REF REVIEW 2012: Who was the best referee – The competency tables

The club that changed football

Making the Arsenal

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This article is part of the series : REFEREE REVIEW 2012

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WHO WAS THE BEST REFEREE IN 2011-2012 – The competency tables

 

By Walter Broeckx

After having done the team reviews and the referee reviews we now will give you an overall picture on how the referees scores relate to each other.  We will show you a few tables and then at the end of the day and probably in the next article we will show you who according to our reviewers got not only the highest scores but also who’s bias and competency score would give him the title of: “Untold Referee of the season 2011-2012”

But before we start we must warn you that we will not include all the referees in these tables.  We thought it would be unfair to use the score of referees who have been reviewed less than 5 games. So 3 refs will not be challenging for the Untold Referee of the Season-trophy.

Those refs are Moss, Swarbrick and Atwell. Sorry my friends but better luck next season when we do more games and should be able to review you more than 5 games. We will however include them in the table but when you see no number in front of the referee his name he is not counting in the table. Sorry if it may mix you up a bit but I want to keep them in because after all they have been part of our reviewing.

Here we go with the first table:

The competency table – Un-weighted

REF GAMES COMP UN-W
MOSS

1

86,67

1

Dowd

12

81,62

2

Oliver

8

79,15

3

Friend

7

78,47

4

Clattenburg

9

76,74

5

Jones

12

76

6

Marriner

10

75,16

7

Atkinson

10

73,87

8

Webb

17

72,06

Swarbrick

2

70,31

9

Dean

19

69,68

10

Halsey

9

68,33

11

Foy

9

68,02

12

Taylor

5

67,8

13

Mason

6

67,61

14

Probert

9

67,1

Atwell

3

66,37

15

Walton

7

64,8

 

So the best referee in this category is Phil Dowd.  Need more proof that our reviewers can do a very unbiased review of the refs?  Note that Dowd is the only ref who has managed a score of more than 80% in the un-weighted decisions.  So we congratulate Phil Dowd and also the runners up Oliver and Friend.

Look yourself for your favourite or most hated  referee in this table and agree or disagree with our numbers. I can tell you that 8 of the refs don’t get the required 70% score in the games we reviewed.  That is almost half of the refs!

The competency table –Weighted

REF GAMES COMP WEIGHTED
MOSS

1

83,72

1

Dowd

12

80,55

2

Friend

7

77,51

3

Oliver

8

77,26

4

Clattenburg

9

75,54

5

Jones

12

74,75

6

Marriner

10

74,57

Swarbrick

2

72,04

7

Webb

17

71,4

8

Atkinson

10

70,68

9

Dean

19

70,48

10

Taylor

5

66,67

11

Probert

9

66,6

12

Halsey

9

66,41

13

Foy

9

66,14

Atwell

3

65,36

14

Mason

6

64,67

15

Walton

7

62,9

 

So the best referee in this category is once again Phil Dowd.  Again I can ask you if you need more proof that our reviewers can do a very unbiased review of the refs!  Note once again that Dowd is the only ref who has managed a score of more than 80% in the un-weighted decisions.  So we congratulate Phil Dowd and also the runners up Friend and Oliver who have swapped places this time.

Look for your favourite or most hated  referee in this table and agree or disagree with our numbers. In this table you see that 7 refs don’t get the required 70% score.

The competency table –Goal decisions

REF GAMES GOAL
MOSS

1

100

Swarbrick

2

100

Atwell

3

100

1

Probert

9

100

2

Halsey

9

95,46

3

Oliver

8

95,24

4

Walton

7

95

5

Webb

17

94,64

6

Marriner

10

93,48

7

Clattenburg

9

92

8

Jones

12

91,67

9

Taylor

5

90,91

10

Friend

7

90,48

11

Dean

19

90,32

12

Dowd

12

88,01

13

Atkinson

10

86,96

14

Foy

9

80,95

15

Mason

6

78,57

 

In this table you can see that it does matter if you do more games because the best performances came from refs with only a small amount of games. They don’t count in this table but this to show what a difference it can make.

In the first place in this table (from the refs we take in account) we find Lee Probert with the maximum score.  And if I may add again another example on how unbiased our reviewers can be when we judge a ref and his decisions. The ref with the highest negative Arsenal bias (or close to the highest) is top of this table.

Halsey is second and Oliver is third in this table. Oliver constantly in the top 3 so far.

