Big Story

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez has ripped into refereeing standards in the Premier League, complaining about a poor decision for the first goal in Wigan’s 3-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend.

“I think it devalues the Premier League when you get actions like that,” said Martinez. “It is not even a close call and it makes you wonder. You have got a player that is two yards offside.

“I cannot explain how the best league in the world has got people that can get those decisions wrong. When you are looking at it from abroad, I think it is laughable stock. It is the best league in the world, you cannot get decisions like that wrong.”

Celtic, meanwhile, are apparently in talks with the Scottish Premier League over concerns on the standards of refereeing in that league.

Last week, Alex Ferguson voiced his complaints about the standard of refereeing in the Champions League, according to the Guardian:

Sir Alex Ferguson  has added his voice to a Europe-wide groundswell of concern about refereeing standards in the Champions League, where certain officials from smaller football nations increasingly appear to be out of their depth.

This only added to complaints from the Italian FA’s president following last week’s Fiorentina-Bayern Munich game, the Guardian continues:

Furious at Fiorentina’s misfortune, the Italian FA’s president, Giancarlo Abete, has lambasted Uefa. “Last night we all saw the wickedness that was evident and you all know what I am talking about,” he told the newspaper La Repubblica. “A grave error has been committed at this stage of the Champions League and it weighs heavily.

“But what worries me the most is the level of quality in the preparation of referees for such big games. The game was conditioned by the referee and his assistants, who were not up to the standard.”

And in the Europa League, just a couple of months ago, Fulham boss Roy Hodgson, backed up by David Moyes, launched a blistering attack on the quality of referees in the competition:

“We play at home against Amkar Perm, and I witness one of the worst challenges I have ever seen in football – and the referee decides to punish it with a yellow card.

“In the next match against Basle, [Andy] Johnson is pulled down from behind in the penalty box – and the referee decides to give neither a penalty nor a card to the player.

“Then we play against Rome at home and have a player sent off when he is clearly not the last man and actually doesn’t foul him anyway.

“Finally we go to Rome and have two players sent off – one of which is the most laughable decisions I have come across in many, many years of football.

“When I weigh all those things up I’m very, very disappointed – because we have taken the Europa League very seriously and wanted to play well.”

Does this all add up to a Europe-wide crisis in refereeing standards? Are referees getting worse? Confusingly, just the next week, Roy Hodgson pointed out the opposite as he considered the possible introduction of video technology to aid referees.

“One of the hardest jobs on the football field is that of a referee,” said Hodgson.

“The standard of refereeing today compared to 30 years ago is much, much better. I don’t really understand this unbelievable search for perfection.

“When I first started playing, we had no way of checking these things – and a linesman made a decision in 1966 which certainly worked in our favour.

“Maybe these things have always existed, we just did not know about them. The major problem today is the consequences of what, unfortunately, turns out to be a bad decision, and it is pretty obvious what those were in terms of Ireland against France.

“We have just got to constantly strive to get to a situation where a referee makes as few mistakes as possible, constantly work on them in terms of their understanding of the game and their fitness and I really think that is happening.

“An area that could be debated is whether players themselves, when something has gone diabolically wrong, could help the referee out and not just keep their mouths shut.

It might, of course, also help referees if managers kept their mouths shut more after games, Roy. It’s clear that becoming a referee is not a desirable job. The Football Association’s “Respect” campaign has not been a notable success.

At the grassroots, the English game has a serious shortage of referees, with 7,000 quitting each year, largely due to the abuse they receive and poor conditions. There are only 24,000 active referees in England with 38,000 games each week, meaning many games going without referees.  The FA’s Get Into Football campaign includes a target to increase the number of active referees by 8,000 by 2012.

It seems there are a number of factors in play here: more television coverage means more complaints from managers (even those not at the game and watching video highlights, like Alex Ferguson). But it does also make it less and less desirable to be a referee, even as demands on referees for fitness get ever higher. Does this mean many potentially good referees are quitting early on or not entering the profession at all? Who would want to be a referee when the newspapers every day feature managers berating them, for a job that ears far far less than those who do the complaining make?

