Why is it that the Premier League uses the same referees with the same clubs over and over again?

 

 

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By Tony Attwood

The New York Times has an interesting article recently, which suggested that there is a “modern propensity for conspiracy theories and perceived bias” in English football.   And to a fair degree, that is true – there is a lot of talk about conspiracy theories in football, especially in relation to referees.

Now, the use of the term “conspiracy theory” is interesting because that phrase is always used as a way of laughing at people who believe there is a conspiracy.  Which, in fact, means that no one bothers to investigate if there is a conspiracy.  Or indeed if sheer laziness means we are not investigating things properly..

Unfortunately, because “conspiracy theory” is a put-down no one now bothers to respond by investigating the situation.   I can recall those of us travelling together to games decades ago, discussing referees, seeing who was in charge of the match and predicting (accurately) what influence he would have on the game.  Now that isn’t done so much because to suggest the ref will influence the outcome results in someone else saying “that’s just a conspiracy theory,” and the debate ends.

The fact is that nothing has been done about developing or improving referees across the years, despite our providing statistics which show that some referees do have a propensity to oversee many more home wins (for example) than others.   Or why some referees oversee matches involving the same club over and over again, while others seem to avoid certain referees completely.  And as for the curious results that we found in matches when no crowds were present during the pandemic, no one now debates that at all.  Just as commentators don’t ever mention that a very small number of referees oversee a disproportionately large percentage of games involving certain teams.  

Last season 24 referees oversaw Premier League games.   This season, it is 23 referees so far.  Now that is enough for each referee to see each club only twice – and thus reduce the chance of bias.    And yet despite this adequate number of referees, in fact some referees see the same club six or even more times in a season, while other referees only get a few games in each season.

This is not a situation that can be put right in one season, but it could be sorted out over a couple of years simply by training up more referees to Premier League standard and ensuring they all get games.   We have indeed got enough referees, but are simply not using most of them.

This season eight referees have done 20+ games each in the Premier League, while seven have done under 10.   What needs to be done is for these numbers to be balanced out, rather than constantly giving the same favoured referees more and more Premier League games, and restricting those who are out of favour to just a handful of matches.  Then, if there is any bias or incompetence, everyone gets an equal share of it (and of course, that incompetence can be overcome easily by better and longer training).  

And there is a need for this because different referees give out cards and fouls in different ways.   Michael Salisbury gives out 4.5 yellow cards a game, while Craig Pawson gives out around half as many across the season.  To think that managers and players don’t recognise this ahead of each game is crazy – of course they do and they adjust their team’s play accordingly.

But the story that the media gives us is always the same: when it comes to referees, they are equal, and clubs take no notice of which referee they get.  Either the League or PGMO has instructed the media not to mention the referees or else the journalists are being rather silly.

I am not at all sure that some referees are biased against one club or in favour of another club, but I do believe that some clubs do look very closely at which referee they have in the match to come, notice his tendencies, and instruct the players accordingly.  Other clubs don’t, and that is their misfortune.

The negativity concerning referees could be overcome by employing enough referees so that each ref only sees each team twice in a season, once in a home game, once in an away game.    If there is a conspiracy in refereeing, it is that of the PGMO and football journalists working together to ensure that this simple solution is never debated.