Is Football Too Complex to Referee?

Week after week after week after week after week after week we hear the same things. No, I’m not talking about X Factor, nor David Guetta singles. I’m talking about the relentless criticism of referees and their decisions.

It’s pretty much become universally acceptable in football to blame a referee for losing a match and potentially getting knocked out of a competition, perhaps based on one decision that the referee has made.

Is no-one else bored by the repetitive drivel we hear every week from angry managers during their MOTD post match interviews? This readiness to slag off referees has lead to pundits, fans, and now even players (with Ryan Babel’s recent Twitter tirade) being quite happy to vilify, mock and abuse the man in the middle, who is simply doing his best to provide an even and fair match.

Despite the FA’s ‘Respect’ campaign being put into force in the last few years, the referee’s position in the football hierarchy still seems to be right at the bottom. The Premier League’s referees are some of the best in the world, and they are still labelled as useless, idiots, and wankers. Something is wrong, the same problems come up all the time, and not much is changed. You simply cannot blame the referee.

Professional football is much quicker and complex nowadays, compared to the days when the laws of football were written. As the game has progressed, players learnt to take advantage of referees’ inabilities to see and control everything on the pitch by introducing things which are now accepted parts of the game. These range from diving and feigning injury, to appealing for throw-ins and offsides. In a game that was completely controllable, players would not perform such actions.

There are two potential solutions to this, technology or law-change. The best is a combination of both.

Technology

The implementation of suitable technology at a professional level would not only clear up a controversial decision, it would take a huge amount of pressure off the referee, and the respect campaign might actually begin to work. The technology is out there. Goal-line technology has been around for some years, with the referee being notified within a second if the ball has crossed the line.

In a recent discussion about the introduction of technology, I was told that it doesn’t matter what goes on in other sports such as Rugby or Cricket, as Football is special – ‘Football is different, better, exceptional’. This is a very dangerous approach to go, exceptionalism is closed minded and will not provide us with the optimal outcome. We must view and consider other sports’ ideas if we want to improve our own.

Law Changing

Changing football laws to eradicate each specific problem would be effective, and it could also alleviate problems at grass roots level. Ideas such as allowing physios to address injuries on the pitch during the game could cut out feigning injury. Taking a zero tolerance approach by punishing players with bans and fines for cheating after the match has finished (regardless of whether the referee saw it, or whether the player got a yellow card or not) would surely quickly rectify the problem?

Football has evolved since the original laws were published; it’s vital to make sure the laws evolve with the sport to keep it fair. Common sense must prevail.

Ideas

Football needs ideas, as many as possible. Look upon all different types of sports, from all walks of life, seek as much information from as many different sources as possible, and see if you can come up with an idea which could help the game.

Let’s move forward.

(Image courtesy of enot_female)

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• The Youth Football Guide – No. 9: Referees
• Goal Line Gaffes XI – If Only Goal Line Technology Existed
• The Ten Commandments of Amateur Football XI
• The Misconception About Falling Over After Being Fouled