The referee today is Craig Pawson and the issue of referee variance

 

 

By Tony Attwood

The way in which different PL referees give out yellow cards at different rates is one of the craziest aspects of modern-day refereeing under the “guidance” (I use the word lightly) of PGMOL.     The table below shows the incredible variety in the number of yellow cards handed out per game and the number of fouls each referee has penalised.  (And we must take it as a given that referees are not being given certain games as Team X is known to foul a lot etc).

In fact this season Arsenal have had 30 yellow cards while ManU have had 29 yellows and one red.   Tottenham by comparison, have 52 yellow and two red cards – you may draw your own conclusions on that..

 

Referee	Games	Fouls pg	Yel pg
Stuart Attwell	14	20.50	4.64
Peter Bankes	15	22.60	4.27
Simon Hooper	12	24.67	4.25
Chris Kavanagh	17	22.41	4.00
Samuel Barrott	13	19.54	4.00
Anthony Taylor	18	19.83	3.89
Darren England	13	22.23	3.77
Robert Jones	13	20.08	3.77
Jarred Gillett	12	19.83	3.75
Thomas Bramall	12	20.75	3.50
Andy Madley	11	20.64	3.36
Tony Harrington	11	20.00	3.09
Craig Pawson	12	20.33	1.92

 

The referee for the Arsenal game against Manchester United is Craig Pawson – the referee who will do anything possible to avoid giving out a yellow card.  To some degree, that doesn’t matter too much if, in fact, his level of yellow card giving is the same for each club.   What really makes us worried is that one of the two teams playing seems to get yellow cards at a much greater rate than the other.   This is where we get into situations that smack of home or away bias.

Our referee tomorrow has overseen 12 games in the Premier League this season and given out 23 yellow cards, or 1.92 cards per game.   Which might sound ok but just compare this with some other referees working in the Premier League where four plus a game is common.

Now in our figures, we shall, as always, exclude those referees who have only overseen a small number of games – in this case, we will say fewer than ten games – and compare the number of yellow cards per referee per game.

Just consider these numbers, for they show that one third of the referees in the present list of referees are showing yellow cards at or over twice the rate per game as the referee in the Arsenal match tomorrow.

Of course, we might well welcome a referee who is not handing out cards that much, but there is no doubt that our opponents are studying this data as well, and thinking to themselves, “this is how we can stop that Arsenal goal-scoring machine.”

 

Referee	Games	Fouls pg	YelLOW pg	% fouls worthy of cards
Stuart Attwell	14	20.50	4.64	23%
Peter Bankes	15	22.60	4.27	19%
Simon Hooper	12	24.67	4.25	17%
Chris Kavanagh	17	22.41	4.00	18%
Samuel Barrott	13	19.54	4.00	20%
Anthony Taylor	18	19.83	3.89	20%
Darren England	13	22.23	3.77	17%
Robert Jones	13	20.08	3.77	19%
Jarred Gillett	12	19.83	3.75	19%
Thomas Bramall	12	20.75	3.50	17%
Andy Madley	11	20.64	3.36	16%
Tony Harrington	11	20.00	3.09	15%
Craig Pawson	12	20.33	1.92	9%

 

Now that the issue of cards per game doesn’t really matter if the players are not taking advantage of the fact that Pawson is the referee who doesn’t show cards.  But the fact is that the opposition team and its manager will know as well as anyone else that this is the referee we have in this match.   The man who simply doesn’t like to wave a card.   He still sees the fouls. Eight of the 13 referees who have seen 11 or more games this season have seen more fouls on average than Pawson, but all of these 13 referees have handed out more yellow cards.

Which simply means that fouling teams know that it is fairly safe to kick bits out of the opposition when Pawson is in charge because he is so reluctant to wave the yellow card.

So why is it that one referee seeing Premier League games week after week can witness so few fouls?

The clear implication from these figures is that the PGMOL is not getting its referees together and showing them this comparison of cards.   The obvious thing to do in these circumstances would be to take a match overseen by a ref who waves cards all the time, and look at his response, and then another game in which the referee is very lenient in the use of cards.

Then the referees could discuss the two films, and with their overseers (for the PGMO surely must have some sort of oversight programme, even though we are never told what it is), and then there can be a discussion and an agreement of what approach is right, and referees can bring referees together.

The fact that there is no such programme, or at the very least no such programme that has a marked impact on the way referees oversee Premier League matches, indicates that either 

a

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a) the PGMO is not doing its job and doesn’t worry about the variation;

b) the PGMO is worried about the variation but is afraid to act against its more powerful members;

c) the PGMO has tried to act to bring referees into line but failed;

d) the PGMO has told the referees it is going to act but a lobby group of more powerful referees has told it that if it moves to rectify this situation, they will resign and form their own referee group and offer their services to the Premier League.

We wait and watch.