By Walter Broeckx
For some of you the waiting on the new reviews might have been too long. Don’t worry it was true for me also. Nothing more frustrating than making reviews that don’t appear on line. But since yesterday afternoon the site Referee Decisions has started publishing new reviews.
At last. Finally. A big sigh of relief from our reviewers, Dogface and myself. Whilst typing this I just paused to put another review on line. Not that you noticed it but just to give you an impression on how eager I (and I suppose the rest also) am to get us back rolling.
I know I have talked about changes to the referee reviews but as I couldn’t show them, it all was a bit abstract. But now they are there and when you cross to the new site and take this one as an example you will see the big difference between the old and the new reviews.
In the old reviews we usually had around 40 decisions to show you. Now a regular review will show around 100 decisions.
The most important reason for this is the fact that we have added all the decisions from the ref in our reviews now. Apart from the toss and the final whistle every moment where a ref or his assistant makes a decision is covered in our review.
You now will see throw in as a new type of decision. Goal kicks are also new. Those decisions themselves are around at least 50% of the decisions a ref has to make. The downside is that we mostly cannot check them properly. So the ref gets his decision as correct. This is of course an upside for the ref. The reason we cannot check them most of the time is because usually no replays are shown from those decisions. Only when blatantly wrong they will show it. But as you all know this only happens a few times. But we do check them and if we are 100% sure the ref missed it we will of course deduct points from the ref.
By virtually giving the ref a score of 50 to 60% of his decisions as correct we had to change a few things around. And to compensate this we changed the weight of the decisions. Mistakes by the ref are now more punished in a way. Making the right decisions is looked upon as natural. But mistakes are more punished.
The result is that when you will look at the final score refs will get in general a higher score on the overall un-weighted decisions. But in the weighted decisions they will get a lower score IF they made a lot of mistakes. It doesn’t have to be that way of course. That is down to the ref and his decisions on the field.
For those who say: but come on you cannot punish the refs harder on the weight front I can give you an example of how the reviewers work in my country.
In my country the ref has to get an score of 70% in his game. This can be done when he makes just a few small mistakes. When a ref made no real big mistakes he will get at least a score of 75%. At least because when he doesn’t make mistakes that are weighted he will get a higher score.
And now comes the weight points deduction:
When not giving 1 mandatory yellow card: his maximum score can be 72%
When not giving 2 mandatory yellow cards: his maximum score can be 69% (below the border line!!!)
When not giving a red card for 2 yellow cards: his maximum score can be 65%.
When not giving 1 mandatory red card: his maximum score can be 60%.
When not giving 1 mandatory red card as a result of an aggression: his maximum score can be 55%.
When not giving more than 1 mandatory red card or by an arbitration error: his maximum score can be 49%.
So for those saying we are firm or too strict… they are lucky we don’t apply those rules on them. In our review system a not given red card only results in a negative score of -5 points on the total. In my country you could say they take 40% of his points away. Over here we only take about 5% of his possible points away and in most games this will even be lower.
So a big change on our new site. With lots of data, new data, plus all the old data. And all the old reviews are or will be updated to the new way of presenting the data.
So from now on we will be able to say that Referee Decisions is the most complete referee review site on the whole internet. Well that could change if the PGMOL would open up their files of course but I somehow wonder how one of their reviews look? Are they as complete as we are? Do they cover all the decisions like we do?
Maybe the question should be: do they really review the refs completely? Well if not, then we have filled that gap from now on.
And as I said while all this was going on behind the scenes we have welcomed a few new reviewers. One supports Liverpool, one supports Southampton and one supports Aston Villa. We hope they stay with us and help us cover all the games. And it sure is nice to have them around. Here I am hoping for more refs from other teams to join us.
Please join us and become part of the most amazing change in football in the last seasons: an independent outside body to keep an eye on those who are supposed to keep an eye on the game.
For all further information, reviews, good decisions, bad decisions, errors, mistakes, bias,…. only one place to check it all: Referee Decisions
If anyone still believes the isn’t a need to clear. Out the Augean stables in which our referees currently operate, take a look at this.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19808766
Stay tuned because very soon we will publish the first review of an Arsenal game in the new format!!
