Refs Are Being “Killed” Says Collina – And The TV Highlight’s Don’t Help!

Last week at the “Leaders In Football” conference Pierluigi Collina stuck up for his counterparts in the middle.

Referees, said Collina - still perhaps the most recognisable ref on the planet despite retiring six years ago –were being “killed every week” by excessive criticism.

"If you kill referees every week we can finish referees,” Collina said. "We need years to build up referees and one second to destroy them. To keep them we need to protect them.

"One of the things we have to consider is that we cannot buy referees at the supermarket.

"You cannot find referees in the corner of the street."

And it is a valid point.

Recent figures have shown that 98% of offside decisions made by the officials last year were right, but as former top ref David Elleray pointed out: “Two per cent of so-called mistakes attracted huge publicity.”

The point of view of Collina and Elleray was something that I was reflecting on when I watched the Football League Show on TV at the weekend.

There was footage on the show of the Colchester v Yeovil match. The game was poised at 2-2 going into the closing stages when Colchester sub Stephen Gillespie put the ball in the net.

The voiceover on the goals highlights said something like “and the goal was inexplicably denied for a foul on the keeper.”

Now, I couldn’t see a foul on the keeper either, but I did see a couple of Colchester players with their hands on their heads and no one protest as Gillespie was booked so I wound the incident back. And whilst a foul on the keeper might have been “inexplicable” (some would say non-existent) the handball by Gillespie was more than clear on second viewing.

Of course the referee didn’t get a second view. He got it right first time.

Which is really proof of Collina’s point. In the great scheme of things the piece was mere seconds of a late night TV show with a small audience. But unless you were eagle eyed (like the ref) or sad (like me) you wouldn’t have seen the handball and would have been left with the impression that the referee made a terrible – and costly – error.

And the TV must take some responsibility for this. No one is saying that the commentators or voiceover people can get it right first time every time – they – like referees – are only human.

But we do, as Collina said, expect far higher standards from Referees.

And it’s a good job we normally get them.

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