Referees- Your opinion

MCrawford27

What are peoples opinion on the standards of Ref's these days?
I have a few points for both teams as it were:-

Foul throws rarely given
Offside- Colchester
Fourth Official?
Giving freekicks for fouls in certain areas of the pitch only
Interpretation of the rules
BEST OF ALL ----- CONSISTANCY________????

WSS

Ooh Betty

That's it, I promise I won't do it anymore!

CHARL7ON

My opinion is...................................all L1 refs are CONSTANTLY shite.

World of Woe

Foul throws.... shocking, these are never given and are a total embarassment. Half the throws I see on Saturday would be called as foul throws on a Sunday morning... really gets on my t1ts...

McLovin

There is a number of rules that are almost never enforced. ColU's long throw merchant was greatly assisted by the fact that he basically hurled the ball mid run and jogged onto the pitch as part of the move every time. Without fail. Also the hanging onto the ball by keepers. I reckon at one point Robbie faffed about for 15 seconds, but nobody bothered. Yesterday's ref wasn't that bad outside his moment of madness to be fair. It's a hard job, (which doesn't excuse so many of them doing it so badly) and I'm not convinced that Mark "have a goal united, have a goal Arsenal, not the rest of you" Clattenburg, Howard "no cards, no cards, cards galore!" Webb or Stuart "it's a goal!" Shatwell are any better than the ones we've got.

Spankie

And if every other throw is given as a foul throw you can bet your bottom dollar everyone would moan that the game is constantly being stopped. I agree though not enough are given and it looks to be rarely enforced.
As regards consistency I have do have a bug bear about this. The word 'inconsistensy' when it comes to officiating is a total fallacy. Every referee is different and will referee in a different way and style. Some will clamp down on certain things and other will do it another way. Some chat away, some hide behind cards. So when people say referees are not being consistent it really does grate (8 years of it I've had!). Also everyone interprets a decision the way they want so invariably a misinterpretation of a decision is immediately labelled as the referee being inconsistent. I have had it levelled at me at games and I have just given what I've seen each and every incident on its own merit. No one ever seems to offer any reasonable evidence as to why I or any other referee has been inconsistent. It's just a label we get stuck with. Footballers are inconsistent either being superb on Saturday and pony come midweek.
The refs you state McLovin are the best we've got and their perceived mistakes are an indication of how hard it is referee in the top flight and how much help they do need.
Giving fouls in certains areas of the pitch only??? Don't get that one.
Interpretation of the laws of the game is something there will always be. The referee will see it one way and the fans will see it two totally different ways. The Laws of Association Football states that every thing within it is 'ITOOTR' - 'in the opinion of the referee' so all laws are open to interpretation so this is part and parcel of the game. Look at the offside law and how much interpretation there is in that!

gilbertfilbert

ITOOTF? What does the F stand for when it refers to referees, Spankie? Any suggestions, anyone?

Oggy Red

[cite]Posted By: McLovin[/cite]There is a number of rules that are almost never enforced.

No rules in football, McLovin.

Just 17 'Laws of the Game'.

;o)

Chirpy Red

Obstruction? Never see it given anymore.

Off_it

Unless they have developed some sort of "Super Ref" in a lab somewhere I would suggest that the avearhe human being is - give or take - more or less the same as he has been for a while now.

Are our Ref's shitter than they were a few yearsd back? Yes

Are our players shitter in the same time frame? Yes

What do we want? Consistency, yes. But if you can give me that - in any walk of life - then I will give you the holy grail of ref'4.

Brap!

Chirpy Red

The main problems are:

Assessors - Refs these days are so heavily scrutinized they are scared of making a mistake and do not relax.

The Letter of the Law - The presence of the above means Refs have to stick rigidly 100% to the Laws without using common sense or any form of their own judgement for individual cases. How wound up does everyone get, crowd and players, when he moves a free kick in your own half 2 feet or books a player for taking off his shirt etc? He has no choice or he'll be marked down.

Consistency - Everyone goes on about consistency but you only get it if you follow the letter of the law! It's a vicious circle!