If we ignore the fact that, yet again, Stoke boss Tony Pulis decided to jump up and down on the touchline like some sort of baseball cap wearing Yosemite Sam lookalike and moan, yet again, about a refereeing decision at the weekend, he did have one or two interesting things to say.
If you recall the incident that sparked the debate, it saw Stoke defender Robert Huth making a tackle on Sunderland’s David Meyler. The Black Cats midfielder rolled around the floor and Huth received a red card.
After the game Pulis took to his Press Conference to rage about players rolling around the floor and called for the Authorities to act: “it is cheating a fellow-professional,” Pulis said. “It is like a disease in the game, and it needs stamping out as soon as possible.
'It has become more ingrained in the game, and it is something Gordon Taylor and the PFA should really get to grips with. The game is difficult enough for referees, because of the pace and tempo, without players trying to fool them by rolling around when they've not even been touched. Sometimes they may have been touched but are not really hurt.
We want to be as competitive and fair as we possibly can, but it's creeping into the game where players are going down with the intention of getting others booked or even sent off. It's something we seriously, seriously have to look at.”
And here, at Referee Jobs we have some sympathy for his argument. It is an unedifying spectacle to see players rolling around the floor, feigning injury. It is not right for the players, its not right for the fans and it does no one any credit whatsoever.
It also makes the referee’s job even harder than it needs to be. As we all know the men and women in the middle and on the line have a tremendously difficult job to do. They get one look at things that the TV can pour over again and again (and are, on nearly every occasion correct under the rules of the game) and they could do their job a lot better if the players had just a little honesty.
If people didn’t dive, if people didn’t cheat – like Gareth Bale did on the game on Monday night – then how much better would the game be, and how much easier would the referees job be?
Also, on Saturday we saw Djibril Cisse sent off at Loftus Road for grabbing Wolves player Roger Johnson. There was much talk about how it was a soft sending off and how Johnson had committed a foul in the first place. But, as we always say on these blogs, ask yourself seriously, what choice did the referee have? It is clearly in the rules that if a player raises his hands to another player then he gets sent off. Do the pundits, fans, managers, or whoever think the referee wanted to send people off? No, of course they don’t.
But, yet again, faced with the unenviable task of having no choice the referee made the right choice.
Which is more than can be said for Messrs Cisse and Huth, who it could be said possibly cost their teams the game – but its just easier to blame the refs all the time.
And, like Tony Pulis said, if those involved could give them some help by not cheating, that would really help.
No comments:
Post a Comment