Quick Hits

• Chester City fans have launched an amusing counter-punch to the bizarre Danish takeover of their club, with “Project Brondby” set-up announcing “An internet group of anonymous fans of Chester City FC are considering forming a syndicate to buy shares in Brøndby IF as part of a reverse purchase campaign against the sale of Chester City.”
• ESPN Soccernet does not exactly break news (like it apparently thinks it is) by “revealing” the Football Association is considering an overhaul of the FA Cup; it was over a week discussions over possible changes broke into the open, including the dismal idea to make the Cup a testing ground for experiments with the rules and regulations of the game.
• Is the future for shirt sponsorship single-game bidding to win the advertising space?

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

A leg injury to referee Tony Bates in the match between Nottingham Forest and Cardiff Coventry City last night inadvertently led to history being made for football: the most experienced assistant referee in the team takes over, and that happened to be Amy Fearn.

The 31 year-old became the first female to referee at a Football League game in the 122 year history of the world’s oldest league competition.

Interviewed on the Football League’s website, she quite rightly put the moment into proper perspective:

Last night will of course raise the profile of women in football; it can only be a good thing for encouraging more women into the game. There is a great relationship between male and female officials – when the referee came off he told me to stay calm and do my best and it would be great to see more women come into the game.

I understand there was a big reaction from the crowd but I don’t remember it at the time. I’m glad there was nothing controversial in that twenty minutes – football should be about the players not the officials.

It was in 1997 that the NBA became the first major American sport to feature a female referee, not without controversy.

The firing by the NBA of female referee Dee Kantner in 2002 was attributed by some to gender-bias in how referees are expected to behave, as Russell MenyHart wrote at the time:

Underestimation of Kantner’s ability would not necessarily be malicious. Powerful male players are used to male referees being equally tenacious. Even coaches who honestly try to make gender-blind evaluations are susceptible to unintentional bias due to their preconceived notions of what makes a good referee. Kantner was undoubtedly subject to increased scrutiny as a woman, and the NBA seems to have made no effort to consider whether its existing standards of “good” refereeing were gender-based.

The deeper problem is that a significant change such as this takes cultural adjustment, not just a change in cast. Kantner’s firing (and the fact that no other female referees have been hired in the past five years) represents the ignorance of the dominant party, a pattern seen over and over again in many sectors of American society.

Some years on, and many other sports have now crossed that barrier, and the controversy seems to have died down (though it should be said basketball lends itself to more focus on the referees). Major college football saw its first female referee last autumn, Sarah Thomas, as the New York Times reported:

Thomas, 35, is major college football’s only female referee. She has grown accustomed to startling players and coaches on Saturdays but said it did not occur as often as one might think.

“Most of the time they are so focused on what they are doing, they don’t notice me,” Thomas said. “And that is what every other official strives for. Our best games are the ones that no one knows we’re there.”

Even the UFC welcomed its first female referee last June, Kim Winslow.

Female referees at the assistant level in England have not always had an easy time. In 1999, then Coventry boss Gordan Strachan launched a blistering attack on Wendy Toms, saying “We are getting PC  decisions about promoting ladies.” In 2006, then Luton manager Mike Newell went further when discussing assistant Amy Rayner:

She should not be here,’ Newell said. ‘I know that sounds sexist, but I am sexist, so I am not going to be anything other than that. We have a problem in this country with political correctness, and bringing women into the game is not the way to improve refereeing and officialdom.’

He added: ‘It is absolutely beyond belief. When do we reach a stage when all officials are women, then we are in trouble. It is bad enough with the incapable referees and linesmen we have, but if you start bringing in women, you have big problems. It is tokenism, for the politically correct idiots.’

With these attitudes no doubt still around today, the challenges facing the likes of Amy Fearn remain considerable as they attempt to forge their own path to the Premier League.

In particular, the public were scandalised in February by the publication of an “adjusted” league table. Based on the conclusions of the six main national papers on refs’ decisions on penalties given or denied, offside goals wrongly allowed to stand or onside goals incorrectly ruled out, a new league table was drawn up based on what results “should have been”. Leaving aside the many inherent problems with this approach – since when, in any sport, has unchallengeable perfection ruled? And how can we know what other effects a different decision might have had on a game? – the results were surprising, to say the least. In the first 24 games of the season, 171 points had been wrongly won or lost across the league. The Serie A team most penalised by referees this season? Juventus.

