All football supporters have one hatred in common and that is the “wanker in black”. This person has the ability to affect the outcome of any game. Their mistakes can be more costly than that of a keeper and yet we only have semi pro’s doing these important roles. Any club will have countless examples where they have been on the end of a wrong decision and it never gets any less frustrating. This is not helped when some refs seem determined to make headlines by doing things that are completely outrageous. In fact in many cases I am sure that refs are only trying to complete their autograph collection and that’s why they book certain players.
As a old Chelsea supporter I remember when we were in 10th place and playing teams at the top of the league all the decisions went their way, now we are up there we get the decisions. This cannot just be coincidence and this only adds to the “gulf” between the top and the bottom of the premiership. As a club fighting for survival in the premiership a bad decision has the potential to be devastating at the end of the season. To sum all this up refereeing is sub standard.
There have been many ideas about how to improve the decisions the one that is always mentioned in bringing in technology and this to me is not the way forward. I agree that technology can play a part maybe line sensors that let you know when there is a goal. (Similar to ice hockey just not as OTT) the reason I think this is good is that there has been an increase in the numbers of goals that have not been given the biggest that springs to mind is the one for Tottenham against Man U last season. The line sensors would have picked that up but for a change you can’t totally blame the officials who were up with play its just play was so far away from the goal line due to the distance of the shot. However I think that to just technology such as replays like they do in rugby or cricket would be a big mistake. All football fans like to see nice flowing football and already get annoyed when games stop and start, if you start putting in breaks for replays it will be a nightmare. You would also find that it would cause as many arguments as it avoids. For example your team are attacking and have the opposition pinned in their box then there is a break for a replay your team could lose all their momentum they have built up.
I do think that there are alternatives to technology the best for me is to look at the rules. The Rules are subjective because there has to be intent they have to be interfering with play and many other things alone these lines. In fact the referees should have to have degree in physiology to be able to make some decision. Did the player intentionally block the attacker even though he has his back to him and there was nowhere else for him to go? Who knows the only one who knows is the defender but the fact remains he has still block his path. However for me the worst rule is the offside rule. Any of you who play on a Saturday or a Sunday and have had the misfortune to have to run the line will know that it is not as easy as it looks to call the offside correctly (admittedly in any league I’ve played in the rule is a little different it goes more like it the player beats the defence and looks like scoring he’s offside) I think the main problem is that the rule require you to be looking alone the line and watching the play so you can see when the ball is played. While desperately trying to look in two directions at once you also need to ask yourself “Is he interfering with play?” I’m not saying that I have all the answers but when asking this much from a human being there is always going to be mistakes.
Another thing that I had not considered until speaking to my girlfriend (who until recently had no interest in football therefore looking at it completely differently to me) do we really want perfect decisions. She pointed out that we all talk about the decisions and most discussions come from bad ones. If there were no bad decisions would we be happier or would we just have to find something else to talk about. Are the bad decisions made by referees one of the points that make football the most talked about sport in Britain?
To Sum up referees are not up to Scratch. I feel at the very least they need to become professional so that they can concentrate on being fit enough to keep up with the games. I believe that some rules could be simplified to make them more black and white and I also think that technology can be used but should not be allowed to interfere with the great game.
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An article by David Runacre who writes articles for Focus on football - Football news and articles from the fans.
Written By: David Runacre
