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This article is part of the series : REFEREE REVIEW 2012
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After the competency tables we now move on to the bias tables.
And I don’t think I need to explain to you that it is very important to not only have a ref that is competent enough to make the right decisions but he also has to be unbiased.
What good is it to have a ref who only makes 3 mistakes in a game but who always favours the same team with these 3 wrong decisions. Sometimes then you can better have a ref who makes 6 mistakes but splits them up between both teams in an even way.
The principle is the same but the first tables you cannot just read these from top to bottom. Because in the bias tables you need to know that the ideal score is 0 (zero). Because a zero score would mean that the ref has not been biased at all. So the further away from the zero the worse the bias was.
And as the home and away bias because that is what we are looking at in the first place can be a positive or a negative one. So the least biased refs are situated in the middle of the table this time. But we will highlight the top 3 in the table so you can find them a bit easier.
The bias table – Un-weighted
| REF | GAMES | HOME BIAS UN-W | |
|
10 |
Atkinson |
10 |
-3,2 |
|
7 |
Atwell |
3 |
-2,668 |
|
4 |
Webb |
17 |
-1,648 |
|
3 |
Taylor |
5 |
-1,6 |
|
1 |
Clattenburg |
9 |
1,223 |
|
2 |
Dean |
19 |
1,421 |
|
5 |
Marriner |
10 |
1,8 |
|
6 |
Oliver |
8 |
2 |
|
7 |
Mason |
6 |
2,999 |
|
8 |
Dowd |
12 |
3,084 |
|
9 |
Jones |
12 |
3,166 |
|
11 |
Probert |
9 |
3,222 |
|
12 |
Friend |
7 |
3,428 |
|
13 |
Halsey |
9 |
3,445 |
| MOSS |
1 |
4 |
|
|
14 |
Walton |
7 |
4,714 |
| Swarbrick |
2 |
5,5 |
|
|
15 |
Foy |
9 |
6,888 |
So the least home biased ref when we look at the decisions in the un-weighted way was Mark Clattenburg. He came closest to the zero score. In second place we found Mike Dean and in third place we found Taylor.
I must remind you that this has nothing to do with team bias. This is purely based on home/away bias.
The bias table – Weighted
| REF | GAMES | HOME BIAS W | |
|
13 |
Atkinson |
10 |
-6,1 |
| Atwell |
3 |
-3,666 |
|
|
6 |
Webb |
17 |
-3,414 |
|
2 |
Taylor |
5 |
-2,6 |
|
1 |
Dean |
19 |
1,578 |
|
3 |
Oliver |
8 |
2,875 |
|
4 |
Clattenburg |
9 |
2,889 |
|
5 |
Mason |
6 |
3 |
|
7 |
Marriner |
10 |
4 |
|
8 |
Probert |
9 |
4,334 |
|
9 |
Dowd |
12 |
4,417 |
|
10 |
Halsey |
9 |
5,111 |
|
11 |
Friend |
7 |
5,286 |
|
12 |
Jones |
12 |
5,417 |
| MOSS |
1 |
7 |
|
| Swarbrick |
2 |
7 |
|
|
14 |
Walton |
7 |
7,713 |
|
15 |
Foy |
9 |
10,778 |
And if we do the same with the weighted numbers we see that this time Mike Dean is having the best score. With Taylor in second place and this time Oliver in third place.
Again I remind you that this has nothing to do with team bias. Just home and away bias.
And now we are going to bring on the team bias in to these tables. The way we did this is to see how many teams in % got a fair treatment from each ref in question. The more teams stayed in what we considered a reasonable fair bias deviation on the total teams the ref has done in our reviews. So a ref doing 10 teams and treating 4 rather fair got a score of 40% in this table.
This tables can be read from top to bottom except for the 3 refs who got no placing number in front of their names as we didn’t review them enough.
