Referees Letting Players Down in England

Premier League Referees Letting Players Down

With the speed that the modern game is played at, it is understandable that referees will miss certain things in a game of football. However, to miss blatant incidents where players are at risk of serious injury is simply not acceptable. And it is time that the powers that be started to look seriously at the standard of our officials because quite simply, referees are letting players down.

Marcus Alonso

During Saturday’s game at St Mary’s between Southampton and Chelsea, Marcus Alonso committed an atrocious challenge on Shane Long. High, studs up and then forcing his foot down Long’s leg. Mike Dean is looking right at the challenge, so why does he not give a red card? Alonso endangers an opponent. The referee has a duty to protect players and whilst they cannot stop the challenges, they can take the correct action. Failing to do so is strange. Mike Dean’s bosses need to demote him. To miss that is just bad refereeing.

Ben Davies

At Wembley, Champions-elect Manchester City took on Tottenham Hotspur in the late kickoff. In this game, Jon Moss was the man in the middle. He didn’t cover himself in glory throughout the game and was wrong to give City a penalty when Lloris brought down Sterling outside the box. Moss was in a great position to see the foul and it was clearly outside of the box. However, that wasn’t to be his biggest error of judgement.

Ben Davies made the referee’s book for a foul on Vincent Kompany. It was a clear red card and looked to be a deliberate foul. Davies shoved his foot into Kompany’s shin and the defender was lucky to carry on and not be heading to hospital with a broken leg. Jon Moss had a clear view of the challenge but only gave a yellow card. Because the referee gave the yellow card, there can be no retrospective action. What there should be is retrospective action against the official. The challenge is generous and why Moss doesn’t issue a red card, only he knows.

It’s Time To Explain Yourself

Managers and players are interviewed after games and asked about their performance, decisions and actions on the football field. Surely it is time that officials were held to account as well. Everybody makes mistakes and whilst referees have a hard job, it’s difficult to feel sympathy when they get so much so wrong.

Refereeing standards are not good and it has to change. Technology in terms of VAR may be the future. Until the officials are better at doing the day job, technology is pointless. Today was a microcosm of a bigger problem in football. Action is necessary and referees must answer for their decisions.

Moss and Dean both failed in their duty today and are prime examples of referees letting players down.