I don’t think this is an effort to compensate for past corruption. I don’t even think it’s a conscious attitude. I think, rather, that since calciopoli referees have been anxious not to permit any hint of favouritism towards Juve appear, and in an effort to show that they are not corrupt, they have ended up being unfair. This is similar to the theories that used to abound about pro-Juventus decisions, before we knew about Luciano Moggi and his amazing phone habit. It used to be held that refs were unconsciously influenced by the power, the tradition, the aura of invincibility that surrounded Juventus. Some feel that this deferential tendency has now been transferred to the new pre-eminent power in Italian football, Inter. One way or another, Pierluigi Collina’s job improving standards has got a lot harder since these revelations.

I’ve been musing recently on the connections between the current debate in Italy and that in England. What is the relationship between the quality of refereeing decisions and respect for the referee? If referees are put under pressure by players, fans and the media how far does this (consciously or otherwise) affect their judgement? Brian’s recent post on the issue, and the discussion that followed, highlighted some of the tensions around it: we, as fans of the sport, need to believe that the game is fair but when at the same time, as fans of a team, we become invested in one side or another, we also want our side to win.

Here’s the crunch question: how happy are you for team to win unfairly? Obviously this depends on how unfairly: I don’t think that when the calciopoli scandal broke that any Juventus fans were happy to learn what their club had been up to. But how about winning from a dodgy penalty: does it take the gloss off the game? What about if an opposing player is sent off in dubious circumstances – can you honestly say you’re not even a teeny bit relieved, in your heart of hearts? Maybe it’s the Arsenal fan in me – or maybe the cynical Italian – but there’s a part of me that thinks “Well, a win’s a win, right?” And if you beat your local rivals 1-0 through a wrongly given penalty in the 92nd minute: come on, you’d laugh and laugh, wouldn’t you?

So my feeling is that as fans we don’t always whole-heartedly support the referee at all times. For players the issue is a little different – it should, in theory, be more clearly in their interests that refereeing be universally, consistently impartial. But the desire to win often gets in the way. How often do players protest if they are awarded a penalty they know they don’t deserve? Not exactly often. Does this matter? I think it does: lack of respect for the referee can’t help but put added pressure onto already fraught decisions. But of course the problem is circular: the more frequently referees make bad decisions – and the more these errors are highlighted – the more likely it is that players will feel free to argue with the ref, to question his judgement, to challenge his authority.

Last night’s commentators on the Liverpool-Arsenal match on RAI, the Italian state TV, took this analysis one step further. Highlighting the lack of protests by Arsenal players against the penalty denied them at the Emirates, and the similar acceptance of the (equally wrong) penalty decision against Arsenal at Anfield, pundits speculated as to the cause and consequences of this failure to argue with the ref. The cause, it was widely agreed, was English sportingness and fair play. (Try not to laugh). The consequence is a more interesting question: pundits hypothesised that the referee’s job is easier and that his decisions are of a better quality where he is accorded respect, or at least unquestioning obedience. The better the referee is able to direct the game, it was argued, without challenges to his authority, the more likely he is to run the game fairly, effectively and with balanced and accurate decisions.

I think this is an interesting argument, if not wholly unproblematic. It emphasises the psychological dimension of refereeing at the expense of simple human error, which is after all universal. Nor does this approach solve some other issues arising. If referees are fair, impartial, skilful and respected, then players and managers might have to take a bit more responsibility for their own successes or failures.

In the run up to the World Cup in 2006, hard on the heels of calciopoli, a satirical song, in a southern dialect, became an unexpected smash hit across Italy. Like the best satire, it cuts so close to the bone that it is perhaps the best expression of the very ideas it satirises:

“Cornuti, siamo vittimi dell’albitrarità /a noi contraria / ecco che noi cerchiamo / di difenderci da queste inequità / così palese / grande Luciano moggi / dacci tanti orologi agli albitri internazionali / si no co’ cazz’ che vinciamo i mondiali.”

“We are the unlucky victims of refereeing biased against us. That’s why we try to defend ourselves against this manifest inequality. Great Luciano Moggi, give plenty of watches to the international referees, or else how the fuck will we win the world cup?”

