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

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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 3^rd 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 2^nd and 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 3^rd 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.

• An Arsenal view of Hillsborough
• Howard Webb – Liverpool Vs Arsenal (0 – 2)
• PEST CONTROL: Fifa and its internationals
• Looking for an explanation for Mike Dean