Match Officials

[desborokev]

Having watched the Barca v Chelsea game last night,this is what can happen when clubs take the easy route and just award ineffective referees 100 marks and they end up being promoted,promoted,promoted until they end up on the world stage and show theit true worth.
Throughout the past UCL season there have been many allegations of poor officialdom so maybe next season a more concentrated effort has to be made by clubs to provide a more appropriate mark.
The break for the next 2-3 months should allow clubs the opportunity to revise policies and personnel to actually read through the methods of marking properly and understand it in time for next season,rather than just marking officials down if your team lost or as I started with,mark them high just to get them moved out of the UCL.

[jeffl]

Kev even though you are right it can't happen. There simply aren't enough match officials around and there has been plenty of debate about this on this forum before.

It's a sad indictment of our game but it's a fact right now. The FA are trying to resolve the issue with the respect campaign through grassroots football but the fact remains that until the boys at the top of the game who get so much TV coverage around the globe set an example that we can associate with through down through the leagues it will only change slowly - if it does at all. Of course controversy and hype sells not just newspapers - it sells football coverage, advertising etc etc.

Oh no, we're back to that money in football argument once more .....

I agree with your sentiment Kev!

[tommyc]

People seem to have short memories - in the last week Chelsea & the papers have been slagging off Barcelona for whingeing about Chelseas tactics last Tuesday when they parked the bus in front of their goal stating quite rightly that football is not just about looking pretty.

Football is also about accepting that sometimes decisions go for you and sometimes they don't. 1st pen shout was correctly called outside the box as that was where offence started - 2nd one was "the boy who called wolf" and was a messy tangle - you will rarely get those, 3rd looked like a pen but was more ball to hand than deliberate and the last 1 for me was the most obvious as Eto raised his hands, but none were stonewall.

Couple of other points. Barcelona fella should never have been sent off as Annelka tripped over himself and if Drogba had scored from either the 1 on 1 in Barcelona or at Stamford Bridge penalty debate would have not taken place - we also wouldn't be talking about it now if Chelsea had not conceeded to 10 men and Essien had kicked the ball rather than thin air in the last minute.

Barcelona had a lot of possession last night but Chelsea had the better of the chances (indeed all of the chances?) and that is why they are unlucky to be out.

The way they behaved at the final whistle was a complete disgrace and I think Mr Drogba might find himself on the end of a lengthy ban which might make him less attractive to potential suitors.

Jamie Redknapp comment about refs from Norway not having enough big game experience has some relevance but European football is elitist enough as it is at the playing level without doing the same with the officials.

At UCL level we get Refs of a certain standard and by and large they do a good job - get promoted if you want better refs!

[footballfan]

If you have made the semi of the champions league the least you can expect is the best man for the job and if he was last night is debatable. In my eyes if anything is debatable then it is the wrong decision.

I am sure he can look himself in the mirror this morning and be certain that he called every decision as he had seen it which is the minimum you should expect but this dose not necessarily make it right. Unfortunately being honest and true is not enough in football you must have the skills to back it. If honesty was enough i would have played in goal for the Palace, i didn't there for i wasn't good enough.

Sorry to have to say this again but it is a problem through out football Refs are given games that they are not capable of doing and the people who make these decision seem to disappear and leave the poor bloke or girl to take the flack. It will be the Ref that is demoted, face on the paper, on the chat rooms, booed by some mindless idiot or worse when he is out and about but the people who put them in charge will just melt into the back ground.

I am sure he did his best as all Refs do and in every day league games you are correct we have to put up with this the same as they have to put up with us as we are not good enough to be managing or playing higher but i still believe that in important games such as a semi you should have the best of the best and if there is any debate then they are the wrong person.

[davlad]

perhaps it isn't the referees that are bad, but the fact now that every decsion they make is pawed over by so called experts on television. before Sky if you could name more than 2 refs you were considered a geek,now they are as well known as any top player and i'm afraid that has had a detrimental effect in my opinion,because every weekend the ucl refs are being compared to these guys,some being found wanting on one or two decisions and then lambasted for it. result is who wants to give up their saturday afternoon to be abused. if you want better refs in the ucl start showing them a bit more respect.

[swansong]

I'm not sure that you have the correct reason for refs being marked too high. Our club secretary explained that, if you mark a ref below a certain mark then you have to fill in loads of paperwork to explain. I believe it's 60% but I maybe corrected. Club secretaries are volunteers with loads of paperwork already so they rarely bother. Poor refs are just given the lowest mark they can give without having to generate the paperwork. Even if they did do it, it would be hard to substantiate your claims, especially if the opposition were praising the ref! And it may also be pointless for the reasond given above, ie referee shortages.

Also a good point about overanalysis of decisions using slow motion cameras, modern technology. It's the same in cricket, umpires give an lbw which £1000's of computer technology suggests was going a cm over the bails!

My problem with refs is not that they make mistakes as theses tend to even out over a season, it's that some refs seem to go into games refereeing teams and players on reputation
hence a team thats committed more fouls than the other actually end up with fewer bookings cos the ref is effectively refereeing past games.

Also some refs seem happy that players try to maim each other but say too much and you're in the book.

[rabbit]

I feel very sorry for Chelsea football club and the fans, but you caanot feel sorry for the players. When Drogba ran through six officials and two bouncers to swear into the camera it is the only time in the last three years he has ran more than ten yards without falling over holding his face, he missed a sitter yesterday and was sent off in last years final - it cannot be the refs fault all the time. As for Ballack, the screaming german, he missed a world cup final because of his behaviour and would have missed Champions league final because of his behaviour. It may be that these footballers are not quite worth £150,000 a week if that is how they behave.
I will be watching the final in Rome with interest, just intersted to see if the dugouts are the right distance from the pitch - see what you think ?

[footballfan]

All player managers try to cheat in every game i have ever seen, I don't condone it thats just the way it is so you cant judge players on that, it just so happens that Drogba is crap at it.

I am sorry to say this but I am not surprised the ref was abused by the Chelsea players he has had a massive hand in them not reaching the biggest club game there is, not by one mistake but at least three. He was that bad I nearly chased him through the TV alongside Ballack and i don't even like Chelsea.

Also I have not heard a word from the selectors who have left this poor bloke out to dry, It never fails to amaze me that they select a ref but when he is not up to it its all the refs fault and they just hide, I suppose its nice to know football is not immune to being run by a bunch of chinless wonders the same as most things in life.