The team bias table – Un-weighted
| REF | GAMES | Un-weighted team bias | |
| MOSS |
1 |
—– | |
| Swarbrick |
2 |
—– | |
| Atwell |
3 |
—– | |
|
1 |
Clattenburg |
9 |
70 |
|
2 |
Probert |
9 |
66,66 |
|
3 |
Atkinson |
10 |
55,55 |
|
4 |
Dean |
19 |
42,85 |
|
5 |
Marriner |
10 |
41,66 |
|
6 |
Jones |
12 |
38,46 |
|
7 |
Friend |
7 |
37,5 |
|
8 |
Dowd |
12 |
33,33 |
|
9 |
Foy |
9 |
25 |
|
10 |
Oliver |
8 |
23 |
|
11 |
Webb |
17 |
20 |
|
12 |
Halsey |
9 |
9 |
|
13 |
Taylor |
5 |
0 |
|
14 |
Mason |
6 |
0 |
|
15 |
Walton |
7 |
0 |
And we see Clattenburg once again on top of a bias table. The 70 score means that 70% of the teams he had in the games we reviewed got a very fair treatment. This is how you should read the score.
And then we see and this will be a total surprise for most of you and I admit I was shocked about it at first and I have checked and double checked but it is a fact that from our reviews we can conclude that in general Lee Probert was very un-biased. In 3rd place we find Atkinson and also a surprise maybe in 4th place Mike Dean.
But in fact this is a very interesting number for refs like Probert and Dean. Because they now have shown that in fact in general they can be rather fair and unbiased. So this is bringing up the question: why Mr. Probert? Why Mr. Dean? Why do you treat some teams so unfairly. And not just once but almost all the time you do those teams. You have proved that you can be rather unbiased and yet you can’t do it with certain teams on the field. WHY?
Check for your own favourite ref in this table.
The team bias table – Un-weighted
| REF | GAMES | Weighted team bias | |
| MOSS |
1 |
—– | |
| Swarbrick |
2 |
—– | |
| Atwell |
3 |
—– | |
|
1 |
Clattenburg |
9 |
70 |
|
2 |
Dean |
19 |
57,14 |
|
3 |
Probert |
9 |
50 |
|
4 |
Marriner |
10 |
50 |
|
5 |
Webb |
17 |
46,66 |
|
6 |
Atkinson |
10 |
44,44 |
|
7 |
Friend |
7 |
37,5 |
|
8 |
Dowd |
12 |
33,33 |
|
9 |
Oliver |
8 |
30,76 |
|
10 |
Jones |
12 |
30,76 |
|
11 |
Foy |
9 |
25 |
|
12 |
Mason |
6 |
20 |
|
13 |
Halsey |
9 |
18 |
|
14 |
Taylor |
5 |
0 |
|
15 |
Walton |
7 |
0 |
And on the risk of getting boring we once again see Clattenburg on top of the bias table. Again 70% of his teams were treated very fair by this ref.
Clattenburg is the ref with the smallest home/away bias and he is also the ref who has the highest team bias score. This means that teams have the best chance to being treated in an unbiased way when he is around.
And once again Dean and Probert prove that in fact they can be very unbiased in their games. So again we have to ask ourselves: WHY?
Let us move on to the final bias score table where we take in account all the bias scores we had:
| Bias table | Ref | Score |
|
1 |
Clattenburg |
1,75 |
|
2 |
Dean |
2,25 |
|
3 |
Marriner |
5,25 |
|
4 |
Probert |
6 |
|
5 |
Webb |
6,5 |
|
6 |
Oliver |
7 |
|
7 |
Atkinson |
8 |
|
8 |
Taylor |
8 |
|
9 |
Dowd |
8,5 |
|
10 |
Friend |
9,25 |
|
11 |
Jones |
9,25 |
|
12 |
Mason |
9,5 |
|
13 |
Halsey |
12 |
|
14 |
Foy |
12,5 |
|
15 |
Walton |
14,5 |
And this table is based on the combination of the home/away bias and the team bias.
By now it will be no surprise that in this table we find Clattenburg in the number one position. He really was the fairest ref of them all. And of course one can always pick a game where he probably made a mistake and cost a team points. But the reviews we did on him proved that this is rather an accidental thing than something regular.
In second place we find our beloved Mike Dean. And as said before from now on he has no excuse any more to screw Arsenal. We have proved that he is a fair and unbiased ref most of the time. Now just do it when you have an Arsenal game I would say.
Andre Marriner has got himself in to third place. We congratulate him with this position.
You can check yourself for the position of your own personal ref. Or a ref you dislike completely.
