Why the Games like it is

I blame Carling:

 

What ? Chess. Sneaky buggers.

 

Yes all that pawn can make you go blind and you can't pick up the pieces with boxing gloves on.

 

When I was at Uni in the late 70's one of the lads in our hall was on the books at Southampton, he always said they were taught how to cheat, dive, foul etc and get away with it, and that was 45 years ago......as for ex pros reffing if you look at it the other way they should/could be better because they would be able to spot the cheating....but as has been said they will have earned enough not to have to put up with the hassle of reffing....but something needs doing, the refs have been getting worse season by season, some now are embarassinly incompetant