Everytime a player moans about refs these days, I get angry. And I would like to try and put into words why I get angry.
While I think we've always known it, it's something that's rarely mentioned as a reason for the refereeing system not working in football; lies. Lies and the lying liars who tell them.
Maybe it's because we're brought up on football that we seem to forget that it's a bizarre human interest - to have tens of thousands of people willing a bunch of men to get a bit of plastic to go in between some sticks. The very nature of the game is such that the intricacies of those men getting that plastic to go between the sticks is so complex that no computer, even with today's processing power, is capable of figuring out what's within the rules of the game.
So we turn to some old guy. A guy incapable of playing the game, but a geeky enough guy that he has a deep knowledge of the rules. Far deeper than our own. And far deeper than most players.
And while every manager in the league bemoans the man's abilities - surely 50% of managers should be happy all the time if they're telling the truth - we understand and give credit for the fact that managers have to protect their players.
But I don't get why.
Players lie to refs. All the time. At every opportunity. They never think twice about it. They'll lie about who touched the ball last to win a throw in. They'll lie about whether they caught, or were caught by, an opponent. They weave such a web of lies that the guy who finds himself having to untangle the lies to get to the truth has very little chance of being right. Yet we offer them no credit for this - the ref is vilified in spite of the volume of deceit and hypocrisy that he has to sift through.
If we play in the park, we tend to rely on honesty because there's no ref. The ball went OVER the jumper, that wasn't the post and in! We'll admit this. But if there was a ref there? We'd lie through our teeth to convince him that if the post did exist, it would have bounced the ball into the net.
I do not believe that 'things are usually balanced by the end of the season' (I'm still not over that throw-in against Fulham 5 years ago), so I believe an answer must be sought. And that answer lies in football's overall approach to referees, and not necessarily technology.
Vincent Kompany puts two feet in the air as he jumps at the ball. Joey Barton goes head-to-head with a player and slaps his arm out of the way. And who got the vitriol? The refs. No responsibility taken by the players, and almost embarrassingly, none by the managers. Rather, they labour the point that the ref screwed up.
Until footballers and their management teams take responsibility for their own actions, and until the refereeing system closer resembles that of rugby and US football, there will always be angry, whingeing managers ignoring the good in football and unleashing anger at men who are not capable of doing any better. And that is a sad way for football to be.
Comments
Football reflects society.
Honesty and respect are now seen as weaknesses and those who attempt to uphold such virtues patronised and ridiculed.
In a footballing context that is the referee.
That should sort out the prima donnas of the premiership!
The other major problem isthe handball nonesense, a penalty gets given when it is so obvious the ball has hit the hand, it used to be ball to hand when it was played under proper rules.
Problem is the Ref's are being directed by people who never played the game and that coupled with the fact they mostly are non players themselves creates the utter stupidity that reigns in the game at present. Do Ref's get a lot of stick...........yes but mostly deserved as it is they who give these crazy decisions week in wek out
Ungentleman like behaviour should be automatically be punished with a yellow card. Managers and players would soon learn and stop.
Cheating should be a straight red.
The sooner they get it into their heads that the crowd havent come to see them the better. Clattenberg and Webb are prime examples.
All the while you have clowns like Attwell being fast tracked to the top of the profession you are going to struggle to get respect.
It's no coincidence that the majority of the referee talking points are in high profile matches that are analyised within an inch of its life. Before Sky/Lineker I don't recall Refs being chastised on such a regular basis. Nice and easy game this football when your in a comfortable studio with hindsight, not so easy at Old Trafford with 70,000 and Rooney and Ferdinand in your face.
Because in rugby any back chat or the slightest hint of dissent and the referee marches play on ten metres. If you make a habit of giving away yardage like that you'll find yourself very unpopular with your teammates.
The likes of Alan Green and Robbie Savage don't help matters; demanding that refs explain their decisions after the game. Imagine how much power this would give managers and players?
We do not publicly castigate players who score own goals or keepers who drop a cross...they are not wheeled out to explain what went wrong.
Also, interviewers should be banned from asking questions of managers and players about referees' performances. It just allows for one sided hyperbole and accusations.
Unfortunately such behaviour is also prevalent on the pitch and sidelines at my son's under 9 games that I have started reffing, and it is all learnt behaviour.
