The ref league table

By Walter Broeckx

After 3 days in the PL we cannot say much about how the refs will do in this season. But with the little data available we can try to have a look at some different things we have seen so far.

First of all let us start and try to see if our ref reviewers are showing their colours. A difficult and bad start to the season of Arsenal could have been the best way to look at this. So if we would be bad reviewers who will blame the ref when we lose it should show from the numbers. So here are the scores so far of the refs who did Arsenal games

Ref	Important	Overall	Weight	Average
Walton	50	55	63,16	56,05
Atkinson	66,67	82,14	74,36	74,39
Webb	85,71	78,72	82,67	82,37
Average	67,46	71,95	73,40	70,94

So if we would be blinded by our love of Arsenal well… then the table should be the other way round. Because in the game we got a point, the ref got the lowest score. And in the game of our crushing defeat at Old Trafford the ref got the highest score in the Arsenal games.  The average score being rather low is because with only 3 games played one bad performance (Walton at Newcastle) is dragging the total down. So a word of praise for the way our ref reviewers have done their job so far.

And thanks to our ref reviewers we don’t have to wait for some 3 months in the season to try to see if the refs have done good or bad. No we can have a look at 12 games so far in the season and see how the refs have been doing. And when we look at all the games we have reviewed we get a table that looks like this

Ref	Important	Overall	Weight	Average	Game
Walton	50,00	55,00	63,16	56,05	Newcastle – Arsenal
Atkinson	66,67	82,14	74,36	74,39	Arsenal – Liverpool
Dean	77,78	80,00	83,72	80,50	City-Swansea
Halsey	57,14	65,00	64,56	62,23	Stoke-Chelsea
Dowd	95,00	89,13	86,79	90,31	Liverpl-Sunderland
Jones	85,71	79,59	82,26	82,52	WBA – Utd
Probert	70,00	71,11	73,21	71,44	Man U – Tottenham
Mason	68,42	72,00	73,13	71,18	Chelsea – WBA
Jones	66,67	78,69	74,70	73,35	Bolton – Man City
Webb	85,71	78,72	82,67	82,37	Man U – Arsenal
Dowd	89,47	82,98	87,69	86,71	Tottenh – Man City
Probert	83,33	75,76	84,78	81,29	Liverpool – Bolton
Average	74,66	75,84	77,59	76,03

Last season I had to wait till November to have 12 games, now we are at the beginning of September and we have a nice number of games.

If we look at the average scores this is rather satisfying for the moment. A total score that is above 70% so far.

Let us just for fun make up a league of the refs we have done this season and see who is first and who is last. But better sit down before you start reading this I would suggest.

Pos	Ref	Overall score
1	Dowd	88,51
2	Webb	82,37
3	Dean	80,50
4	Jones	77,94
5	Probert	76,37
6	Atkinson	74,39
7	Mason	71,18
8	Halsey	62,23
9	Walton	56,05

Now I know this is only after 3 games and most refs had only one game reviewed but still I found this a bit amazing when I calculated this. As in the top 3 we find 3 refs that well are not the most popular figures in and around the Emirates. But so far so good, they got the points they deserved and with ref Dowd whom we have reviewed twice this season sitting in the number one position.

And once again this is another example that when our ref reviewers do their job they just look at the decisions and not at the ref who is making or not making the decisions.

But the season is still new and fresh and refs have not fallen to their bad habits yet of forgetting the instructions after a few games. So we will have to see how things work out later in the season. If we go back to last season I think only some 5 refs got the 70% grade, which is the minimum score for a ref to stay in the league. Now we have a situation where 7 out of 9 refs we reviewed have a score above 70%.

We can only hope that the refs keep up the high standard because I think we all would benefit from good refs.

Now I don’t want to spoil the party. But I do have to point at a in my opinion very negative number. This is the important decisions table. If you go back to the second table in this article you can see that on the important decisions we have a score of around 75%. This is about decisions about goals, penalties, red cards… the real important ones that a ref should get right. Never mind the little foul in the middle of the field which he missed. No the important decisions should be made correct. And then to know that 1 decision on 4 is wrong…. I think this is a really scaring thought.

Fifa, Uefa, FA, PGMOL, who ever cares for football should make sure that this number goes up. Video assistance, 4th ref, 5th ref, 6th ref, who cares even a 11th ref on and around the field for my part. But this number should be higher, much higher. I think that the important decisions should have a score of above 90%. I know that for humans to reach 100% is almost impossible but then we must bring in other things that can help the refs to make the correct decisions on the field.

Recent Untold Ref Reviews

Liverpool v Bolton

Tottenham v Manchester City

Arsenal versus Manchester United

The Untold Weekly Ref Review

Revealed: “The Busacca Moment” when referees move to fix the match

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Arsenal History

Making the Arsenal

Arsenal Uncovered

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Untold Media Watch

Is the media out to get us?  No, it is far worse than that