Not a single game goes by, whether you’re playing in a crunch title decider in the Premier League or battling for survival in your local pub team, where a referee doesn’t make an incorrect decision. I want to know, should the officials be made accountable for their decisions?
I’m not talking about wrong decisions made in the heat of the moment, which are only revealed under close scrutiny. At the end of the day we are all human beings, with our various flaws and inconsistencies. Anyone can make a mistake. But what about those mistakes which are so wrong, so blatantly incorrect that it baffles everyone, friend and foe alike.
Being a Spurs fan, I remember listening on the radio to us playing away at Manchester United in March 2005. This was the time when we were improving as a team with several good signings. Instead of the usual battering at Old Trafford, it was goalless going into the 88th minute. Then out of nothing, Pedro Mendes lobbed the hapless Roy Carroll, the latter fumbling the ball quite clearly over the line, by at least two feet. Decision? No goal. Not the referee’s fault per se, but definitely the linesman. I was absolutely furious. Delirious with anger, along with 3,000 travelling Tottenham fans. The man at fault, Rob Lewis, defended himself in the press as did his colleagues and now plies his trade as a referee in the lower leagues.
Maybe I am being biased. That incident will always stick in my mind. Surely officials should be accountable just as players and managers are. If José Mourinho comes out and criticises a referee’s performance, he get’s disciplined and most probably fined. Why? Shouldn’t he be able to show unhappiness at an unsatisfactory performance? I am not talking about coming out, shouting and swearing into TV camera’s. He should be able to say that he wasn’t happy with certain decisions without the fear of being hit in his deep pockets.
I personally think that referee’s should be able to be interviewed after a game to explain certain decisions that they have made. As long as it was done professionally and not come across like it was a witch hunt. At least it would make them seem more human, capable of making mistakes as opposed to robots where we expect them to get everything correct. Clearly, if they make a horrendous decision, there would be no point embarrassing them on TV. They still need a level of respect. I just don’t see how constructive criticism by managers can be a bad thing.
At the moment, it would appear that the only punishment officials get is to be dropped for a round of games. Now, it is obviously a thankless task refereeing. You can’t win. Would it be feasible though for a referee to release a statement when they do make a get decision wrong? Or is it simply a minefield that we don’t want to get into? At what point would you draw the line? I think it would be very hard to quantify when to release a statement, an offside decision or an incorrect sending off. Maybe a phone call to the manager apologising would suffice.
I think that something needs to be done. Whether referee’s are rated by an independent body which in turn ranks them against an agreed criteria, with the bottom performing referee’s are relegated to the lower leagues. Again, this isn’t aimed at officials who make a mistake which can only be seen by the thousands of TV camera’s and slow motion replays that they aren’t privy to. It’s more to do with the glaringly obvious situations that they get wrong. I don’t for one second think that it is done on purpose, but I know if I make a mistake in my job, I have to explain myself, as I guess you do. It just seems to me that referee’s and officials don’t have to.
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