Respect our Referees? Only if they start giving us something to respect...

It seems that after every single Premiership game, one of the managers is complaining about a decision that the referee made during the game. Fans are constantly moaning about the poor calls that have gone against their side. Pundits analyse each decision and give their verdicts after viewing it in slow-motion from every conceivable angle. What does this say about the standard of refereeing in the Premiership?

Now don’t get me wrong. I do have sympathy with referees. They have an incredibly difficult job that is not made any easier by the players surrounding and yelling at them at virtually every decision. It seems that the FA’s ‘Respect’ campaign still has a long way to go.


However, there has got to be a certain amount of reciprocation from referees if players and managers are to respect them more. It often seems as though the referees belong to a secret society that deem speaking to the media and the public as below them. Premier League managers are contractually obliged to give interviews after each match. Why do referees not give interviews to explain their decisions?

There is the often quoted cliché that decisions will even themselves out over time. And that may well be true. But the question is, over how much time? As Tony Pulis pointed out, by the time the decisions have all evened each other out, a team may have been relegated. Given the sums of money involved in football, and the Premier League in particular, relegation can be ruinous to a club.


Everybody accepts that referees are not perfect. After all, they are only human. However, we expect a certain standard from them. We have supposedly the best league in the world. So, surely it is not too much of a stretch to suggest that we should have some of the best referees, capable of at least getting the big decisions right. Indeed, it was an English referee, Howard Webb, who was awarded the World Cup final – the ultimate prize for a professional referee.

So why have there been so many major decisions that have been wrongly called this season? Admittedly, every decision is more closely scrutinised these days, and the pundits are still unable to agree after ten views from ten different angles. However, it is not these decisions that are the disappointing ones.

Let us take a look at some of the poorer decisions over the first third of the season:

1. Mark Clattenberg – Manchester United v Tottenham

When it comes to refereeing decisions taking centre stage, there is nowhere else to start than Old Trafford. Nani rushed through onto a through ball and went down under the challenge of Younes Kaboul. Whilst lying on the floor, he grabbed the ball with his hands, assuming it was a penalty. Mark Clattenberg gives no penalty, and Gomes puts the ball down, assuming it is a free-kick for the handball. Nani then gets back up and knocks the ball into the empty net. After consulting his assistant, Clattenberg allows the goal.


Whilst it is true that at no point did Clattenberg blow his whistle for a free kick, surely common sense must prevail. Nani has clearly handled the ball. Mark Clattenberg should just explain the situation and give Spurs the free-kick. Nobody could realistically have argued with that decision. Instead, he awards the farcical goal.

2. Chris Foy – Tottenham v Bolton

This was another quite bizarre decision by Chris Foy. Tom Huddlestone and Johan Elmander were battling for the ball in the centre of the pitch. Elmander falls to the floor and replays quite clearly show Tom Huddlestone stamp on Elmander’s chest. Chris Foy did not give any decision at the time.


Surely this would be the perfect opportunity for the FA to retrospectively punish Huddlestone? Of course not. Chris Foy claimed he had seen the incident at the time and decided that no decision was needed. As a result, the FA cannot take any action retrospectively. Even if the full nature of the incident was not seen at the time.

So we have two possible outcomes from this. Either Chris Foy saw Huddlestone stamp on the prone Johan Elmander and decided that was perfectly legitimate behaviour on a football pitch. Or the FA and FIFA rules are so ridiculous that retrospective action cannot be taken. Either way, it is just plain stupid.

3. Martin Atkinson – Stoke v Sunderland

Stoke have felt that they have had their unfair share of refereeing blunders so far this season, and they probably have a point. However, one of the worst decisions came in their game against Sunderland. Kenwyne Jones rose highest to meet a cross and angle a header toward the top corner. Then comes the controversy. Lee Cattermole fumbles at the ball with his hand, touching it not once, but twice. In addition, the ball may or may not have been over the line. Martin Atkinson gives a corner.


Whichever way you look at it, Stoke can feel aggrieved. The replays suggest it is fairly inconclusive as to whether the ball had crossed the line or not. Martin Atkinson cannot really be blamed for that. However, if the ball has not crossed the line, it is a clear penalty and a red card. Cattermole prevented a goal by handling the ball twice. It was not even that subtly done.

