"Respect For Officals" (1 Viewer)

It does really bug me when teams surround referees after decisions are made, or try to pressurise then into making biased decisions or book/send off opposing players.
Swearing is obviously another problem. Though on the flip-side, I don't think that referees/linemen/women are accountable enough for poor performance.

FCS Richard, I know people make typos every now and then, but there are 19 spelling and grammatical errors in your very short passage. Get a grip young man!

Richard Smith said:

lol sorry thats why i am a mechanic not a author

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Fair enough! Do you not need a High School Diploma to become a mechanic though?

Richard Smith said:

no lol any way back on subject

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OK..... I agree with your comments. It started years ago with the Med countries. Migrated to EPL when they imported all those Med layers. There's nothing like the old fashioned British way, you take a knock...you limp for a little while until the pain subsides. Of course you pay for it the following day, don't you? I'd lke to see the refs adopt the Rugby attitude. No answering back, no criticising....or you're off having an early shower

I play Basketball for a local league team in Coventry, so I know all about how a poor refereeing performance can annoy players. I think the standard of refereeing in football currently is very very poor. I haven't seen a good fair consistent performance from a ref for a long time now, and that causes players to react badly. If you see the ref call a foul on you for a slight push, then you run down the other end, get grabbed round the shoulder and yanked down but get told to get up you (and the rest of your team) will react. Whilst I think it should be limited to a polite question, I fully understand how players can get wound up by the officials.

To me, the respect campaign and all that lark is nonsense. If the referee makes less mistakes, the players will react less. All these campaigns seem to just be ways to cover up the declining standard of officiating. Referees should be held accountable for costly mistakes and should be re-trained accordingly to make less of them. Currently the problems are not being corrected in the right manner. If a tap is leaking, you try to fix the problem at the source by fixing the tap itself. You don't just put a bucket under it and hope it stops, because at the end of the day it will keep leaking until the bucket overflows. The same applies here. Re-train the refs, don't just tell the players to be more polite, that won't solve anything I'm afraid.

When it comes down to the diving and crowding the referee, players do it because they KNOW it will influence the referee during the course of 90 minutes. That won't change until the referee's change and take the approach of booking all signs of simulation and dissent, and as I have already said, that won't happen unless the officials are told to do so. There lies the problem.

gouldberg said:

I play Basketball for a local league team in Coventry, so I know all about how a poor refereeing performance can annoy players. I think the standard of refereeing in football currently is very very poor. I haven't seen a good fair consistent performance from a ref for a long time now, and that causes players to react badly. If you see the ref call a foul on you for a slight push, then you run down the other end, get grabbed round the shoulder and yanked down but get told to get up you (and the rest of your team) will react. Whilst I think it should be limited to a polite question, I fully understand how players can get wound up by the officials.

To me, the respect campaign and all that lark is nonsense. If the referee makes less mistakes, the players will react less. All these campaigns seem to just be ways to cover up the declining standard of officiating. Referees should be held accountable for costly mistakes and should be re-trained accordingly to make less of them. Currently the problems are not being corrected in the right manner. If a tap is leaking, you try to fix the problem at the source by fixing the tap itself. You don't just put a bucket under it and hope it stops, because at the end of the day it will keep leaking until the bucket overflows. The same applies here. Re-train the refs, don't just tell the players to be more polite, that won't solve anything I'm afraid.

When it comes down to the diving and crowding the referee, players do it because they KNOW it will influence the referee during the course of 90 minutes. That won't change until the referee's change and take the approach of booking all signs of simulation and dissent, and as I have already said, that won't happen unless the officials are told to do so. There lies the problem.

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Agreed...well said!

Need to review

I've said for a long time now, football has not changed enough with the times. I'm not advocating massive changes, but there are some significant changes that are needed. Other major professional sports have advanced, why can't footie?

1. Goal -line technology. It's a no-brainer. All other sports have some method of determination. Blatter and Platini should get their heads out of their ass on this one!

