now to recruit them... I've heard that the top refs earn around 50k a year... Surely there are ex pro's sitting at home who would love to be earning those kind of amounts and with vastly more experience of the game than some of the so called top referee's.</p>

The problem for me is that referee's can't communicate with players, can't relate to a bad tackle, can't differentiate between banter and violent conduct. To be able to understand why players honestlylead with the elbow when jumping for the ball and when its a blatent attempt at injuring another player... They see everything in black and white and its never like that on a football pitch. </p>

The RESPECT campaign has never gotten going because the respect was never there in the first place. To get respect you have to earn it, correct. You also have to show respect to get respect. And until referee's show some respect for players and managers they're on a loser...</p>

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Despite the fact that the FA supposedly control the game and, being their competition, make the rules - they are basically gutless & wouldn't dare do that for fear of upsetting the "bigger" clubs and their stars.

With regard to respect, as far as I'm concerned it's a two-way thing and has to be earned - not taken for granted because of some beaurocratic directive.

It would be nice if once in a while a referee admitted he was wrong or screwed up - and the same goes for players & managers.

A little bit of honesty would go a long way.

 

word homeboy.

 

Money has completely corrupted the sport, the more you have, the more you can get away with. And the higher the stakes, the more you'll try and get away with.

We need to start drafting like american football. That'll be funny, seeing Ronaldo's head drop into his hands as it's announced that he'll be playing for Barnsley in the 2009/10 season on £500 a week.

 

Baby pants.

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Big ones.</p>

Black.</p>

 

Smart boy !!!!!

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Just wait till tha posts summat serious.... </p>

 

Football referees are usually

people who love football but have never played it at a high level.

 

fantastic

echo's my thoughts precisely

 

I've said this before and I'll say it again.

All the YTS lads at the academy should be put through their referee'ing exams.

That way they know the rules of the game for sure, and any that don't make the grade as a footballer have another chance of earning a living inside football as an official.

Sending the qualified YTS lads out into the community to referee either junior matches or Sunday league football matches will also go towards football in the community remit which BFC has due to the council owning the land.

For the cost it seems such a no brainer to me.

 

That's a great idea ! nt

 

That is feckin' brilliant.

When the Morgan petition's out of the way, you should start another and get some support behind that. Brilliant, simple, addresses more than a few important issues.

 

It's alright for you though.

The FAW will just drop the red cards a few days later.