The latest comment is that 'it could take 3 years' to get it right, fans need to 'trust us' to get it right. No. Sorry. Too late.Mark Clattenburg says that VAR and referees had a Saturday to forget
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7417043/MARK-CLATTENBURG-VAR-referees-Saturday-forget-Martin-Atkinson-did-grand-job.html)
but forgetting is the last thing we should do because it could all just happen again next Saturday. They say that the first step in dealing with a problem is recognising that there IS a problem so we should all use last Saturday as a wakeup call.
The problem is that our game on the pitch is not being run fairly. Put simply, what we pay to watch is not being officiated competently or even-handedly. And that’s no longer good enough. Not by a long chalk.
You might say ‘It’s always been this way, referees have always made mistakes, shut up and stop rocking the boat’ and you’d be right in part; referees HAVE always made mistakes but television coverage has changed the way our game is consumed; we can all see the mistakes now. Very little is hidden from the recording devices so we can replay it over and over again, in slow-motion and in ultra-definition. The curtain has been ripped aside and we can see what’s behind it.
That has changed forever how we understand the game. Billions can see the game now not just those who attend in person; and they all have access to video editing software and social media to let you know what they think about what they’ve seen. It’s a different world now.
Players have adapted their physical conditioning, strength, skills and flair to this new world. The football authorities have adapted the competition structures, formats and times of games. Hell, even clubs have changed the way they function and deal with the various stakeholders of agents, authorities, public and finance but refereeing has failed spectacularly to adapt and deliver the level playing-field which is the minimum they should be achieving.
Expecting the bureaucratic excuse that VAR has introduced of ‘we’ve imposed some haphazard rules around notification and time to allow us the leeway to protect referees from the consequences of their blatant mistakes’ is not washing anymore. Nor should it.
We shouldn’t put up with that crap any longer. We need to demand a fair game on the pitch.
This may be the next important thing we the fans can do for the sport we love; preserve it against the catastrophic outcomes we are seeing now. It’s not the players causing these problems, it’s not the clubs, it’s not agents, it’s not the television companies and it’s sure as hell not us; it’s the referees, protected by the football authorities.
They need to change so our job is to provide all the motivation they need to do so quickly and effectively. It can start small by everyone signing the petition to ban Kevin Friend as an example of incompetence.
https://www.change.org/p/football-fans-ban-kevin-friend-from-refereeing-premier-league-games?recruited_by_id=b1dcb990-cc0b-11e9-a436-3739f2073faa&share_bandit_exp=initial-17591627-en-GB&share_bandit_var=v1Is this all about him? No, he’s just the best example right now of what we mean.
Is that a bit ‘small-time’? No, it’s just the start.
Then promote this campaign across all fanzines because it’s a problem at all levels and for all clubs in this country no matter what league you are in. We all have some skin in this game so get onboard. ‘We want a fair game on the pitch’ is the issue we can all get behind.
For the next stage in order to put a bit more ‘stick-and-carrot’ into the campaign I’d suggest we start ‘KevinWatch’ or whatever you decide to call it. Using Friend as an example we should monitor him like a leper; report on his football whereabouts, what games he’s assigned to in whatever capacity, what he’s doing, blanket coverage. And don’t go away until he’s gone.
Then the really meaty thing; develop and agree the performance measures we want to see about refereeing. These are the things that matter to us and really let us know whether the game on the pitch is getting better or not. Measure the mistakes, measure the bias, measure the misjudgements then report on them for every game. The OPTA stats are becoming a normal part of the game for clubs and players; why not have some for the refereeing part as well? Create them, report them, discuss them. Use fanzines to promote them because ‘We want a fair game on the pitch’ is OUR campaign. And don’t let them be hijacked by anyone else. They’ll be our measures and we won’t compromise them or hand them over to the football authorities until we get a fairer game.
Our aim is to be persistent with the message ‘We want a fair game on the pitch’.
Our objective is to get the Premier League and referees body to accept their responsibilities, not protect incompetence.
So when do we start?