My 2 favourites make the top 3 again! I obviously have a good eye for a decent ref as Andre has been my favourite for 10 years!
I shook my head when I saw that Dean ranked so highly, I trust the quality of the work done, so I will accept it. I have noticed that since Mark Clattenburg’s new barnet and second chance, he has been a much better ref, I did’nt think he would rank so highly though. Now that we have got this great ranking chart, ref watch just got even more interesting. For the derbies and ‘big’ games, who gets assigned as ref will be important. Hopefully Marriner and Clattenburg will get the nod this season as a reflection of their increasing competency.
this will be the start of something big. hopefully media pressure will start to affect the attitude of the refs and they will take up my suggestion of demoting and promoting refs. perhaps the league may even decide they must have more refs than the paltry sixteen.
Good work again! Dean is an enigma to say the least. But equally interesting is Dowd. He is arguably the most gifted ref- yet- if you value fairness and balance in that equation- he is clearly a menace in the same way that a loose cannon would be a menace on the battlefield- brilliantly effective but who is going to get one up the arse? Personally I value fairness above everything. And if we have to replace good unfair refs with less good fair ones- so be it!
All premier supporters should band together and demand parity. Lack of fairness is the curse of all games and sports -from Ludo in the home to judging in the Olympics. We all know when it is dodgy and we all get the nasty taste of deceit. It should not be tolerated– and we tolerate it far too much!!!!
Wow these squashes all those Dean is just a shit ref claims. Fact is he is just a biased prick when it comes to Arsenal games and only he knows why
Yep Mahdain… you said it…
Stoke manager Tony Pulis on Peter Crouch’s
controversial goal for the Potters: “I haven’t
seen it but if Peter has [handled it] I’m
absolutely delighted to have got one against
one of the big clubs. Usually it is the big clubs
who get one against us.” Thought ye might like this from the BBC website.
Ah well I think Pulis has never heard of us, or of the detable decisions website, or of the new referee decisions website… He has had more going in his favour in the last seasons than Stoke can have had against them in their entire history.
Maybe if we would put some pictures in it, then maybe he would understand it 😉
I hope he has heard of us Walter, I wrote to them to tell them about the ref reviews 🙂
Can Pulis read? 😉
Did he even hear of the Internet? 😀
On another note, I’m sad for Clattenburg, it’s difficult to understand how he managed to miss that handball. He’ll have some work to do to remedy the damage – the handball in the penalty area, the now incorrect goal, not to mention the potential yellow card for handling the ball intentionally.
Florian, our ref reviewers will dig in to your questions for sure.
Maybe because of his position he couldn’t see it (crowded penalty area, lots of bodies in the way, maybe he was standing in such a way that to see it he had to look through Crouch (who is a despicable player: diving to get Bolton down, now handball and not having the nerve to fully admit it…) to see it.
And if he couldn’t see it you cannot give it as a ref. You cannot give a decision just on the appeals from other players. If you did Suarez would win 10 penalties each game 😉
But it will be on Clattenburg his report as a bad decision and will cost him points. That is for sure.
Well, after looking at the highlights, I noticed he was placed almost behind Crouch, quite a few meters away. He slightly leaned left the moment the player turned his body – and hand balled – as if he wanted to make sure he saw the ball. Looks like even so he was too badly placed to spot the handball, so – I’m speculating – he gave the player the benefit of the doubt. Agree with you Walter, it’s the wrong guy to allow this to.
Once again, Walter, DogFace, and reviewers, you’ve done a magnificent and crucial project this season! I’m stunned by the quality of your work and the dedication with which you’ve executed it. To say nothing about the fairness displayed in giving high ratings to refs that I know you despise–you’ve kept your emotions at bay and simply judged what you’ve seen.
I’m surprised about some of the results, especially Dean. It’s fascinating what you come up with when you look beyond Arsenal to what’s going on around the league. When some refs are quite good until they do an Arsenal match, that’s really telling. And when some teams are consistently hard-done-by and others are consistently gifted, say, handball goals or cheap penalties, it’s clear something is deeply wrong in the inside of the game. What we’ve always suspected is now supported by a good body of quality evidence, which will be even stronger by the end of next season. The more that word gets out on the ref reviews, the better!