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Refereeing In Premier League Needs A Rethink

By Scott Johnson

Nov 27, 2016; Commerce City, CO, USA; MLS referee Ricardo Salazar marks for a free kick in the second half of the match between the Colorado Rapids and the Seattle Sounders in the second leg of the MLS Western Conference Championship at Dick
Nov 27, 2016; Commerce City, CO, USA; MLS referee Ricardo Salazar marks for a free kick in the second half of the match between the Colorado Rapids and the Seattle Sounders in the second leg of the MLS Western Conference Championship at Dick /
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Premier League refereeing is reaching a new low. There are current and former players all calling for change. How long will the football associations take to make the necessary changes?

This week in the Premier League it was West Ham’s turn to get the bad end of decisions. A 50-50 challenge that turned into a red card and a clearly offside goal to kill the game. But this is not a tragedy exclusive to the team I support, but every team.

Every supporter you have ever met has almost certainly got a tale of how a ref took the game away from them, or how a clearly offside goal helped their opponents get a result that was unfair. It’s a common occurrence and with the game getting quicker it will only get worse.

Football and the Premier League finally got their act together with goal line tech, but it can’t stop there. There are many things, some simple and some more complicated, that can be done to raise ref standards

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Make the referees accountable

This would be done in two ways. Firstly, give them all a mic and make that available to TV’s. This is already done in other sports and helps people understand the referees. It would also be possible to broadcast any major decision reasons to everyone in the stands, which then makes everyone aware of the reasoning.

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The second part would be interviews after the game. At the moment referees do not have to explain themselves at any point, and it creates a barrier. By interviewing it would allow them to explain themselves clearly, and would also make them think that bit longer during the match about the big decisions. If you have to explain yourself you have to be sure of what you’re doing.

Referees are currently unaccountable for their decisions, but if everyone heard what they we were saying at the time it would remove a lot of the confusion for all supporters and members of all clubs involved. We would also be able to hear what the players were saying to the refs. That would help reduce referee abuse two ways.

This is very simple, and would require very little alteration. I don’t see how it could possibly be negative either.

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