Who'd be a ref?
February 4th 2008 02:48
I considered the argument of too much foreign investment in todays game but frankly dismissed it as being without any real merit and steaped in small minded xenophobia. How about the issue of domestic cup competitions being an issue for reserves and youth teams to battle out? It's certainly a problem, but surely not worthy for my opening rant.
After much deliberation I went with the subject that might ruffle the most feathers; a subject on which my opinion differs greatly to most. Those enigmatic, much-loathed figures, swamped in black. That's right... the referees.
I'm not going to dwell on the thanklessness of their chosen profession - I'm pretty sure they knew that going on. I'm not even going to defend their actions with those eternal, yet ultimately pointless, words, 'They're only human.' Yes and they're also grown men, so let's not patronise them, eh?
Before I start, let me play devils advocate for a moment and admit the truth that referees DO sometimes influence the game and even influence the overall result with a poor decision. That is fact and it is something that will always be. The sooner we get our heads around it and stop thinking that the officials are waging personal vendettas against our team and our team alone team, the better. Let me tell you a little secret. Every football fan thinks their team get the rawest deal. We can't all be right.
I just want to talk about the total hypocrisy of the average football fan, where referees and officials are concerned. We're so keen to point out the inconsistencies in any refereeing performance that we fail to take into account what I call, the 'Human Factor'. But Wooderbeen, you said you weren't going to use that line, I hear you cry? Stay with me. The humans which I refer to in the 'Human Factor' are not the referees themselves but rather the other Homo sapien forces that might influence a decision. That's you and I, the regular fans screaming from the sides, the red-faced manager bawling at the fourth official, the impetuous striker complaining about an offside decision, and even those 'omnipotent' commentators and reporters, who are all too willing to chastise an official for making a wrong split-second call.
I watched Mark Clattenburg, a respected English Premier League referee, this weekend be hounded by the Manchester United players after a decision that didn't go their way. Clattenburg handled the situation admirably and simply brandished a yellow card to the perpetrator, but did it stop the same team from continuing their misguided appeals at every opportunity? Of course not. And why? Because they know this approach has worked in the past and will work in the future. In fact this 'tactic' has become a cornerstone of Alex Ferguson's team, Arsene Wenger's Arsenal and Avram Grant's Chelsea. Hmmm. Surely it's no coincidence that these are the three most successful English teams. It makes you wonder what came first, the Whingeing Chicken or the Egg Cup Winners Cup.
The FA, of course, does little in the way of stopping this ugly part of the game, which now seems to have filtered down into the junior ranks, where youngsters emulate the likes of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Jens Lehman (well, maybe not so much Jens Lehman). Many a time have I seen a child scream at a referee when a throw in didn't go their way. It almost makes me rethink my stance on corporal punishment.
But we, the fans, are just as guilty of misplacing our anger and resentment at the man in black. Even I admit to coming away from a game my team have lost 5-0 and genuinely placing the blame squarely on the overloaded shoulders of the referee. It was 5-0. I don't think one or two dodgy offside decisions decided that game.
We plead for more consistency in referees at the same time as we ask them to use common sense. We can't have it both ways. We either play by the strict rules of the game or we don't. We shouldn't complain that two referees have given different decisions on a similar incident and five minutes later plead with the referee to use common sense when a player is booked for taking his shirt off in celebration. These are the rules and to disagree with them is a separate argument altogether.
So allow me to be a lone voice willing to speak up in defence of those middle-aged, slightly rotund, sheriffs of our beautiful game. Referees everywhere, I salute you.
| 96 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Pooks 667
Comment by Harry
Sydney Diary
Personals
Brisbane Diarystar
Zoo Parent
Comment by Wooderbeen
The Daily Sydney
The State Of The Game
They, the players, know the rules and they have been told that any attempts to influence the referees decisions will result in a booking. Yet they still do it. The worst example of it on Saturday was Van Der Sar literally sprinting at the official when Spurs scored their goal. I don't know what he expected to gain from doing it.
That said, you're both right about Clattenburg and I admit it was perhaps a bad example, especially after his performance earlier in the season at the Merseyside derby, which bordered on scandalous.