I'd like to think all refs have complete integrity. Many years ago when I was a student, I signed up to take a refs' qualification course. The tutor was a retired ref who had run the line in an FA Cup final. He told a few tales that disturbed me and confirmed my suspicions as a fan. For example, he said he was having a chat with a ref colleague who had been in charge of a match the previous weekend and was regretting that he had not sent off the centre forward. Well, our tutor proudly told us how he sorted that when he reffed the same team the next weekend and sent the guy off in the first five mins. He also had v fixed views on certain players eg Dalglish being "cheats". Must admit I decided against taking the exams in the end...
(Apologies to the qualified refs on here, but this guy did you no favours.)
The biggest problem is not the refs themselves. They are the product of a system that encourages card happy officiating. And because it would be a farce to have games end 7 v 8, this policy necessitates inconsistent refereeing.
The way refs are marked, they will always suffer more for not booking a player when the adjudicator thinks it should have been a booking than for booking a player they shouldn't have. You can always argue for a booking, so refs will very rarely get marked down for dishing out yellow cards. Obviously the refs who take this book first ask questions later mantra on board best get promoted quickest.
Refereeing is a tough tough job, but the way the whole system is set up makes it harder for good fair refs who want to let the game flow to make it to the top of the profession.
I'd like to think all refs have complete integrity. Many years ago when I was a student, I signed up to take a refs' qualification course. The tutor was a retired ref who had run the line in an FA Cup final. He told a few tales that disturbed me and confirmed my suspicions as a fan. For example, he said he was having a chat with a ref colleague who had been in charge of a match the previous weekend and was regretting that he had not sent off the centre forward. Well, our tutor proudly told us how he sorted that when he reffed the same team the next weekend and sent the guy off in the first five mins. He also had v fixed views on certain players eg Dalglish being "cheats". Must admit I decided against taking the exams in the end...
(Apologies to the qualified refs on here, but this guy did you no favours.)
That's interesting, and allows me to mention something I discovered only today, that Mark Halsey has published an autobiography. Marina Hyde in the Guardian trashes it today - as well as trashing the Premier League for trying to stop him publishing. Well worth reading if you are used to her very literate sarcasm, and also some of the comments below the article. There I read for the first time that Halsey accepted from Jose Mourinho a stay in a five star villa in the Algarve. It seems to have been at the time his wife had been diagnosed with leukaemia, so there are some angles to that. But it doesn't sound good, does it? What pissed me off more is that apparently the FA have completely handed over control and assessment of refs in the FAPL to the Premier League organisation. Sod that.
I'd like to think all refs have complete integrity. Many years ago when I was a student, I signed up to take a refs' qualification course. The tutor was a retired ref who had run the line in an FA Cup final. He told a few tales that disturbed me and confirmed my suspicions as a fan. For example, he said he was having a chat with a ref colleague who had been in charge of a match the previous weekend and was regretting that he had not sent off the centre forward. Well, our tutor proudly told us how he sorted that when he reffed the same team the next weekend and sent the guy off in the first five mins. He also had v fixed views on certain players eg Dalglish being "cheats". Must admit I decided against taking the exams in the end...
(Apologies to the qualified refs on here, but this guy did you no favours.)
That, precisely, is why you are not a professional referee, Weegie. You are not good enough.
Refs start as linesmen on windy playing-fields at East Grinstead and Easington Colliery on Tuesday nights, looking across under dim floodlights at who is an inch off-side, while getting dog's abuse from two men and a whippet.
Do that for two seasons, and you will understand the game better. Then take the exam, and if you pass, you'll be a assigned a reserve game in the Northern Counties East League, as a referee. If you can do well for a season there - making the right decisions and standing your ground - you might go up to the Conference North. You will be monitored by your peers: there will be an ex-ref in the stand, scrutinising everything you do, and after the final whistle he will take you aside and say: "Well done, Weegie, you had a good game, you let it flow. And remember your linos are there to help you - trust them."
Anyone saying to you that Dalglish is a "cheat" has nothing whatsoever to do with the expertise, judgement and integrity of a ref, whether he is at Anfield or on the playing fields of Pollock Shields.
Comments
(Apologies to the qualified refs on here, but this guy did you no favours.)
All it takes is one player to be late and the durse will be all over it.
The way refs are marked, they will always suffer more for not booking a player when the adjudicator thinks it should have been a booking than for booking a player they shouldn't have. You can always argue for a booking, so refs will very rarely get marked down for dishing out yellow cards. Obviously the refs who take this book first ask questions later mantra on board best get promoted quickest.
Refereeing is a tough tough job, but the way the whole system is set up makes it harder for good fair refs who want to let the game flow to make it to the top of the profession.
Refs start as linesmen on windy playing-fields at East Grinstead and Easington Colliery on Tuesday nights, looking across under dim floodlights at who is an inch off-side, while getting dog's abuse from two men and a whippet.
Do that for two seasons, and you will understand the game better. Then take the exam, and if you pass, you'll be a assigned a reserve game in the Northern Counties East League, as a referee. If you can do well for a season there - making the right decisions and standing your ground - you might go up to the Conference North. You will be monitored by your peers: there will be an ex-ref in the stand, scrutinising everything you do, and after the final whistle he will take you aside and say: "Well done, Weegie, you had a good game, you let it flow. And remember your linos are there to help you - trust them."
Anyone saying to you that Dalglish is a "cheat" has nothing whatsoever to do with the expertise, judgement and integrity of a ref, whether he is at Anfield or on the playing fields of Pollock Shields.