I know I am living in a naive world and it wont happen, I just wish it would and then Refs would at least have a chance
The argument here is about the complete lack of honesty in modern football. most seem to be blaming money, which could some what be true. I would say its the foreign element that has brought cheating into our game. Them and our own homegrown players are now becoming specialists in deceit. The complete biased opinion that most fans have for their teams are shared by the players that the ref is wrong on the most part when he makes any decision that could hinder their club.
It is something that needs to be addressed. To do so it will need strict ruling on cheating in matches and education starting with coachs that it is wrong to cheat. I have seen a match down at blackheath where a player blatantly dived and still felt he was in the right. For some players i think they are in such denial that do actually believe they have been tackled or they should of got that corner. Saying that i think majority know exactly what they are doing and thats what makes it so sad and pathetic.
When it does come to a bad decision and a player has misguided the ref, managers should take a responsibility that their player is in the wrong and the player should already know he is in the wrong. So it shoudent bother him if his manager doesn't start defending him and saying he has been mistreated and the ref was on their side or is blind, or is just an complete arse.
You make it sound like the whole of society patronises and ridicules honesty and respect, and that just simply isn't the case. "Society" includes you you know.
The rugby analogy isn't perfect, but it's probably as close as it gets in terms of sport in this country. Interesting that the media coverage tends to reflect the traditions of the game too.
Arguably there as many, if not more, subjectives calls made by a ref in rugby that have a direct influence on the result, but you don't (I think - am no expert) see ex-pro's queuing up to slag off the officials in the press or on TV after the game. In fact it seem rare that they pick over any particular decision for any great length of time.
I guess t's too late for football now, but I don't envy the refs their jobs.
Local authorities turn a blind eye to blatant excesses and extortion by bailiffs and even collude in it breaking their own supposed rules along the way.
Just a couple of examples.
There was a time you were innocent until proved guilty not the other away around.
As regards rugby, a game I used to play and know a little bit about, it is still holding the line re respect for referees but the task is getting harder. Professionalism is arguably one reason but again erosion of morals such as honesty and respect in society play their part.
And, as you know, not really much point in me reading a thread about car insurance is there!
;o)
I feel that the big difference between rugby and footbal is that rugby is not often decided by a single point, so the game rarely hinges on a single moment. Rugby games don't often end 1-0 (ok, that's not possible, but you get my drift!). Whereas in football there can be a pivotal moment - everyone on here remembers that injustice vs Fulham.
Who'd be a ref?
Certainly on the field rugby players accord refs far more respect that footballers do. It is something I have always admired when watching either League or Union.
Consistency is a hard one. All referees are different as all players are different so will interpret things differently. The laws are there to be interpreted and all are enforced according to the opinion of the referee so there will always be room for debate and interpretation by all who attend games.
I have been a referee for 9 years and have taken my fair share of dog's abuse in that time. On the whole though I do enjoy it and have a laugh with my fellow colleagues and those officials who run clubs who are friendly and respectful. Insults tend to run off my back like water off a duck's back like Sunday when I was sending a player off for a second yellow and he called me an effing d***head. I've learnt to rise above it. All I know is I love football, I don't ref to seek attention, to get off by telling players what to do or be a jobsworth, I wasn't bullied at school and I am not a geek. I simply love the game and love being involved in it in whatever capacity I can (and I was never much of a player). I love challenging my fitness, my decision making, my knowledge of the game/laws, my man management skills etc etc
as a player that played at half a decent level, the refs attitude generally gets worse the higher you get.
Im not saying all refs are like this, just the majority. There are some excellent youngs refs especially at kent county level, and some players do themselves no favours with their attitude and language, i just think that it works both ways.
Referees are there to control the game...not change it.
The essence of my point is that they make crazy decisions because footballers do everything they can to confuse referees. As SirJohn said, refs are not cheats. And rarely do they have an ego that affects their judgment (although I do get irritated by the melodramatic way some of them act when making a decision, particularly Webb's penalty-point stance).
When I watch the NBA, I am so thrilled to see two teams going at it with almost no animosity, no arguing, no vein bulging hatred. They don't argue because they have a degree of trust in and respect for the referees (college education and discipline no doubt helps) and have the back up of TV replays if all else fails. Last season during the finals there was a court invasion and a brief ruckus - turns out that ANY player who hits the court when that happens is banned. Genius!
As someone once joked in an article I read, the best thing to do is, whenever handbags break out, blow the whistle, count to five, and send off any player who's left standing up. Ergo, all players have to sit on their hands like children. All those left standing are considered the perpetrators and dealt with. No need for peacemakers and the argey bargey that comes with doing that - just sit down. Now THAT would be something!
as for se9addicks comment about Rugby I agree and don't agree. For sure there is rule breaking and sometimes outright violence but it is dealt with swiftly and harshly. But for definite you see no dissent from players to a decision you do see the captain ask the ref why he made a decision but once explained it is accepted. That has to be better than what we see on a Football pitch.
Rather depressingly I think the game's gone too far down this road to pull back and expect players to start acting in a more honest way.
Fergie is the biggest disciplinarian manager around probably yet even he condones and supports his player unsporting behaviour like we saw with Rooney's card waving at the weekend. I'm afraid as long as his team gets the benefit he seem to turn a blind eye and this seems the default position of all managers who are effectively the only people capable of infuencing a change in this sort of carry on.
Not that I condone it in itself per se but the days of a Clough giving his millionaire player a clump for getting himself booked for diving are a thing of history.
Great post @JiMMY 85.
My gripe with referees is that whilst they have to abide by the laws/rules in place, some of them seem to have no concept of the way football is/should be played having never kicked a ball in their life. Don't know what the answer to that is though as you will rarely get ex-footballers becoming refs.
However, I think the way the game is officiated at the top level is deeply flawed. Having a single guy in charge is just screaming scape goat, and gives credence to the phrase "behind the refs back". American football handles this well by having lots of officials, none of whom are the main man, any one of them able to call a foul at any time. Hockey also does a better job, by conceding the game is too fast for one man to keep up with it has 2 referees, thus meaning far less is missed.
My other gripe, which I've mentioned before, is the entire yellow/red card system. It manages to over and under-punish players and sides on a regular basis. It is almost completely subjective, and the players all play the system, trying to get opponents booked, etc.
I've thought for a long time that the refs job would be a lot easier if he didn't have to worry about bookings. Just give fouls, etc. and leave the disciplinary side to a video panel. Then there would be no benefit in diving, trying to get opponents booked, etc. All that would happen is that you'd gain disciplinary points when the video panel see your cheating. This would also get rid of the problem of yellow cards making a slightly mis-timed tackle, a wild swipe, time wasting and a whole host of other offences being equal.
It would also avoid the problem of incorrect red cards ruining games. At a rough estimate, 30-40% of all red cards I've seen in the prem this season have either been contentious or harsh. Games have been ruined as a spectacle because of mis-application, or over application of the rules in far too many instances.
Also, red card as punishment is often insufficient and can actually put the harmed team at a disadvantage. Say for example Man Utd are playing Arsenal, they're 4-0 up and Van Persie gets a red card for some petulance in the 91st minute. Man Utd gain no benefit whatsoever from the opponents foul play and the penalty to Arsenal, in that match at least, is negligible. Now Arsenal are playing Man City the following week, Utd would love Arsenal to take points from City, but they haven't got Van Persie, so the punishment, for a foul against Man Utd, now actively disadvantages Utd.
The only way to stop players cheating is to punish both them and their clubs. So players are fined/banned and clubs must lose points. You move to a video panel system, they award disciplinary points on a far finer scale than yellow/red and then the punishment can be more easily tailored to fit the crime.
"I agree there is a problem with the game and the influx of foreigners bringing gamesmanship into the game."
do me a favour, Spankie. Do you work for MigrationWatch?
Great article, and the replies have made it a very interesting debate.
However refs are seen as pantomime villains, and we as footy fans need something to moan about.
One of the problems for a ref is that they are human and they often during games don't know what way to give a decision. If anybody has had to ref a game at whatever level, they will undertsand what I mean by this. I always tried to play on this fact when I played and called for everything - I even got booked once for calling for too much when the ref got fed up of me, but I reasoned that if the ref wasn't sure it might help him make his choice if you get in there first with 'our ball' etc... I think that is why players at all levels always call for things even when it is ridiculous to do so - they ref might after all have missed it.
The big thing refs need though is video evidence. It can be introduced without breaking up the play if strictly limited as other sports succesfully do and can actually provide some excitement to games as you can witness in rugby and cricket when a deceision is awaited.
"In 5 seconds time, anyone within 2 yards of me who doesn't have a Captain's armband on will be going in the book. 5-4-3-2-1!"
You can imagine Ferguson sitting next to the 4th official "whispering" in his ear while he watched it again if football introduced it though!