Ref Review 2012/13: Any good refs out there for Swansea ?

By Walter Broeckx

This article is part of the series of the Referee Review 2013. You can find links to earlier articles on the bottom of this article.

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After having dealt with the different teams and after having examined all the Premier League refs (leading to the best ref of the season according to the views of our referee reviewers) we now will bring you something that will be an easy manual to see who is good or bad for each individual team.

We will of course bring you this in order so that from now on if you see that your team is playing and there is a certain ref assigned you can see in a blink of an eye if this ref has a bad or a good history with your team. At least in the season 2012/2013.  And if all goes well we will even try to add the bias from the season before in to each article. And that way you can see if there are any possible situations that return from one year to the next.

And we do this because it might well be that some referee performances are a one off. But if a ref has the same bias against a team it might show something more. For if a ref has a big bias in favour of a team it also is saying something about that ref.

A little word of explanation about the graphics below.  The ultimate referee performance would be that the bias score (which is based on the wrong decisions) of around zero. Alas you will find very few of those scores in the total series. So the zero line will be the middle line of each graphic.

If a ref has positive bias score for the team involved you will see a name (of the ref) and a green line and a number.   That is the bias number for that ref.

On the other hand if the ref had a negative bias you will once again see a name but then with a red line and a number. The negative bias score for that ref.

The longer the lines, the higher the number and the higher the bias that ref produces.  Short lines are better and would be nicer for us all, if only the world worked that way. I also included a little table in the graphic just with the names and with a red or green label. This is for any readers who want to have a quick look at the names as sometimes the numbers can get in the way.

Next in our series is Swansea

Unlike the table we have seen in our previous article from Tottenham this is a complete opposite image: too much red.

One could say only one ref really liked them and that was Clattenburg. Roger East also seemed to like them a bit. And the third ref with small positive bias was Dean.

And then it all turns negative for Swansea. Moss and Oliver with a small negative bias so not that bad. But Mason, Atkinson, Probert and Dowd with too high numbers. And top of the negative list is ref Taylor.

Can we see a pattern if we compare these numbers with the one from the season 2011/12?

Last season we only had one really negative ref for Swansea and that was Foy. Mason and Dean had a small negative bias against them.  For Mason this is the second year running with a negative bias.

Last season Marinner had a zero bias. Webb and Atwell didn’t have a game of Swansea to compare with over the last season. And ref Oliver had a big positive bias in that season but a small negative one in the last season.

So the only ref that has kept his position is Lee Mason with a negative bias all round.

• 1. Who reviewed the games
• 2. What we did and what next
• 3. All the decisions in numbers
• 4. The first, at times astonishing, numbers
• 5. Home and away bias
• 6.  It all evens out in the end – Wigan last season
• 7.  West Ham: Life with a positive bias
• 8.  West Brom and the Referees
• 9.  Tottenham, penalties and some amusing comments
• 10.  Swansea City and a change this year
• 11.  Sunderland, a positive bias
• 12.  Stoke, where refereeing is different.
• 13.  Southampton – how did they ever survive?
• 14.  QPR – a strange case
• 15.  Norwich – more errors than acceptable
• 16.  Newcastle United – again, more errors than there should be.
• 17.  Manchester United: 70% of wrong decisions in their favour. 
• 18.  Manchester City: unlike their neighbours a very small bias.
• 19: Liverpool: you should blame the refs
• 20: Fulham – it all evens out in the end
• 21: Everton: a slight bias in favour
• 22: Chelsea: an occasional bias against
• 23: Aston Villa: a huge bias in favour
• 24: Refs give opposition freedom to kick Arsenal off the park.
• 25. The complete league bias table
• 26. Untold has said it for a long while, others follow
• 27. Andre Marriner; a good ref but 10% of his goal decisions are wrong!
• 28: Anthony Taylor: Disastrous when it comes to penalties
• 29.  Chris Foy: Very bad on cards and fouls
• 30.  Howard Webb, an amazing score
• 31: Jonathon Moss: Over 90% right.
• 32: Lee Mason, the ref with penalty area fever
• 33: Kevin Friend: the red card disaster
• 34: Lee Probert: This is not acceptable
• 35: Mark Clattenburg: good on red, poor on yellow
• 36: Mark Halsey: under half his penalty decisions were correct
• 37: Martin Atkinson.  This is not a Fifa ref
• 38: Michael Jones: Poor discipline
• 39: Michael Oliver: This doesn’t look too clever
• 40: Mike Dean – an unacceptable bias.
• 41: Neil Swarbrick.  Every goal right but oh the bias
• 42: Phil Dowd: After a good year, a year in decline
• 43: Roger East a short term solution
• 44: The Referee Competency League Table
• 45. The most unbiased referee in the PL
• 46 The best ref of the season 2012/13
  • 47. Wigan and the bias of the refs
  • 48. West Ham and the bias of the refs
  • 49. WBA and the bias of the refs
  • 50. Tottenham Hotspur and the bias of the refs