I wrote an article on 4th December which you can find in footy-bible's opinion section. Is was a brief recap of decisions that referee's had allegedly missed during that weekends Premier League action.
For those who missed it, the general theme was that we have become increasingly over critical of referees and it was starting to become unjustified. There were a group of individuals who warranted our criticism much more. That is our new pet hate the referee's assistant. Or linesman as I shall call them because the actual assistance they provide the referees is getting less and less.
Over the last few weekends we have seen the decision not to send off Chelsea's David Luiz and the since rescinded red card that Gary Cahill received against Tottenham. In both cases the wrong decision was reached and in both cases the referee wasn't assisted properly by his assistant. Then there was the decision taken by the linesman to award Newcastle a penalty against Manchester United. Replays showed Rio Ferdinand clearly made good contact with the ball and the referee had initially awarded a corner. Until his assistant decided to assist him. An excellent tackle became a penalty.
Well over the last few weekends, I have made sure I have looked at the referee's assistants part in the key decisions that have been debated in the media. I have come to the conclusion that the linesman frankly just are not doing a good enough job. In some cases they aren't even up to the job.
OK you can bang on about the courses, diets and fitness levels that the referees are subjected to but ultimately they do the job because of a love for the game. This is why when the decision to make referees full time was taken, nobody objected as it was the right thing to do. Nobody thought about the linesman though. Now they are left away from the action with nothing to show for a days work except for white paint on their boots and everyone forgets them till next weekend. What do they care after all most have other jobs to go home to.
So on to this weekends action and on Saturday we had the linesman who awarded a dubious corner for Norwich against Newcastle which led to the opening goal. Fair enough the final score wasn't affected but this was at a stage when it was 0-0. And then we get on to events at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday. Where shall we start? How about the hand ball that wasn't given against Ryan Shawcross when the score was 2-1 to Stoke. Or what about the disallowed Adebayor goal which was wrongly ruled offside. That one wasn't even close. Two whole yards onside. Those two incidents are surely what the linesman are there to to spot. There was also the Younès Kaboul being hauled to the ground which wasn't spotted.
You have to ask where the linesman were looking as these are all incidents that they should be looking at solely on the position they are standing in. And the one thing about the whole Stoke v Tottenham match which is the most hilarious is the fourth officials reaction to Kaboul. OK I accept the way Kaboul voiced his protest by mocking spectacles is an insult to the referee but it's a tongue in cheek "you missed one there ref". What was so amazing was that the fourth official actually spotted what Kaboul had done and alerted the linesman who on this occasion was aware of it. Had the pair been doing their jobs properly then they might have actually spotted the hand ball in the first place.
Instead of that Kaboul gets a red card for a second yellow, Tottenham get nothing from a game they warranted a point from and the referee takes all the after match abuse. It would be a help if the linesman came out and explained their shockers like the referees do. But I think it boils down to them not caring as much as their full time colleagues. Whether or not a football official should be schooled to referee and be a linesman isn't for me to answer but we need to get all officials on a full time basis just so they have a little bit of love for the job they are doing. As I have previously said, it is a difficult job which many wouldn't do. Don't be so quick to blame the referee. He can only give what he sees and act on what he is told.
I have also been watching Dermot Gallagher on a Monday morning on SkySports News. They go through the contentious decisions and ask him what the referee was doing and evaluate performance. Now Gallagher doesn't spare no punches and admits mistakes and on occasions has even spoken to officials before he has gone into the studio. So one wonders why a weekly performance table kind of like the "Capello Index" isn't bought out so that the referees that make the less mistakes get rewarded for and the referees that don't achieve an average weekly mark get league 1 or 2 matches to official for a week.
Whatever the answers I certainly don't have them but something needs to be done to drag the referee's assistant's level up to that what the referees are aspiring to.
No comments:
Post a Comment