And for the rest you can look up your favourite/most hated referee in the table and wonder what went wrong or agree with his competency.

The competency table –Offside decisions

REF GAMES OFFSIDE
MOSS

1

100

Atwell

3

100

1

Marriner

10

96,98

2

Walton

7

94,6

3

Webb

17

94,5

4

Halsey

9

94,23

5

Clattenburg

9

93,94

6

Probert

9

92,16

7

Foy

9

91,84

8

Atkinson

10

91,84

9

Dean

19

91,66

10

Jones

12

87,32

11

Oliver

8

87,18

12

Friend

7

83,87

13

Dowd

12

82,05

14

Mason

6

78,95

Swarbrick

2

77,78

15

Taylor

5

76,19

Of course we know that this is mostly down to the assistants and that this is a part where the ref has least influence on. But as we checked the offside decisions last seasons also we do include them.  Top of the refs is Marinner this time. And for once a big change for Walton as he finds himself in the top 3. I could make a cynical remark but I will leave it. Webb is in 3rd place in this table.

The competency table – Other decisions

REF GAMES OTHER
MOSS

1

88,89

1

Dowd

12

83,28

2

Oliver

8

81,73

3

Friend

7

79,79

4

Clattenburg

9

77,17

5

Jones

12

76,14

6

Atkinson

10

75,17

7

Marriner

10

73,54

8

Taylor

5

72,37

9

Webb

17

70,35

Swarbrick

2

70,32

10

Mason

6

69,47

11

Halsey

9

67,78

12

Foy

9

67,66

13

Dean

19

65,93

14

Probert

9

62,85

15

Walton

7

62,62

Atwell

3

61,64

This is for me a more important table. Over here we look at the major core of being a ref when we exclude the other decisions. In this table you can see how good a ref was in general when he had to see a foul in the field.

And we find Dowd on top of the table once again. And Oliver and Friend in 2nd and 3rd place.  In a way this is one of my favourite tables as it tells me a lot of the competency of the refs in general.  And I see 6/7 refs who don’t get enough points in our reviews.

The competency table – Penalty decisions

REF GAMES PENALTY
Atwell

3

100

Swarbrick

2

80

1

Dowd

12

80

2

Dean

19

71,43

3

Friend

7

66,67

4

Webb

17

66,67

5

Jones

12

61,54

6

Mason

6

60

7

Foy

9

60

8

Clattenburg

9

57,9

9

Marriner

10

55,56

10

Walton

7

54,55

11

Probert

9

54,55

12

Oliver

8

53,85

13

Halsey

9

52,63

14

Atkinson

10

52,63

MOSS

1

50

15

Taylor

5

50

This is the table where we can see who is afraid of the penalty area. It is a known fact that some refs suddenly become uncertain when the players enter the penalty area. And in this table we can see a few of those.

And once again and this might be a surprise our numbers have told us that Phil Dowd was the best ref in the penalty area (of those whom we count and  have reviewed more than 5 games).

In a way the second place of Dean makes me a bit happy. As this once again is a strong evidence on how our reviewers judge the decisions without looking at the ref. And Friend once again finds himself in the top 3.

The competency table – Red Card decisions

REF GAMES RED
MOSS

1

100

Swarbrick

2

100

1

Clattenburg

9

42,86

2

Marriner

10

40

3

Dean

19

36,36

4

Friend

7

33,33

5

Jones

12

30

6

Foy

9

28,57

7

Taylor

5

25

8

Atkinson

10

16,67

9

Probert

9

12,5

10

Walton

7

9,1

Atwell

3

0

11

Mason

6

0

12

Oliver

8

0

13

Halsey

9

0

14

Dowd

12

0

15

Webb

17

0

Who is good in giving red cards and who isn’t?  And just as with the penalties some refs are afraid to give red cards. So they back out from the decision, give a yellow or even ignore the foul completely.

And here we see some interesting things.  And even though they don’t count in the table I would like to point at the fact that both Moss and Swarbrick, the new refs in the PL last season, managed a perfect score in their games. Some food for thought maybe….

Another point is that we have seen that sometimes players can slap each other, kick each other without the ball in sight. Totally unacceptable behaviour on a football field and lots of referees refuse to give red cards for this. Doing as if their nose was bleeding.  How can you clean up the game when you let the players behave like that and don’t punish it.

Let’s look at the table and as you have seen Dowd had great numbers up to now but suddenly he seems to throw it all away by making no correct decisions on red cards.