Stoke felt even more aggrieved when moments later, Kenwyne Jones met another corner and it was Lee Cattermole who cleared the ball off the line. Legally this time, but he should not have still been on the field.

4. Andre Marriner – Manchester United v Stoke

Once again, we see Stoke involved. Gary Neville had picked up a yellow card halfway through the first half of the game at the Britannia Stadium. Moments before the half-time whistle, the excellent Matthew Etherington picked up the ball and ran at Gary Neville. He pushed the ball past him and tried to go round the outside of the United defender. Neville slid in nowhere near the ball, taking out Etherington.


In almost any other situation, it would have been a clear booking. We see virtually every challenge of a similar nature treated the same way, week in, week out in the Premiership. However, for some bizarre reason, Andre Marriner decided that it wasn’t worth a second yellow card and Gary Neville stayed on the field. Manchester United kept all eleven men and went on to win the game.

5. Phil Dowd – Manchester City v Blackpool

A game in which the plucky underdogs were taking on the might of the Sheikh-backed Manchester City money machine. That in itself makes it an uphill task for the Tangerines. However, they were also hampered by not one, not two, but three very poor refereeing decisions.

Blackpool thought they had taken the lead when Gary Taylor-Fletcher put the ball in the net. However, it was flagged for offside. Unfortunately, the assistant had flagged the wrong player offside. His teammate, Elliot Grandin was indeed offside, but not interfering in play in the slightest, whilst Gary Taylor-Fletcher had been comfortably on-side.

Manchester City then took the lead when Carlos Tevez put the ball into the back of the net. Unfortunately, he was clearly offside when he received the ball. Once again, Blackpool could rightly feel hard done by.

Then, moments after Blackpool had equalised, David Silva clearly tripped Ian Evatt in the Blackpool half. Nothing was given, Carlos Tevez received the ball and put Manchester City back in front.

Now, maybe Blackpool could have lived with just one of those decisions. But three clearly incorrect decisions that directly led to goals being wrongly allowed suggests that something is clearly wrong.

6. Stuart Attwell – Sunderland v Liverpool

Now we move onto the Stuart Attwell compilation. The Stuart Attwell of the ‘ghost goal’ saga. The Stuart Attwell who refused to respect the minute silence for Sir Bobby Robson. The examples of his blunders are not exactly hard to find.

When Liverpool played Sunderland earlier this season, there was two highly controversial incidents. The first came after only five minutes. Sunderland were awarded a free-kick and Michael Turner back-heeled the ball back toward keeper Simon Mignolet to take. Fernando Torres collected the ball, passed to Dirk Kuyt, who put it into the open net. The goal was given. Again, it seems like a situation where common sense should surely prevail. Turner was clearly not taking the free-kick. Who would take a free-kick in that manner? However, Stuart Attwell decided otherwise.

More controversy came later in the game when Steven Gerrard appeared to deliberately elbow Danny Welbeck in the face. Stuart Attwell showed Steven Gerrard a yellow card. If he has awarded a yellow card, he has clearly seen the incident. And if he has seen the incident, he has seen Steven Gerrard elbow Welbeck in the face. And if he has seen Gerrard elbow Welbeck in the face, it is a straight red card. But not in the view of Stuart Attwell.

7. Stuart Attwell – Arsenal v Bolton

Our favourite referee makes another appearance. This time, Arsenal are playing Bolton. Lee Chung-yong was brought down on the edge of the Arsenal area. A clear free-kick. Not to Mr. Attwell. He wrongly allows play to continue. Mere seconds later, Maroune Chamakh pushes the ball past Gary Cahill on the touchline. Cahill slides in, but catches Chamakh. A bog-standard yellow card. The type seen every week in the Premiership. The type Gary Neville should have received at Stoke. But once again, not to Mr. Attwell. With a flourish, he brandishes the red card at Gary Cahill and Bolton are down to ten men.


8. Mike Dean – Aston Villa v Manchester United

A youthful Aston Villa side took on the might of Manchester United at Villa Park. However, a series of decisions from Mike Dean brought back memories of having been wronged in the Carling Cup final last season.

