- Promotion to and relegation from the Premier League has changed beyond recognition
- At last a recognition of the effect of injuries, and Arsenal’s brilliant response
By Tony Attwood
An Article in the Telegraph tells us, if we didn’t know already, just how bad it is to be a referee at all levels of the game – and it is far from being the first in this regard. Indeed we have heard this time and time again; referees are considered hopeless in professional matches, while in the amateur game they are jeered, booed, abused, threatened and indeed even chased of the pitch, and threatened with retribution.
It is an appalling litany of disrespect, abuse and threats of violence, and it is quite amazing that anyone would ever train to be a referee.
But although the article meanders its way around an awful situation for over 3000 words it doesn’t ask the one single most important question: why is it like this? Without that question being asked and some answers provided, the article takes us nowhere.
And indeed this is the same question that arises in terms of professional referees in the Football League and Premier League. Lots of writers put on a very serious face and tell us what we know – that crowds feel the ref is against their team. But they don’t consider why the situation is this bad, or how it got this way. So I thought I might ask that question…. For irrespective of whether you think referees do or don’t deserve the criticism they get, the question that needs to be asked is, why has it got this way. Indeed only when we know how it got this way can we actually then start to answer the question, “How do we improve matters?”
Now one might argue that the abuse of referees in League matches is not important, because the referees still turn up and do their job. But if that is the view, the question is still of immediate issue outside of the League because there is a growing lack of referees, and without referees can hardly continue in its current form.
So let’s try and answer the question: why are referees so regularly abused with such vigour at all levels of the game.
My suggestions below might not include the right answer, but the key point is, only by trying to work out why there is such widespread dismay about refereeing in England (and remember this includes even young trainee referees) can we work out what to do to stop this. Media reporting the abuse of referees by crowds only makes matters worse. (And that itself is important because it makes the point that journalists are part of the problem, and have nothing to do with finding a solution).
1. We dislike referees because they actually are hopeless, and constantly make errors.
If this is the case, we are in real trouble, because we can’t play league football without referees, and this point simply says, we have been appointing useless referees for years at all levels. The implication is, we need to find a new way of appointing referees. So it would seem step one is to abolish the PGMOL.
2. We hate authority
This certainly seems to be a view among many in England – and quite probably in other countries too. Those in authority are there for themselves and don’t care about the wider world. But this also implies that just as there is no point in arguing with a judge in court when he/she has made a decision, nor is there any point in arguing with a police officer who says you have broken the law, so there is no point arguing with a referee. Thus as a nation, we develop a total disrespect for authority. Which might actually be a bit dangerous, unless we can change things.
3. Authority in this country is abused
Out of point two comes a general feeling that can spread throughout a country, which is that all authority is corrupt and people in authority are self-serving. Referees therefore are treated in the same way as some people see everyone in authority. They are treated with the contempt they deserve.
4. The secrecy of PGMOL makes matters far worse and stops refereeing improving
I think this is actually a much more powerful argument than those which have gone before, because there is something that can immediately be done about this. That would be shutting down PGMOL and setting up a new refereeing body that is open, and which (as in some countries) allows referees to discuss issues of refereeing with the public.
5. The referees are useless because their training is so bad
This is another viable argument, and it is a hard one to debate while the refereeing authorities refuse to have any public debate about referees
6. Authority is widely abused by those in power in this country, and so we respond in the only way we can.
It is, in short, not football that is in a mess, it is our country.
Conclusion
We might conclude that in our society, and maybe in many democratic societies, we have a chance to express our views over most issues and indeed through elections, we can often change things. But refereeing is the outlier here. We, the paying public are utterly disenfranchised. We disrespect referees because we have no reasonable way of protesting about their errors, and no way of holding them to account.
Indeed this is probably the nub of the matter. If you set up a secret society and give them absolute power, this is what you get. Remove the absolute secrecy behind which PGMOL hides, and things could well improve.
Personally I think a lot of it is about debate, or rather lack of. This is not only true of the very narrow issue of refereeing, but about everything. The Worldin general.
You either follow the ‘narrative’ or you are wrong. More than wrong. Within society if you question ‘popular’ opinion, or rather the opinion of the vast majority of the agenda driven media, you are either a Racist, a Misogynist, a Right wing fascist, a Left wing Marxist, and so it goes.
This generation tries to peddle the notion we all have a voice. That everything is better now, but it has never been worse.
Back to football.
Yes, you can bang away on a keyboard as I am doing now. But do I have a voice. No way. I have written to people, and been either ignored or insulted, as have others on here I believe.
Apparently I am paranoid, yet nobody can or will answer my questions or refute my statistics.
There is no debate. SKY Sports and their presenters try to push the narrative that them sitting in a room talking about what they want to talk about, pushing the opinions they want to peddle, is ‘debate’.
It is anything but debate.
A vast majority of the topics reported on Untold are rarely even touched upon by the ‘mainstream’. Any investigation, let alone exposure of the corrupt nature of footballs governance is silenced before it is heard.
Heaven forbid you should do as we do here on Untold, and research FACTs, and produce DATA, you are instantly a nerd. Worse, you are a paranoid nerd with a tin hat.
Society is falling apart because there is no debate, and as a consequence nobody ever has to answer for their misdemeanours or be held to account.
Football is a mess for the same reason.
The media set the agenda, and will never ‘debate’ openly. Yes, they get annoyed and question officialdom, but not for ‘errors’ but rather for not following the agenda they set. It has nothing to with right or wrong, being correct or incorrect, and that is what frustrates people.
Debate. Real debate, where you can have a view outside the mainstream does not exist. It doesn’t exist in the World as a whole. It doesn’t exist in football. That creates extreme frustration, and history tells you when people are frustrated they take it out on the people that are frustrating them.
Those in authority. Those in a uniform.
Until football stops hiding from reality nothing will change. Sadly, I don’t think they want it to change, not really.