On top of the table we find Clattenburg this time, closely followed by Marinner. Is it a coincidence that two of the most unbiased refs are the best in handing out red cards?  In 3rd place we have Dean.  And having him high in penalty and red cards decisions is an indication that he is not afraid to take big decisions.

The competency table – Yellow Card decisions

 

REF GAMES YELLOW
MOSS

1

75

1

Dowd

12

71,667

2

Friend

7

63,64

3

Dean

19

61,4

4

Clattenburg

9

60,53

5

Webb

17

59,38

6

Marriner

10

58,93

7

Probert

9

56,76

8

Jones

12

56,45

9

Atkinson

10

56

Swarbrick

2

55,56

Atwell

3

55,56

10

Foy

9

50

11

Halsey

9

50

12

Oliver

8

46,15

13

Mason

6

44,44

14

Walton

7

43,24

15

Taylor

5

33,33

 

In this table we see again Dowd on top of the referees. And again Friend is in the top 3 also. And once again we see Dean scoring rather high in this table in 3rd place.

At the bottom you see the refs who have a poor disciplinary record on their field. Is it a surprise that most of the names at the bottom are the ones with a low competency score?

So where do all those decisions leave us in the end? This is the final competency table

Total competency table

1

Friend

4,625

2

Clattenburg

4,625

3

Marriner

5,375

4

Dowd

5,5

5

Oliver

5,875

6

Jones

6,375

7

Webb

7

8

Dean

7,375

9

Atkinson

9,125

10

Probert

9,125

11

Halsey

9,5

12

Foy

10

13

Walton

10,625

14

Taylor

11,375

15

Mason

12

And now we see that Friend and Clattenburg have the same average score and are leading the pack of the refs. Followed by Marriner in 3rd place. Phil Dowd is in 4th place.  And this is maybe a bit unfair to Dowd as he was let down by his assistants in the goal and offside decisions. Win as a team, lose like a team as the rule is in football.

And this is not the end of course. This is what we can call a mid-season table in a way. But it is an important one of course. As this is the table telling us how the refs did in all the fields we covered in competency.

9 Replies to “REF REVIEW 2012: Who was the best referee – The competency tables”

  1. Hi Walter,
    This is brilliant but I can’t help thinking it signifies the end (or at least the end of the beginning) which is both something for you all to be proud of and at the same time sad.

    Just 1 ask, would it be possible to provide a full table with all the refs but based on their mean average performance per 1 game. This will at least give us the opportunity for next season to do a this year/last year comparison

  2. Walter, you have just watered my ref’s flower. Its growing right now. I dont feel for Dowd as his overall performance declined due to his ‘real bias mind’ effect on his total scores… And who says Webb is the best just b’cos he reffed world cup final?

  3. This whole project is amazing and unique, and in this case, with a very surprising result. Must admit, quite wrongly I was half expecting clattenberg to come out on top but dowd! It seems he can be a good ref, which makes what he did to us appear all the more sinister…..or has he in some way been rumbled?

  4. Mandy Dodd,
    the high position of Dowd in many of the competency tables is a victory for our referee reviewers. I pay tribute to them for how they have done their job.

    I just highlighted the fact that the last table in the article is the final table and there he goes down a bit. But as I said mainly because of having bad luck with some assistants in some games.

  5. why this article is on UA when it shud b exclusive for refdecisions site?

    For me ny favorite ref is clattenberg.

    N u gys do fantastic job. never let any1 question ur honesty coz u reperesent everything in numbers. we can have healthy discussions about it but no 1 can allege any bias.

  6. Very true Walter, seems you guys are as objective as you can possible be on these reviews, and dowds lofty position demonstrates just that. But it proves even the most controversial refs can do their job when thay want to. Walton is another who intrigues me, bottom of this and other piles, retired mid season before heading off to the states, his last game reffing his beloved everton. Why was he retired mid season?

  7. Pleased to see my 2 favourites Andre Marriner & Mark Clattenburg right up the top! Can I just point out though C comes before F in the alphabet and therefore Clatts should be above Friend 😉

  8. bmb,
    for some reason my computer ordered them in this way. 😉
    Stay tuned for more referee tables later today. The bias tables!
    And I can promise you a few surpriseS (yes more than one) that even blew me away when I saw them.

  9. Critic,
    as the series on last season started on Untold we will finish them on Untold. Next season it will be on refereedecisions.

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