What is going to happen to refs who consistently give wrong decisions?It’s about time these refs face the music and are punished for unacceptable errors which can have a bearing on who wins the title,relegated,etc.
More and more people awake. How long will you keep quiet and pretend all is well media? Lo and behold
This
http://www.diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/09/the-truth-is-out-there.html
And
http://www.diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/
Open the can…
Walter,
In the wise words of Mr Gandhi:
“At first they ignore you,
then they ridicule you,
then they fight you,
and then… you win”
Indeed Jaroda, wise words. Very wise words.
I will keep them in mind. Till we win.
a more pronounced link on untold to the ref decisions site would be nice. keep it going walter. it took long days of hunger strikes before gandhi became hated.
Walter, Billy and the ref panel…well done. If I may, a thought to throw into the already full melting pot. Walter supplied a link to Andre Marriner and Liverpool/Man City…
http://www.refereedecisions.co.uk/match-review-andre-marriner-liverpool-vs-manchester-city-2-2-26082012/
Decisions 7/8 indicate:
7FOUL LIV C Martin Skrtel Commits a Regular foul. 1
8YELLOW LIV NC The first foul but it was a promising attack, so should have been a yellow card 3
8FREE KICK MNC C Kolarov takes a direct free kick. 1
Now given it was a “regular” foul, how can the fact that it was a promising attack effect the “penalty points”? Surely a foul was “ordinary” or not?
Every time Arsenal get the ball, no matter where on the pitch, it’s a promising attack… so may we expect yellows to be handed out every time we are fouled?
I’d really like to see this data penetrating the powers that be, but have my suspicions that these sort of decisions might reduce the impact.
Later on, decision 24, poor old Marriner gets hit for 12 points on the double jeopardy factor that a few other correspondents and I have mentioned previously. I’d really like to know your justification.
Cheers
Hello there fellow gooner.
There was something I wanted to bring to your attention incase you didnt already know:
Mark Clattenberg was the ref when City beat ManUre 6-1 at Old Trafford last season…he hasn’t reffed there since.
Mike Dean was the ref when Blackburn beat ManUre 3-2 last season…he hasn’t reffed there since.
Chris Hoy was the ref when Spurs beat ManUre 3-2 last week…this week he has been demoted to a League 2 game.
Very interesting.
Gf60 – we don’t need any justification, this is simply the way we do things. These tables are just a report on our data – not the definitive conclusion.
Our data is available to anyone who wishes to analyse it present it in any way they see fit – and that is the point of the exercise.
I wouldn’t read too much into the word ‘regular’ – it just distinguishes it from a handball, etc. Cards can be handed out off the back of a foul for various reasons – these are not documented in the ref review as, for readability, these reports contain a fraction of the actual data we capture.
Thanks
@Sebastian Chris Hoy… the cyclist?
Groundbreaking stuff!
Roberto Martinez fined 10000 pounds for claiming referees favour Manure and also warned as to his future conduct. Dont you guys think that manure are alcapone you dare utter a word you are dealt with accordingly!! Daily Telegraph
So we now know ,so what to do?
@Dogface…”we don’t need any justification, this is simply the way we do things.”
Why does this comment remind me of FIFA, FA and the PGMOL?
Yes please, may I have the stats on the Marriner/Liverpool/Mancity game.
Thanks.
@Gf60
Our data is open source – our method is consistent and documented.
A foul given the wrong way differs from a not given foul – this is not ‘double jeopardy’ this is how it is.
If you wish to use our full data sets then please make an application to the email address supplied on the site and state how you intend to use it.
Thanks
@dogface
“Our data is available to anyone who wishes to analyse it present it in any way they see fit – and that is the point of the exercise”.
Oh so this comment was not quite accurate?
There doesn’t appear to be an email address supplied so I’ve written to Walter.
Sebastian raises some intersting points regarding refs who officiated at Ot when the red faced lost.What are the reasons for their absence in future games at OT.
That is why for all his domination in the epl,our red faced can’t get going in the cl.It wouldn’t surprise me when 30 to 50 years time,it was revealed he was aided by the refs and FA in his winning ways.