Standard of Refereeing

[andyh]

We aren’t allowed call stuff corrupt, apparently.
But the way that the officials cover their own ineptitude and mistakes, that looks and smells like corruption to me

[aj2k77]

Watched the replay first time and it looked good and fair so I knew they'd disallow it as there's always some bizarre interpretation they cook up to cover their mates arse.

[ChicagoLion]

We aren’t allowed call stuff corrupt, apparently.
But the way that the officials cover their own ineptitude and mistakes, that looks and smells like corruption to me

It is.

[Bully2345]

The Malen goal was offside. Rogers was stood offside and his only role in that routine was to disrupt Semedo and buy McGinn a yard or two of space. Naive for McPhee to think that wouldn't get pulled up

[Paul.S]

We aren’t allowed call stuff corrupt, apparently.
But the way that the officials cover their own ineptitude and mistakes, that looks and smells like corruption to me

I don’t think referee’s are corrupt, I just think they’ve tied themselves in knots and now don’t have a clue how to use the laws of the game.
Each referee uses their own interpretation of the laws and it’s as clear as day this total confusion has lead us to where we are today.

[TopDeck113]

I'm interested to know what the talent pathway is for match officials.  I know that back in the day it was all about politicking at the local referees' associations; paying your dues by running the line at midweek Midland Combination reserve fixtures and eventually getting to ref in the Central League or whatever before making the league list.  How does it work nowadays?

[Russ aka Big Nose]

I'm interested to know what the talent pathway is for match officials.  I know that back in the day it was all about politicking at the local referees' associations; paying your dues by running the line at midweek Midland Combination reserve fixtures and eventually getting to ref in the Central League or whatever before making the league list.  How does it work nowadays?

Really interesting question.

Referees (and ARs) that are keen to progress have development plans, targets, coaches, and mentors. They are also ranked and assessed regularly.

I was at an event on Friday evening where one speaker was a AR (linesman) in the EFL. He's ambitious to get on the PL list and spoke about how he was ranked in the top 20 EFL ARs and then had a mare at one game and dropped sixty-odd places - something that, in his view, has set him back a few years.

It means that match officials that want to get can be singularly focused on their reputation.

They all know that if a game passes without incident, they don't get a particularly good mark - prompting some (it is suggested) to quietly wind players up in order to get a visible reaction that they can then sanction, i.e., being "seen to do a good job" as opposed to just doing a good job. IMO it inevitably encourages the wrong behaviours.

The increasing professionalism of match officials comes with issues. The PGMOL and international bodies have become obsessed (IMO) with 'managing the game' as opposed to refereeing the game.

The latter is about being as unobtrusive as possible, ensuring the laws are applied, and having an understanding of what players and coaches do and why (the difference between serious intent and a mistimed tackle, time-wasting, etc.).

'Managing the game' leads them to interfere in every aspect of what happens to prove that they are in charge, in control. It's this mentality that plays into their view that they never get anything wrong - prompting VAR officials to back rather than correct wrong onfield decisions.

The view that they are responsible for 'managing the game' also means they make decisions about how football is played - as evidenced by the PGMOL giving directives about the interpretation of the laws. For example, this season we will "let more go" or whatever.

All match officials have to follow the directives from the PGMOL or risk being marked down and not being retained at a particular level.

[TopDeck113]

Interesting. Thank you for such a detailed response.

[Russ aka Big Nose]

What has also blown my mind chatting to match officials in the EFL and ambitious young referees - in advance of a game, they do research on the teams and players.

It's claimed that they will perform better if they understand what the team formation will be, which striker might be on a hot streak of scoring goals, and which players have attacted the most cautions so far in the season.

The people that have told me this, including a now retired PL referee, were quick to insist that it doesn't mean they are at risk of applying confirmation bias, but to me, it absolutely has to increase the risk.

Plus, how does it help? When they get a teamsheet, do they really say, "well if they change from 4-4-2 to 3-5-1-1, I need to referee the game differently".

[Gareth]

Back to my perennial rant about how PGMOL needs to be disbanded and the FA should use overseas officials should be used, such as M. Turpin from the Celtic game, until something else is implemented. It'll never happen though

I wouldn’t say disbanded…needs Webb removing and the top brass being independent of refs ie not their mates and VAR needs to be treated as a job with operatives that aren’t refs on their day off trying to protect their mates.

We shouldn’t be importing refs either, our league is no more important than anyone other countries league….we need to improve standard of our officials.

VAR has been a convenient excuse for PGMOL to sit behind when in reality our officials have not been improving…need to improve and focus on performance of officials not just the application or not of VAR

[Simon Page]

We need to stop demanding perfection* and they need to stop making politician-style claims of infallibility.

* More accurately, claiming every decision against us is a corrupt travesty while every bit of gamesmanship, shithousery and cheating by us is clever.

[Lsvilla]

Awkward. On Ref Watch yesterday Dermot - assisted by Warnock and Sue Snith - use the Forest disallowed goal v Southampton where Chris Woods was offside but didn't play the ball - as justification for Malen's goal being disallowed. Today the PGMOL have come out and listed it as one of 4 VAR 'mistakes' this season and said it should have stood as Wood didn't play the ball.

[aj2k77]

Awkward. On Ref Watch yesterday Dermot - assisted by Warnock and Sue Snith - use the Forest disallowed goal v Southampton where Chris Woods was offside but didn't play the ball - as justification for Malen's goal being disallowed. Today the PGMOL have come out and listed it as one of 4 VAR 'mistakes' this season and said it should have stood as Wood didn't play the ball.

A fine example of how they tie themselves in knots. Apparently VAR is getting better though. They've marked their own homework again yesterday and useage is slightly up with errors down. A+ given by themselves.

[lovejoy]

They detail 4 errors but I can’t find the 9 non intervention mistakes listed anywhere.

[kippaxvilla2]

The interference was subjective in this case and that is what makes it all flawed.  Mr Rednapp perfectly illustrated the point that there was no real interference as Semedo was getting nowhere near McGinn even we assume Rogers poleaxed him which he certainly did not.  If it is Liverpool at Wolves that is getting allowed.