Our first incident came when Dimitar Berbatov played a through ball to Javier Hernandez. Hernandez is offside, the referee blows his whistle. Straightforward enough. Hernandez turns round, angry at the referee, turns back and boots the ball away into the stand. A yellow card for dissent as stated in the rules. Not according to Mike Dean.

Later in that half, Stephen Warnock and Nani challenge for a ball. Nani accidently kicks a stooping Stephen Warnock in the face with his boot. Nothing at all wrong with the clash. Warnock falls to the ground, clutching his head. Mike Dean should have stopped the play. Head injuries are the one occasion when a game should be stopped for an injury. Head injuries can potentially be very serious. No action from Mr Dean.

Into the second half. Edwin Van der Sar hits a long ball forward toward Nani and Stephen Warnock, who have just had an altercation in the United half. Nani takes three looks behind him while the ball is in the air, then jumps back, swinging his arm into the face of Warnock. A deliberate elbow. Mike Dean has seen it, and gives a yellow card. A yellow card for a deliberate elbow?

Then Aston Villa break forward. Gabby Agbonlahor slides the ball inside for the on-rushing Ashley Young, who is brought down as he is about to shoot by Wes Brown. Penalty, yes. Red card, no. The rules state that a red card should be shown for denying a goal-scoring opportunity. How much more of a goal-scoring opportunity can you get than about to shoot one-on-one from about twelve yards? Either way, Ashley Young scores the penalty and runs to the crowd to celebrate. Yellow card for the celebration. Ridiculous, but correct according to the rules.

Manchester United launch an epic comeback, and it is completed when Nemanja Vidic stoops to head home at the far post. He rushes to the Manchester United fans to celebrate with them, just as Ashley Young had done. Yellow card surely? But he is already on a yellow card. Mike Dean decides not to show him a second yellow for that. Talk about double-standards.

Respect is a two-way process

A referee’s job is not easy, and we do need them. Indeed, it is ridiculous that technology has not been brought in to try and help them, rather than just used to ridicule them afterwards. However, we do demand certain standards, and even just a level of consistency. Clearly all referees are different, but similar offenses should be punished in a similar fashion.

The Gary Neville and Gary Cahill examples above demonstrate this. They were virtually identical challenges, yet one was given a straight red card, whilst the other was not even deemed worthy of a yellow card.

And sometimes we need to simply use common sense. The Nani goal and the Michael Turner incident are examples of this. Had the referee simply used common sense, nobody would have even batted an eyelid. Nobody would have talked about it after the game. It would have just been another straightforward decision made by the referee.


We constantly have the ‘Respect’ campaign shoved down our throats by referees and by the Premier League. However, when the referees seemingly show no respect for players, managers or the public by refusing to explain their decisions, even refusing to tell us what they have said to each other over their microphones, it is difficult for us to build respect for them.

Respect has to be a two-way process. It is simply wrong to be told we must respect referees if they show us no respect.

DW

Official Standards Slipping?

So this previous weekend, we saw the first major trophy of the season decided. A match from which much was expected. The most successful side in British football over the past two decades against a young, hungry Villa side, full of pace and trickery. The pre-match entertainment lived up to expectations, the national anthem was blasted out by almost 90,000 watching supporters, and then we were off. With barely five minutes on the clock, Gabriel Agbonlahor burst away from Nemanja Vidic, was hauled back by the Serbian defender, and then skipped away again, only to be brought down in the penalty area. Referee Phil Dowd pointed to the spot and Villa and United fans alike waited to see what further punishment would be meted out. As we now know, not even a yellow card…

In the modern day of football, where television cameras are everywhere and replays can be summoned up for the TV audience in a matter of seconds, the decisions of the officials are scrutinised more closely than ever before. There is barely a match that goes by where one of the managers is not bemoaning a call that went against his side. Pundits analyse the decisions in slow-motion and explain how the referee has made a terrible judgement. However, other pundits disagree and put their case forward for how the official has got it spot on. In these situations, the referee must make a split-second decision based on what he has seen. It is unfair to criticise his decision, if the pundits cannot even agree after watching it five times from multiple different angles.

