Other Games - 2024/25

[dave shelley]

Considering the abuse they get, it seems fair enough to me.

When I started I got £3 a match and no expenses and I used to turn up every week on shit and dangerous pitches and get abused by whoever saw fit to hurl it.  It shaped me.  Any grassroots referees will have similar tales to tell.  If I could do it for £3 a match with all that went with it I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have a problem doing it for the best part of a quarter of a million quid a year whatever they wanted to call me.

[Dave]

Considering the abuse they get, it seems fair enough to me.

Yup. They're part of a billion pound industry which couldn't exist without them.

Paying them a tenth of what we were paying Ross McCormack in the Championship seems...fine?

[pauliewalnuts]

Howard Webb has told EFL clubs that Premier League match officials are earning an average of £240,000-a-year. https://x.com/DeadlineDayLive/status/1904854594355618215

Not sure if that includes travel expenses.

I don't have a problem with that. They're playing a fundamentally vital role in a gigantic worldwide leisure business.

I get more annoyed about half-arsed, don't give a shit footballers coining it in even more for doing nothing.

Like several years worth of Villa 'legend' Agbonlahor, for starters.

[Dante Lavelli]

Considering the abuse they get, it seems fair enough to me.

Me too.  The world couldn’t give a shit about my sexuality and I slag off Liverpool most days yet no one has bothered filming it; let alone publishing it in a national newspaper.

[rob_bridge]

Howard Webb has told EFL clubs that Premier League match officials are earning an average of £240,000-a-year. https://x.com/DeadlineDayLive/status/1904854594355618215

Not sure if that includes travel expenses.

I don't have a problem with that. They're playing a fundamentally vital role in a gigantic worldwide leisure business.

I get more annoyed about half-arsed, don't give a shit footballers coining it in even more for doing nothing.

Like several years worth of Villa 'legend' Agbonlahor, for starters.

Exactly.

[PeterWithesShin]

Luke Shaw has 'earned' around £8m since he last started a club game as a recent example.

[Meanwood Villa]

Considering the abuse they get, it seems fair enough to me.

Me too.  The world couldn’t give a shit about my sexuality and I slag off Liverpool most days yet no one has bothered filming it; let alone publishing it in a national newspaper.

To be fair, your job doesn't require you to be impartial about Liverpool, as far as I know.

[simon ward 50]

[/quote]

To be fair, your job doesn't require you to be impartial about Liverpool, as far as I know.
[/quote]

I thought that was the law?

[Hookeysmith]

It does not matter what anyone is paid, whether it £300 per week or a million - that is up to the employer who values and pays for the role accordingly.

But any job that someone is paid for, there has to be a level of competency conducted - the levels we see most weeks with referees in the top flight leaves a lot to be desired and that is where the wages become a talking point. If the majority of top flight referees were very good to excellent each week with only the odd mistake made, then that would be ok but some of the absolutely awful decisions that are made in almost every game is beyond belief.

I agree with some ex pro's that they may know the rules of the game, but they do not understand the game. 

[Somniloquism]

Although there are probably as many bad mistakes and decisions made by players earning a lot more then £250k a year during those self-same matches.

[Hookeysmith]

Although there are probably as many bad mistakes and decisions made by players earning a lot more then £250k a year during those self-same matches.

Agreed but if you take out fitness levels (as most top refs are very physically fit) players are often operating in split seconds, on instinct and with having to assess / expect a fast moving projectile.

Refs have to apply the rules in game and have usually a second or 2 longer than a player to make a decision. Its those decisions that are in question and that is without the factor of unconscious bias / influence by home crowds.

The biggest bone of contention is card application - there seems just no consistency. I understand that some refs are more strict  / lenient than others it is the inconsistency in the same game by the same ref that boils my piss

[Somniloquism]

But the actual decision is being made on a split second action with a fast moving projectile in play. A tackle doesn't happen over 1-2 seconds for the ref, it happens in the split seconds of a defender going in and an attacker playing the ball.

[Hookeysmith]

Along with VAR, piss poor reffing decisions are what the vast majority of football fans complain about, especially the piss poor inconsistency.

I think everyone would agree that there is significantly noticeable unconscious bias towards certain players and certain teams. That is down to poor or weak officiating and administering the rules differently towards certain teams.

To be fair some of the ones we have experienced in Europe over last 2 years were not much better, in some games even worse with Juventus springing to mind.

I know football fans all have a little victim complex and think their team is treated worse than others, but how many times do crowds around the country sing "you're not fit to referee" after yet another poor or even bizarre decision.
The mere fact that all the top league refs are known, mainly through infamy rather than ability, and when you see who the ref is for our games your heart can sink a little knowing full well they have a history of just being shit (yes i am looking at you "Tayls")

[LeeS]

I think refs in this country are generally pretty good. The odd mistake here and there, like everyone else involved football. It’s VAR that is shit. I’d rejoice if they got rid of it for good.

[Hookeysmith]

I think refs in this country are generally pretty good. The odd mistake here and there, like everyone else involved football. It’s VAR that is shit. I’d rejoice if they got rid of it for good.

Even though it has saved our skin (and in reverse i grant you) a few times.

I dont think there is anything wrong with it when it is proven to be the correct decision - it is the time it takes that really gnaws at the enjoyment of the game.

It is when they draw silly lines to prove offside and when even after VAR the decisions still looks iffy that is worst.