Good ref bad ref.

There has been a lot of talk and write ups about the state of referring in football. I don’t know where I stand on this subject. Football has been played for over one hundred years with referees making bad decisions all the time, every season and every major tournament. Human error is part and parcel of the game that is enjoyed by millions of people around the world. There will be many times when a referees call will make us happy even though we know his decision was wrong and when our team gets a bad call in return we (yes all fans) question the reliability of the referee.

Saying all this I do believe that referees should know the rules of the game though and not make stupid mistakes like giving three yellow cards to the same player. It was absolutely clear this weekend that Styles raised his hand three times showing three yellow cards one of them to Essien, for which he should have been sent off for his second yellow. Referees write down the names of the players they book and when they see that the player has been carded before they should rectify their mistake immediately and show red. Maybe they don’t read through the names they have written down and in that case the cards should have the player’s names on it before the game kicks off with three boxes to tick, two yellows and one red. These issues have only occurred a few times but eliminate it now before it gets out of hand!

When it comes to diving we should have a “dubious dives panel”. The FA have a dubious goals panel to see which player gets awarded the goal and so on but these decisions are not crucial to the integrity of the game. If a player dives or is suspected of diving the panel should view the video evidence in their own time and decide whether the player should get a lengthy ban. I believe that if players know that they will get punished for their false actions they will think before they act.


A few things that should get implemented soon to make football fairer.
Stop the clock when ball is out of play. This works very well in rugby and I don’t know why it’s taking so long to introduce it to Football.
A dive panel like I mentioned above.
The referee’s decision is final. Over and over again I see players arguing with referees and I have never seen them change their decisions. This is becoming ridiculous and some teams are using this as a time wasting opportunity. If players continue arguing with a referee over a free kick for the ref should move the ball ten yards forward and if it ends up in the penalty area it should be a penalty. This has been done once or twice but it should become more consistent.
A player getting carded should stand in front of the referee and accept his punishment so there isn’t and confusion over who is getting the card.
Goal line technology. There are arguments for 5 minutes over these decisions; it would take far less time to replay it.
Open mics. Yes we would get a 10 second delay for the beeping but once again it works in rugby.

If you have any ideas post a comment.