What is it with Phil Dowd?

[paul_e]

The problem then though is that there are far too few referees who have the required knowledge of the game to implement the rules properly.  Rugby fast tracking ex players to referee at the highest level helps it massively.

I dread to think what an awful hash most ex-footballers would make of being a ref.   With a few exceptions, such as Neville and Dixon, the ones that have entered punditry merely confirm the theory that most British footballers are as thick as shit.  I can't see many of them having the intelligence, maturity and impartiality required to do the job, and since most top level players retire as multi millionaires they will hardly have the incentive to be the target of mass abuse every week for peanuts. 

I agree that premier league players don't have the incentive to make the switch in general but they don't have to have played at premier league level necessarily, just to have had a bit of a career as a professional.  The problem with the current system is that you have to start in your early 20s at the latest to make it to the top end, which limits the options too much.

The pundit/manager issue in English football comes down to the fact they get the jobs on reputation not ability, that wouldn't happen with referees (at least you'd hope not) and just leads to them being lazy.  If you listen to the pundits most of them are happy to spout cliches and take the easy option.  We saw it last season, the majority of Villa fans gave McLeish a chance and only turned on him when he started making us play the way Blues had the year before, with the same level of success, but the easy thing was to say we hated him because he'd managed them and he didn't stand a chance.

As Nigel mentions, on field assistance for the big decisions is a necessity now.  Something like the penalty at the weekend, for example, the game was stopped and a crowd of players formed around the ref for a couple of minutes, easily enough time for someone to watch a replay and tell him there was no contact and to reverse the decision.  Then you give a free kick the other way (I'll come back to this) and book him for the dive.  It would go a long way to stamping out diving as well.

The other thing that they should look at from Rugby is the ability to reverse a decision.  Give a free kick for a bad tackle, but if the player gets up and starts pushing or waving an imaginary card at the ref you reverse the decision and give the free kick the other way.

Rugby isn't without its problems, Scrums, for example, are appallingly reffed at the top level, with pretty much everything being fed to the 2nd row, defensive backrows are nowhere near legally bound and the decisions when it collapses or wheels are pretty much a lottery, but regardless of these issues (and a few others) the game is still in a much healthier state, with very few terrible decisions being swept under the carpet.

[Clampy]

Big Sam has had a dig at Dowd after last night accusing him of big team bias.

[paul_e]

Big Sam has had a dig at Dowd after last night accusing him of big team bias.

He'll probably be fined and given a touchline ban for it though.

[Simon Ward]

Dowd's reffing of the match last night was laughable!

[OCD]

Dowd's reffing of the match last night was laughable!

Not surprising considering he's a laughable ref.

[Chrisupnorth]

Strange how a referee's performance is ignored when we win.  Dowd has taken charge of many a Villa game that we have won (I particularly remember a 4-0 win at Blackburn a few years back).  People will always look for a scapegoat when things are going badly.

[Clampy]

Strange how a referee's performance is ignored when we win.  Dowd has taken charge of many a Villa game that we have won (I particularly remember a 4-0 win at Blackburn a few years back).  People will always look for a scapegoat when things are going badly.

I'm sure he has. He's still a dreaful referee though.

[Mortimer's Bear]

At least we'll have an excuse ready next Tuesday then.

It won't be Dowd who misses every chance in front of goal, or fails to put a decent cross in, or allows opposition midfielders to waltz through ours at their leisure, or shows laughable incompetence at defending...

(Just saying like)

[Pete3206]

Strange how a referee's performance is ignored when we win.  Dowd has taken charge of many a Villa game that we have won (I particularly remember a 4-0 win at Blackburn a few years back).  People will always look for a scapegoat when things are going badly.

He's not a scapegoat, he's a terrible referee. If you spank a team 4-0, there's less likelihood of a marginal decision affecting the outcome of a match.

[phantom limb]

I don't think he's particularly biased towards the big teams, he's just a lumbering, inept fat shit who can't do his job properly.

[paul_e]

At least we'll have an excuse ready next Tuesday then.

It won't be Dowd who misses every chance in front of goal, or fails to put a decent cross in, or allows opposition midfielders to waltz through ours at their leisure, or shows laughable incompetence at defending...

(Just saying like)

But it will be his fault if we're 2-0 up with a few minutes to go and he gives a dodgy penalty against us, or if we're 1-0 up and he doesn't give us a stonewall penalty.  Do you trust him to not make game changing decisions like that?

[brian green]

I think he should not referee games at the highest level because he is too fat and too slow.   You can claim that all other objections to him are subjective but there is no way that a man so slow and so overweight should be officiating at Premiership games.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

It seems to be pretty common knowledge that he's a ManU man - his kids are fans/attend matches I think. So what the Hell is he doing reffing a ManU fixture?

He's also too fat, too unfit and pretty shit all round.

"Scholesy" - who the f**k does he think he is?

[Clampy]

My brother used to hate Roger Milford. I remember him very very vaguely as a bit of an arse.

[Zakk Fatt]

All I know is that I get a sinking feeling when I realise the Phil Dowd is the match referee, I get this overwhelming sense that although he is trying to be impartial that deep down he just doesn't like us very much which subconsciously influences his decisions. This season when he has reffed us only seems to confirm this to me.

Maybe we should applaud all his good decisions during a game and sing his name lovingly and say we all know Siralex and he's cool with us.

Then maybe one of those dodgy penalties will be ours and the Holte and Phil can all be friends in a mutual show of support and respect.

Or not......