Friday 23 April 2010

Inconsistent refereeing (March 2008)


Hi guys, below is an old post from 2008, but it is still true today,

The hilarity of refereering continues, and i don't know if anyone saw Birmingham vs Manchester City yesterday, but there was 1 decision that is an indictment of poor refereeing. Late on in the match Sun Ji Hi and Gary McShefferey are going for the ball, McShefferey and Sun Ji Hi basically shoulder barged each other, with McShefferey leaning into it a lot more than Sun Ji Hi. Seems all hunky dory there, no problem, just shoulder to shoulder in a tackle right? Wrong, because the referee blows and gives a penalty to Birmingham, and as you can imagine, i'm screaming at the tv 'You can't give a penalty for that it's shoulder to shoulder'. Now, that was an extremely soft penalty and should never have been given, like Fernando Torres also, who was booked for asking a legitimate question after being kicked 3 times by Man United players but the stnadard of refereeing has to be raised, all this talk of ref's cracking down on dissent, when there are more serious issues on the pitch that need to be 'tackled' (pun intended), but i feel that ref's have to raise their game considerably, because week after week after week i'm seeing ref's get even the simple things wrong and correct me if i'm wrong (and i definitely urge you to), but in almost any other job, you'd get fired for making simple mistakes over and over. If you were a doctor and you accidentally killed a patient, you'd be fired, and never work again due to a tarnished reputation, most other jobs, if you make a simple mistake once, that can be chalked down to human error, twice, is a stretch, but you may still get away with it and keep your job, but if you were to do that 3 time or even regularly, you'd be fired and never work again because you'd have a reputation for being a screw-up. Now, ref's, if they make a high profile mistake, they just get busted down to championship games to a week or two and have something like 2% of their pay (not an exact figure i know, lol) taken away for a week or 2, now, we need to raise the level of refereeing, and it needs to start at the top with more consistent decisions on a consistent basis. Referees and people generally like to talk up all this, respect the ref's thing, which yes, the man in black and his linesmen should be respected, but it's hard to respect someone, who regularly gets the simple things wrong and is supposed to be a professional and remember this, a professional by defenition is 'a person who is expert at his or her work' (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/professional). A professional, doesn't get simple things wrong regularly!!!
The funny thing about Euro 2008 is what they wanted to crack down on, and what they told every team participating in the tournament they would crack down on - Diving/simulation & pushing, shoving & pulling in the box on set pieces. Now, I have no problem with these being cracked down on as i think there is too much of it, but inconsistent refereeing has come up again. Now, i loved Turkeys comeback (both against the czechs and the Croats) but in their 1st match, they should have had 2 guys booked for simulation as they obviously dove to try and get free kicks, but nothing was done. Thats my 1st gripe, my 2nd gripe is that one of the things that Uefa said they wanted to crack down on (pushing and shoving in the box on set pieces) and there was 1 referee by the name of Howard Webb, who had the balls to give a penalty against a Polish player who was warned about pulling another players shirt, and was dumb enough to do it again (idiot). Now, i am glad the penalty was given as 1 ref finally cracked down on what was supposed to be cracked down on, but then a day or 2 later (and here's where my problem is) Howard Webb is publicly backed by Uefa for making that decision, and i thought to myself, great, Uefa have their heads out of their arses at last, but then during Croatia vs Turkey i hear that Howard Webb got sent home by Uefa/Fifa a day or 2 after they came out and supported him, i thought, 'what the hell is that?' Its bad enough having idiots (Platini & Blatter) running the game, but things just need to be clarified and rules of the game should not differ based on referees interpretation, some things need clarification (like Holland's 1st goal vs Italy in the Euros - Panucci, active or not) and some things need simplification (the whole offside rule, passive active and all that shite), i would rather remember a game for the drama and emotional rollercoasters you go through as a fan/supporter because of goalmouth action, than ref's or ambiguous rules which are ruining the game.

I'm The Straight Shootin' One, And thats my opinion!!!

Straight Shootin' LJA




(30 March 2008)