The Referee Is ALWAYS Wrong

At least this weekend the refereeing headlines were made by a different sport than football.

Sam Warburton it was, who was the victim of this years “injustice at a big sporting event” and was sent off in the early stages of Wales’ Rugby World Cup Semi final for what the referee, Alain Rolland, deemed to be a dangerous “spear” tackle. By common consent of the experts – and although at Referee-jobs.com we enjoy watching the sport we are far from knowledgeable about it, so we have to bow to their opinion – he didn’t mean to do it but it was a foul and the referee was in his rights to send the player off.

Cue the headlines elsewhere. A quick Google search on Warburton’s name brings up a poll on the Telegraph website. Where you can “Have YOUR say” on the matter. 69% of respondents think it was harsh, in case you are interested.

The professionals though, agreed that if the referee thinks he saw a “spear” tackle then the player has to walk. Mark Pougatch and Radio 5 tried to start some controversy and said something along the lines of, that’s the inconsistency, though, players did that elsewhere in the tournament and didn’t get sent off, with pundit Matt Dawson replying, “but those refs were wrong.”

It’s a good job the Rugby provided a talking point actually, because the football provided nothing really. The closest we got was a “did-he-didn’t-he” diving incident with Charlie Adam and a “should-he-shouldn’t-he” sending off with Rio Ferdinand for the same thing.

Referee Andre Marriner kept his card in his pocket, contenting himself to giving a free kick (from which Liverpool scored) and not giving Ferdinand a second yellow card and thus sending him off.

For what its worth, Referees Jobs does not think it was a foul. But that if the Ref sees one he probably should have produced a second yellow card. However, if Marriner had sent the England man off he would have faced a storm of criticism and been accused of spoiling the match. So he used the “common sense” that pundits are forever asking for – you know the same ones that moan about “inconsistency” as we have previously discussed.

Referee’s though – as we all know can never win. I will leave you with this from Saturday at the game I was at. A current England international had raised the crowd’s ire in the first half with about five fouls. In the second half the player was booked and the archetypal “bloke behind me” (except in this case he was next to me and my brother) screams “’bout time ref, you shoulda done that in the first half.”

Proving, in the process, two old adages: one, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it and two, the referee is always wrong, even when he is right – in fact, especially when he’s right.

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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The Inconsistency of Inconsistency

As I write this the news has come through that Jack Rodwell has had his red card overturned.

And quite right too. Everyone can probably agree that Rodwell didn’t deserve to be sent off in the incident with Luis Saurez and that today, in a rare occurrence for the FA, common sense prevailed.

Referee Martin Atkinson, is I am sure, a decent honourable man, who gives decisions as he sees them and is recognised as one of the elite officials in the country, but it is fair to say that he didn’t have the best afternoon of his life at Goodison Park.

He sent off Rodwell for a tackle which probably wasn’t even a foul, he allowed Tony Hibbert to get away with a disgraceful lunge and caused all the pundits to talk about “inconsistency.”

It is interesting, though to note that certainly for the Rodwell challenge he was mere feet away, so yes he got it wrong, but he gave what he thought he had seen.

There were plenty of talking points too, in the Swansea v Stoke game the day after. Referee Mike Jones booked eight players in the match and one, Potters full back Andy Wilkinson, can consider himself very, very lucky to stay on the field.

Cue lots of discussion about the perceived “inconsistencies” and much conjecture about how fortunate Wilkinson was “when you consider what happened to Rodwell.”

All of which, on the face of it are reasonable statements except for this:

Inconsistencies – human error – can happen and always have happened and always will happen.

There is no reason to suppose that just because one referee sees something one way in one game that he will see the same thing in the same way the next week. So why on earth should two refs see the different incidents in different games on different days in a similar light?

Put another way, if every striker scored every chance he had then wouldn’t football be dull? And if every striker scored every chance he had, how could every goalkeeper make every save he is presented with? And how could every defender win every tackle and…..well you get the picture.

After the Merseyside derby on Saturday, David Moyes made some pretty disparaging remarks about referee Atkinson, calling it a “strange appointment” and alluding to the fact the official had some sort of vendetta against him and his club. All nonsense of course and all remarks for which he may, on an ordinary basis, have got in trouble for. This time, however, he may well escape punishment on the grounds that the FA might want to draw a line under the whole thing.

However, next time Mr Moyes or any pundit who is “driven mad by inconsistency” wants to criticise they might do well to think of this: Do they always do the same thing. In the same situation. Every time.

Thought not, its just not human nature.