However, there seem to be more and more examples of the officials simply making bad decisions. Decisions that were not a matter of judgement, but simple interpretation of the rules. Missing offside decisions that were clearly offside, failing to show the red card where it was almost impossible not to. Indeed, one of the worst decisions in recent years was the decision by Stuart Atwell to award Watford a goal against Reading when the ball had not even passed between the posts – how neither he, nor his two assistants had not noticed that simple fact is beyond belief. Yet he is now refereeing week-in week-out in the Premiership, supposedly the best league in the world.

Now I’m not suggesting that this is only an English phenomenon. Celtic has recently had discussions with the Scottish FA over their beliefs that the standard of refereeing has declined in recent years. A name that Chelsea fans will remember, Tom Henning Ovrebo, who controversially denied the English club a stream of penalties in their semi-final against Barcelona last year, has been in the news again for the wrong reasons following a sub-standard performance in the Bayern Munich against Fiorentina match. He made a number of strange decisions in the match – failing to send off Mark van Bommel for a horrific two-footed challenge, then failing to give him a second yellow card minutes later for a blatant dive. He then sent off Massimo Gobbi for violent conduct, despite replays suggesting that Arjen Robben had run into the motionless Fiorentina player, then collapsed to the floor clutching his throat. However, the worst decision was yet to come. Ivica Olic nodded the ball square to Miroslav Klose to slide into the empty net for the winner. However, apparently unseen to the referee or his perfectly-positioned assistant, Klose had been standing a clear three yards offside.

With the ever-increasing amount of money at stake in football, virtually every game gains more and more importance to clubs. Matches are growing in intensity, but increasingly seem to be influenced by the referee and questionable decisions. One of the major issues both fans and managers have with officials concerns the idea of consistency. Whilst nobody likes to see mistakes being made, if there was a degree of consistency in the decision-making across officials, people might at least begin to take a slightly less hard-line view on the standard of refereeing. When you compare three decisions in the past week – Salmon Kalou being brought down by Walter Samuel for Chelsea against Inter Milan, Gareth Barry being brought down by Belletti for Manchester City against Chelsea and the Agbonlahor and Vidic incident at Wembley – they are three almost identical situations, but which brought three completely different outcomes. Nothing was given for the Kalou incident, a penalty and a red card for the Belletti one and just a penalty against Vidic. It makes you wonder how three such similar incidents can be interpreted so differently by three supposedly highly-qualified officials.

Personally, I think that referees could use more help in the modern day. Technology is used to scrutinise their every decision and provide evidence for those who would criticise them, however there seems to be a lack of willingness to use similar technology to help them. Video replays are used in a number of other sports – rugby, cricket, tennis to name a few – and have been successful in most of these. I am not suggesting that technology should be used for every decision in football – there is still a strong role for the on-field officials. However, it would be beneficial for the game if some form of technology was introduced. Goal-line technology is the one that is most often quoted and this would be the obvious first stage. There is nothing subjective about whether the ball has crossed the line or not – it either has, or it hasn’t. And given that replays can be summoned in a matter of seconds, controversial decisions such as this could be resolved with minimal delay to play. Indeed, the players want it as well – a poll of the captain’s of the 48 Europa League clubs this season found that 90% were in favour of the introduction of goal-line technology, whilst UEFAs new experiment of two extra officials was found to have no improvement in decision-making by 70% of those asked.

The final thing that may bring players, managers and fans back toward agreement with officials would be the issue of accountability. Currently, managers and players must attend post-match interviews and press conferences to face the media. However, there is no such rule for officials, despite they are often involved in the most controversial moments during the match. They are marked by a member of the refereeing authorities on their performance, but we never find out how they are marked or indeed, what mark they receive. It is also very rare to hear a referee come out and admit that he made an incorrect decision, even when the evidence is obvious. A greater degree of transparency and accountability in this area would at least allow fans to hear the reasoning behind decisions.

So overall, whilst there are a lot of concerns about the standard of refereeing, it is difficult to know whether there is an actual decline or whether it simply appears that way due to the intense scrutiny that accompanies every decision in the modern world of TV replays. Either way, it seems clear that officials have distanced themselves from managers, players and fans alike, and it would be in their interests to try and bridge this gap. Issues of accountability and transparency would help, as would a greater degree of consistency across referees. However, it seems beyond belief that the footballing authorities still continue to prevent the introduction of goal-line technology that would surely provide added assistance to officials and help to reinforce the integrity of the game.