- Let us not fool ourselves – the next four games are tough
- Arsenal’s difficult games ahead but can the record-breaking continue?
By Tony Attwood
Arsenal’s referee this weekend is Craig Pawson, and in the table below, we compare his figures with those of four other prominent referees in the Premier League this season:
| Referee | Games | Fouls pg | Yel pg | Yel / foul |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simon Hooper | 8 | 25.13 | 4.75 | 5.29 |
| Peter Bankes | 8 | 24.63 | 4.00 | 6.16 |
| Stuart Attwell | 7 | 22.14 | 5.14 | 4.31 |
| *Craig Pawson* | 6 | 23.00 | 2.00 | 11.5 |
| Robert Jones | 6 | 17.83 | 2.50 | 7.13 |
| Range | 7.3 | 3.14 | 7.19 | |
| Percentage range | 29% | 257% | 267% |
The percentage range figure in the last row is a particularly interesting figure in that it shows, for example, the referee most inclined to hand out cards is handing them out at more than two and a half times the rate of the referee that of the referee least likely to hand them out. Put another way, Atwell hands out over five yellows a game while Pawson hands out two yellows a game – and that is measured across all their games so far this season!
Yet again, as we show week after week, the referee that PGMO asks to oversee each game affects how that game goes.
What’s more, while the referees have clearly taken action to reduce the wide range in the number of fouls they call each game, so that the difference in the number of fouls one ref sees compared with another is a modest 29%, when it comes to the dishing out of yellow cards, everything depends on which ref you have in the game.
In short, if PGMO are unhappy with any club for any reason, they will make sure that Attwell is the referee for that team. Now this wouldn’t matter if the rule that we have asked for over and over again – that no referee can see a team more than twice a season (once home, once away). But there is no such rule so the same referee can see the same club over and over and over again.
Thus, the crazy level of variance between referees now does matter enormously. And we now have the case of some referees seeing individual clubs up to six times a season. And as the figures show, who wins the league is to a degree, determined by the referees that are given to each club.
And because there is no maximum number of times a referee can oversee games for each individual club each season (we suggest twice a season – once home, once away), the influence of the referee on the final league table can be enormous.
Now, this is not to argue that referees are corrupt. Rather, we are saying, if there is no problem, why not introduce this simple rule of not seeing the same club more than twice, simply to allay the fears of the fans, which are widespread.
There are, of course, other anomalies. For example, we can see from the statistics so far this season that Sunderland pick up yellow cards at almost twice the rate of Arsenal, but they actually commit only one more foul per game than Arsenal. How weird is that???
| Team | Shots pg | Tackles pg | Fouls pg | Yellow pg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal away | 10.2 | 14 | 11 | 1.33 |
| Sunderland home | 11 | 18 | 9.6 | 1.33* |
*Plus one red card
Pawson, the man running the show this weekend, has refereed six Premier League games so far this season and thus is one of the more-used officials in the division. The official has only shown 12 yellow cards in that time, proving to be extremely lenient when compared with some others in the PGMO stable.
Now, for reasons that only PGMO can explain, but choose not to explain, Pawson keeps being given Arsenal games to referee – he has done this no less than 33 times. Arsenal have won 55% of these games and lost 33%.
Compared with last season, we find Arsenal won 52% of their games but only lost 11% – so the club does SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE under this referee than with games overseen by others. And yet we keep getting him over and over and over again.
Thus, what makes this game in particular one for Arsenal to be wary about is the fact that PGMO insist on booking the same referee to see the same club over and over again, and so if there is anything untoward going on, it gets magnified.
And this really is the prime complaint that we have. We can’t prove if there is anything wrong with refereeing in the Premier League, but we do express our concern that PGMO does not take the most obvious and self-evident steps it could take, to assure us that all is ok. For example:
1: Ensuring that each referee only sees each club once at home and once away each season.
2: Allowing referees to be interviewed after each match, as happens in some other countries.
Those two simple suggestions would go a very long way to quell our fears about the way refereeing is going in the Premier League. But PGMO not only won’t allow such changes, they won’t even have a debate on the subject, and the media, normally so quick to pick up on issues they don’t have to investigate, remain silent.
And so, we wonder why? Why so few referees that they keep seeing the same club? Why won’t the media pick up on this issue?
