Media comments on referees
By Sir Hardly Anyone
It is extraordinary that there is so little talk about the quality of refereeing in the media… Indeed it is rather like the media in Putin’s Russia – wherein a subject does not exist until the recognised official makes a statement. And indeed when it comes to refereeing, Russian style reporting is indeed what we are getting today.
For months on end there is never a word on the subject and then up pops “Football governance must be overhauled to better represent referees” from the Independent, which reports on refereeing from the point of view of PGMO.
Hence the Independent says that “Paul Field, whose organisation supports and offers welfare for referees at grassroots level in England, says that an example must be made of Mitrovic after he was sent off for pushing referee Chris Kavanagh …”
It is not as if that is even news, given that the player has already been charged with “abusive and/or insulting and/or threatening behaviour” towards the ref. But there is widespread media speculation about just how many games suspension he will get.
Of course, hitting anyone outside of sports where it is permitted in the rules, is wrong. I think that’s agreed.
But Paul Field went further stating that, “At grassroots level we’d be bitterly disappointed if that offence (by Mitrovic) got only a year. The Football Association are world-class at non-delivery. Culturally, the FA doesn’t understand how disillusioned the refereeing workforce is.”
OK, maybe that bit about the FA not understanding anything much is obviously fair. But there is a second side to the coin which the article utterly refuses to touch. And that is the disparity between the behaviour of different referees on the pitch.
For example, why does Michael Salisbury give out over twice as many yellow cards a game across the season than Simon Hooper? Does Salisbury get given the rough games and Hooper the kickabouts? Really?
Or indeed why do two-thirds of Stuart Atwell’s games in the PL end up as home wins, while only one-third of Anthony Taylor’s PL games end up as home wins? Indeed why do 45% of Anthony Taylor’s games finish as away wins while just 7% of Peter Banks’ games finish in this way?
To be quite clear I am not saying that all refs should have figures that reflect the average across the league (47% home wins, 24% away wins) but at the very, very least, the reason why some referees are so far out of the average should be examined and explained to those of us who pay to go to matches.
But no – instead we get hyper-hysteria about one player losing it on the pitch, and nothing at all about the unbalanced way referees are overseeing games. Indeed if I were a professional player and we were playing at home, but had an away-bias ref I would be pretty pissed off.
Thus when the publication speaks of the “main grievance” being the “underinvestment in refereeing at grassroots level” which “has diminished the respect shown for officials at the elite level” that is just one unproven possibility (in that no one I have seen has put forward any evidence to the effect that what happens at grassroots level influences what happens in the Premier League). It is pure speculation.
But when evidence is put forward that shows that the results of referees’ matches in the Premier League relate as much to who is the referee as they do to where the club sits in the league, and when that evidence is utterly and totally ignored, we know there is something very weird going on. And not action is being taken.
In the case the Independent and other newspapers highlight there is no evidence of a link between the behaviour of grassroots and professional players but it is taken as fact.
Yet the case of the Fulham player gets massive publicity, while the case of what appears to be really weird behaviour by referees across the Premier League, is ignored.
So I am not saying there is nothing wrong with player behaviour at grassroots level, but rather that the media’s manipulation of the news in relation to refereeing can only suggest that decisions are being made somewhere that the weirdness of referee behaviour in the PL must never ever be mentioned.
By refusing to deal with this issue the media brings discredit on itself, and on PGMO. Taking an obvious topic of concern off the agenda and just pretending that it doesn’t exist, undermines the whole of football journalism in England. Yet that is what is going on.
And will it ever admit that? I very much doubt it.
As I have said on here before, the problem with the breakdown of respect for referees, or the men in black, or the man in a uniform, is simply a reflection of societies breakdown of respect for all forms of officialdom. Or put another way, anyone in a uniform.
Just go and look at the number of assaults, and in particular recent increases, in the amount of physical assaults on:
Nurses
Paramedics
Ambulance workers
Policemen
Fireman
The numbers are enormous and shameful.
As far as I can see there is a total breakdown of respect for ‘officialdom’ within society, for whatever reason, and assaults on referees are just a symptom of this.
How players behave in itself may be a reflection of society, but it is certainly not the cause of some irate father lumping a referee on Sunday Morning.
Society is responsible for that.
Trying to link a player losing the plot on Saturday, to some idiot punching a referee on Sunday is merely deflection from the true issues we have with the officiating in this country, which as we can all see is dire.
The players know the referees are robbing them. Anyone with half a brain can see that, so why do the clowns in the media express shock and awe when a player shows he can’t take it anymore? Who wants to walk into an office, work for a month and discover someone in the building broke into your desk and stole your lunch? You would be outraged! So why wouldn’t players be?
The useless sport writers are going to be exposed for the clowns they are. As long as they continue to support the useless refs, the paying public will begin to realize they have been fooled. What I don’t understand is how the premier League management are unable to see the connection between poor referees and bringing the league into disrepute. Why won’t they do something about it?
Are these guys making more money gambling on matches than doing their jobs? Letting the inmates run the asylum certainly makes one wonder.
@mike,
the deadwood journalists are just PR guys for eht FA and PGMOL. If they start criticizing, they’ll lose their precious perks or whatever advantages they or their employers have.
So don’t be surprised that sure enough it is never the referees’ faults. Yet, interestingly, with VAR now, all the incompetence is there for all to see and slowly but surely things will have to change – but don’t express the deadwood press to be helpful…..