This song became the anthem of the Azzuri’s World Cup victory. Respect for the referee? Confidence in refereeing standards? Support for impartiality? Give it time.

Photo credit: Melhus Fotball on Flickr

The word “wanker” doesn’t translate directly into Italian. Rather, Italians are likely to chant “buffone” at the ref when he makes a bad decision. And yes, pleasingly, that does mean “buffoon.” Be they rude or just silly, I’m fairly sure that there are anti-ref chants in every footballing country across the world. After all, everybody loves a good moan about the referee, don’t they? Not least pundits and commentators. A dodgy decision really helps liven up a dull game, and a few incorrect offsides or penalty claims wrongly denied are a godsend to hacks trying to string out a column about a joy-sapping 0-0.

Like so many things in life, the Italians like to take this to a new and extreme level. All the sports dailies – in themselves manifestations of this same kind of excess – go into exhaustive detail over the quality of refereeing of each week’s games. Every Monday there are features analysing the performance of the match officials in each of the weekend’s Serie A games. And like the players, each ref is given a pagella, a score out of ten.

Pagelle, incidentally, are very important. Fantacalcio, which is a terribly serious matter here, is based on an aggregate of the main papers’ pagelle for each player – none of that winning, losing, conceding algorithm they use in the UK. No, if your defender scored 7.5 in the eyes of the journalists, then that’s what you score, even if he was the one high point in a miserable 1-0 defeat.

But I don’t think that anyone yet plays Fantarbitro, or Fantasy Referees’ League. Perhaps we could start. Each week the refs are graded on their performance, and a league table is published showing their average rating so far over the season.

From this we can see, for instance, that Rizzoli – who ruled out Daniele De Rossi’s perfectly legitimate goal and further denied Roma a penalty during their 1-1 draw at Livorno yesterday (not that I’m bitter) – is languishing just fourth from bottom in the 28 man table. That surely has to be the relegation zone, right? Even though he’s an international official. Trefoloni, another fan’s unfavourite and a man with his very own terrace chant (it’s to do with his wife shagging other men, unsurprisingly enough) is just one place above him, so may also be headed for the drop. Think Graham Poll but less appealing.

So in my Fantasy Ref’s league you would select perhaps a squad of twelve referees of whom only four would then be chosen to represent you each weekend. You’d choose on the basis of who was directing which game, and hence how much cheatyness or thuggery they were likely to encounter. You’d earn the points they were allocated in Monday’s pagelle.

OK, it’s not going to take off, is it? Referees are intrinsically unlovable, however essential. The close involvement of several top officials in calciopoli, starting with the FIFA referee Massimo De Santis, has obviously not helped their credibility or their popularity. What I think is really interesting is the actual scores those currently in operation have all been awarded this season. In a system where 6 is a respectable, acceptable level of performance, only 6 out of the 28 have an average rating of 6 or above. Now, does this mean that 79% of all Serie A refs are officially poor?

I don’t think so. What it means is that we love to blame the ref. The extent of the media moaning is such that even the game’s authorities now have to regularly discuss the issues of refereeing failures. Pierluigi Collina, internationally acknowledged as one of the greatest refs ever, and voted referee of the year for six consecutive years from ’97 to ’03, was appointed last July to be Serie A and B’s designatore degli arbitri – responsible for the official appointment of referees – amid much talk of a “refereeing standards crisis”.

But even his stature, as possibly the only popular referee ever, has done nothing for the general image of the profession. Acclaimed by fans and players upon his appointment, Collina has done little to improve the standards of the refs under his command – if the scores in the sports press are anything to go by.

I don’t think the sport-watching public will ever be happy with its referees. It is a thankless job: not necessarily just due to unsporting ill manners, but perhaps by its very nature. I think it is no coincidence that Collina’s popularity is so anomalous. We all need scapegoats, and the ref is the perfect candidate. He reminds us, every time he blows his whistle, of the imperfections of the game we are watching, the errors committed both by our team and by theirs. On second thoughts, maybe my Fantasy League could work: it would be one more reason to moan about poor refereeing on a Monday morning.

Read more by Vanda at Spangly Princess.