The Officials

After attending several of my clubs home games this season I have noticed a trend. It’s not with the players, or the fans but with the referee’s

This seasons I have found myself continuously questioning the referee’s decisions, I know people will say that’s because I’m supporting the home team, but from a neutral perspective the standard of refereeing throughout the championship has been unacceptable.

It’s not just the referee’s though, the linesman’s decision making hasn’t been up to scratch either.

Take Saturday for example, Portsmouth plaid Middleborough, from my seat by the touchline I saw two offside decisions not given, one of them was tight and I’ll accept that it was give and take, but the second was by about three yards, if Middleborough had gone on to score it would of stood. A bitter pill for any football fan to swallow.

Referees are human and as humans they do make mistakes, even in the premiership. Somehow I just feel the difference in the standard of refereeing between the top two tiers of footballs is too great.

The sport we love to watch and play is only as good as the officials who referee the game. We watched on in horror as the last world cup final was officiated by supposedly the best English Referee, who somehow missed De Jong’s Karate kick.

A solution for the issue without introducing technology would be for Referee’s matches to be picked regarding their performances. Depending on how well they and the linesmen perform should dictate the next standard of match they can officiate.

This would not only ensure better referees officiated higher profile matches, but it also gives the Refs some Healthy competition, which could potentially produce better Refs around the country.

I know there are probably other systems that could work, but surely if the powers that be want to keep technology out, then they have to do something to solve the problem and put a system like this in place.

Clubs and countries have all felt the heartache, controversial decisions not going the way they should. How far does it have to go before something is done?  The last world cup saw England and Mexico lose out because of decisions not going the right way.

Whatever is done, It has to be done soon, so that the football fans around the world can start to  trust the referee’s and the decisions they make.