The Referee's a Winner! The Referee's a Winner!

We all know the chants and we all know the stereotypes, but could fans be wrongabout our referees? Week in week out the match officials get a pounding from fans, players, managers, coaches and ever increasingly from the media. With more and more calls for video refereeing adding pressure to the man in black and white it really is becoming an even tougher job.

Imagine for a moment that you are a referee. You are standing in the middle of Old Trafford, it’s the biggest game of the season; Manchester United versus Chelsea, and you are surrounded by 70,000 unforgiving fans. Not only must you keep them happy by keeping the game fair and be neutral for 90 minutes; you must also ensure the safety of every player (all of which are super-paid with super egos and ready to pounce on every mistake you make like some sort of big cat), and all the while you have also got some bald, obese football hooligan calling you blind and shouting abuse at you from the nearest pie-stand putting you off. Its not so easy is it?

Football referees today have really got it tough and very few of us take the time to stop and realise that we probably haven’t got half the bottle that some of these blokes have. The responsibility is increasingly huge; one decision could decide which team wins the league, who gets relegated and who doesn’t make the cut for European qualification. The consequences of some of their actions are phenomenal. Some of them can still read about their mistakes in the national papers weeks after the game. Graham Poll’s infamous triple yellow card in the World Cup in Germany almost cost him his career. It truly has dented his reputation within the Premiership.

Speaking from first-hand experience as an FA referee I know exactly how difficult it is. I may have only taken charge in schoolboy’s games on a Sunday, but the pressure and anxiety before each game was unreal. I would be sweating over it days before the kick-off. Parents are a nightmare- especially mothers. The abuse is in some cases is extremely over the top and un-necessary. This is only at junior level; I don’t know how top referees cope with thousands of angry fans. To be a top referee you have to have a lot of courage.

Simon Chittock of the Referees Association is based in Essex. He and his father Gordon have been training referees young and old for several years now. He feels that football referees are extremely underestimated and are not treated fairly: “The impressions and stereotypes delivered to the public through the media are damaging the reputations of our referees at all levels. We do not see this in rugby. For some reason everyone blames the ref in football.” He also believes that top-level players are not helping; “Professional players are not delivering a very good message to the younger generation. When kids see their idols having a go at the ref they think that this is acceptable and copy them when they play for their local club or school, and it isnot acceptable. Things need to change soon. Perhaps the call for video refereeing should be answered.”

But will video refereeing work? It seems to in rugby. Or will this ruin the game as there will be a lot of stopping and starting making the game ultimately last longer. And what about grass-roots level? It will be extremely difficult and expensive to deliver the technology to this area. Manchester City manger Stuart Pearce and WiganAthletic manager Paul Jewell have both made it clear that they feel video refereeing should not be allowed. They believe that the game should be called as the match official sees it as this adds to the beauty of the game, in that anything can happen at any time.

Either way referees deserve more respect. The situation is getting worse and the referees are being made out to be the bad guys when really they have a huge hand in helping football move forward. Perhaps everyone that plays football, whatever level, should take the twelve-week course and actually learn the rules of the game inside out and referee a game themselves. That way people will understand where the ref is coming from and what he/she had to deal with. Until then our refs are just going to have to live in the shadow of the dark cloud that is slowly descending over football.....