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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 article to cover this topic. 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 off the pitch.
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 Telegraph 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 question that arises in terms of professional referees in the Football League and Premier League. Crowds get angry with referees, but is that pure bias by the crowds, or is there something wrong with the refs? And either way how has the situation got this bad?
So I thought I might ask that question…. Because only if we ask why fans feel refs are awful can we then answer the question, “How do we improve matters?”
Why are referees so regularly abused with such vigour in professional football?
My suggestions below might not include the right answer, (although I think they do!) but the key point is, only by trying to work out why there is such widespread dismay about refereeing in England can we work out what to do to stop this. The current media reporting the abuse of referees by crowds only makes matters worse, and suggests once again that journalists are part of the problem, and have nothing to do with finding a solution. This article looks to solve the crisis in refereeing.
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 if we agree with point one, we should abolish the PGMOL and replace it with an organisation that is open to discussion and debate, and at the very least has a website, and, as in Germany, puts referees up for interview after each game.
2. We hate authority
This certainly seems to be a view among many people in England – and quite probably in other countries too. The prime interest of those in authority (so the argument goes) is that of protecting themselves; they don’t care about broader issues. 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, so there is no point arguing with a referee. Thus as a nation, we develop a total disrespect for all authority. Which might actually be a bit dangerous.
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 this is an issue which could be changed in a trice. Simply shut down PGMOL and set 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 or their training.
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. Possibly true, but surely we could still start by sorting out football.
Conclusion
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 the variations in their performances, and 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 it 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.
Just watching Spurs embarrass themselves against Forest. Okay, couldn’t really care who wins. What I do care about is how that disgraceful cheat Romero is still on the pitch. More, how the SKY commentators pander to him.
On a follow through, you can see on the replay he deliberately kicks the Forest player in the chest. I say clearly. VAR obviously cant see it. SKY commentators. Nothing.
Then another poor foul. “That’s the way he plays” is all we get from SKY.
Then another poor foul. Finally a yellow. Again, nothing from the commentators.
At least Spurs fans aren’t so blind, or forgiving. From a Spurs Blog:
“Romero lucky boy to only have 1 yellow at this point”
Another:
“Just give him a red so we don’t have to watch his rash play anymore”
Also a Spurs player hoofs the ball into the crowd after a freekick is given. And there was I thinking referees had ‘no choice’ but to give a yellow for that. Not a word again from SKY.
This is why the referees and VAR are under constant attack. Also, why there is no respect for the guys that comment on it. Different teams play to different rules. SKY pass different judgements on players depending on who they play for.
Nitram,
Glad to see you calling out Sky controlling and pushing an agenda, along with other corporate entities. Money is the agenda. You won’t hear anything from those in uniform, they want to make as much as possible while they can. The bubble has to burst, doesn’t it?
The Sky agenda on this topic is confirmed by the routine of Gallagher “explaining” why the referee / VAR is always correct and never open to question, now compounded by the presence of Dean on the live panel on match days.
We survived the Kavanagh England combination! The three wise monkeys on Refwatch deemed the Davis assault on Saka’s achilles “not malicious”. Really? I am of the opinion that subconsciously feared the onslaught if he only cautioned him. Bellingham has become an odious character. He seemed to spend the majority of the match in Madrid trying to get Rice cautioned. How Rudiger escapes red is a mystery.
Kavanagh
Lewis, No doubt because “he’s not that type of player” ?
John L They never are! Watching some of the Man City Aston Villa match last night as usul Pawson cautioned Digne for a trivial offence but allowed those in blue to go
unpunished for far worse.
Usual