2. Player simulation (diving). Refs and FIFA/UEFA will HAVE to address this. We used to say in the good old days when a player feigned a tackle and play-acted that " the road to Stratford is that way". Needs to be a yellow...enforced! No matter where it is on the pitch.

3.The offside rule. Causes way too many bad decisions. Partly because the linesman who is running alongside the last defender cannot always see "when" the ball is kicked from ways back in midfield or worse, defence. I have previously advocated using the same offside rules as Ice Hockey. This would spread the game out also as modern football is just getting too bogged down in the middle of the field. This would prevent the need for all this very pretty sideways football that doesn't get anywhere. Not very entertaining stuff these days. Football is only played in one half of the field, this needs to be stretched to create more entertainment value. Rather see a 4-3 game than a 1-0 game wouldn't you?

4. Comments/surrounding the Ref. Should adopt the same rules as Rugby. Questioning the ref's decision, the ball is moved 10 yards closer to the goal. Vicious comments/ swearing at the ref/ surrounding the ref should get an immediate yellow card. This would need the Blatters and Platinis to grow a pair to ensure this works. Unless this is enforced by the organizing bodies it will only end up like it is in the Iberian and Italian leagues.

Food for thought?

Richard Smith said:

i agree with you there scott. swearing is a problem but i am as guilty as the next bloke for swearing on the pitch i put it down to the heat of the moment. officals arnt penilsed enough for making shocking decisions (Lampards Goal Saturday) i mean lets face it if you or i made a massive mestake like that at work we would have the book thrown at us. it just bugs me how they try to implment it at the bottom when them at the top dont abide by the it

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Persoanlly the ref or linesman were not at fault on this one, impossible to see if this went past the line or not, even looking at the video this is still being debated. This is a call for goalline technology not poor refereeing.

The problem for me is that overpaid and overhyped hitler style referees who are not prepared to compromise, admit when they have it wrong, explain their decisions, talk to the press after the game and make generally often bad decisions. They are scrutinised from every angle and only have one chance, equally they are human and will make mistakes some of them more contreversial and more high profile but I maintain that respect can't just be demanded it has to be earned. For all the problems that players cause them by cheating and moaning, the refereees and the FA must also concede some ground.

what i dont understand, players are supposed to be yellow carded for diving, if they go down in the box under a bit of pressure and it is not a penalty why do they rarely get booked?

I think officials need to earn respect.

I play Sunday League football sometimes and the refs are shocking and obviously use it as some sort of power trip. There are a few who were obviously bullied at school.

If they can't be consistent then what do they expect? If they give something for one team they have to give it for the other at any level so if one person is booked for swearing then everybody has to be and if one shirt tug is a foul, every shirt tug should be.

I don't like the fact they never have to explain their actions or get punished, like when Attwell gives goals that never went in or the 3 yellow cards in the World Cup. They might have to ref League 2 for a couple of weeks but they should be in front of the camera after the game saying why. At the end of the game they wait in the centre circle for the stewards so players and managers can't question their shocking decisions, what is all that about?

Well at least the goalline technology issue is being looked at. It'll be a slow transition but it has to start somewhere.
In relation to the referee's, I think respect should go both ways:

• Any hinting at simulation should be instant yellow - if a player has been caught and they go down fair enough, but the moment they start over-doing the rolling I would be reaching for my pocket. Might be a bit extreme but let's see how long it lasted. This has to be backed up by the FA.
• Goal-line technology is a must though credit where it's due, Blatter is at least starting to address this.
• Manager's are forced to be interviewed after matches and I feel referee's should too - they are then forced to have to explain/defend their decisions with reason, or just admit they made a mistake. It's much harder for a manager to say start slating a ref for a decision when the ref has already said "I made a mistake, my bad."
• With that, manager's should be more harshly punished for statements that are quite simply inflamatory (such as questioning a referee's bias) - If the referee has explained his logic for a decision, then it's only fair they're given the protection to match.

I'm sure I could come up with more, but this would turn into a proper rant then so I'll cease there :thinking about: