IT IS NOT HARD TO SEE why referees believe that they must love the game more than anybody. For players, managers and supporters, there is always the prospect of a little glory. For referees? A “thank you” if they are lucky and, far too often, a lot worse.
Football is our national game but it sometimes feels as if bashing referees is not far behind it. Two of its leading practitioners are the Barclaycard Premiership’s best managers, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger. How regularly in defeat they turn on the soft target, the man in the middle, who has no right of response.
Most of it is ludicrously prejudiced nonsense but it still hits a target. Just as park players emulate the skills of their Premiership heroes, so they also echo the lazy abuse of referees and it is helping no one. Of 20,000 games sanctioned by the FA every weekend, about 4,000 go ahead without a proper official.
Better coaching, incentives and enthusiastic marketing are all part of the FA’s strategy to attack the pressing problem of recruitment but it also requires a cultural shift. Of all the pointless comparisons made between football and rugby after England’s success in the rugby union World Cup, perhaps the most worthwhile was the need for football to learn greater respect for the officials. Mark Palios, the FA chief executive, should turn his zero- tolerance approach to that issue now that he has dealt with Rio Ferdinand.
“The game is as popular as ever and we keep creating more teams and playing more matches,” John Baker, the FA’s head of refereeing, said. “People aren’t stopping to consider that we also need more referees. A game with a proper referee is a lot better than one without one. Our message is ‘no ref, no game’. Or ‘abuse them and lose them’, although our figures say that, of the referees who drop out, abuse is only third on the list of reasons.”
The whistle is still attracting thousands at all levels and they are not all wannabe traffic wardens. Some love the limelight, such as Jeff Winter, who appeared on the recent series of Superstars and, rumour has it, prepares for Premiership matches by dancing to Eye of the Tiger. There are also some bad referees although, as Graham Poll has said, none deserve the sort of slurs that are so regularly heaped upon them by managers in defeat.
“I have read countless examples this season where a manager has claimed ‘we wouldn’t have got that decision’ or ‘they would have had a penalty at their ground’,” Poll said. “These comments are offensive. Berate us if you must but please don’t question our integrity.”
Mostly, officials are like Keith Hill, one of 54 Nationwide League referees earning £230 per match, who wanted to participate in top-level football but, like many of us, had to face the crushing disappointment early on in life that it would not be as a centre forward. “I can’t do that but, in a small way, I can help those who do have the skills turn out a good game,” he said.
As well as refereeing, Hill is a full-time employee at the FA, where he helps to recruit and train officials. “We don’t just give people a whistle and tell them to go out and spoil everyone’s afternoon,” he said. “We are all there for the same reason, to enjoy a game of football. We want an understanding that, if we are not perfect, we still don’t deserve to be shouted at.”
A growing problem is that, at the top end of the game, the scrutiny is more fierce than ever because of the explosion in television coverage. There are six cameras at every Premiership match and as many as 22 at live games. “What is being watched and reviewed on TV is a different game to the one that the referee sees on the pitch,” Hill said.
The glare is intolerable but, occasionally, television can help the referee’s case. The bullying of Andy D’Urso by Manchester United players at Old Trafford in January 2000 after he awarded a penalty to Middlesbrough was a watershed. The rules were changed to include harassment of an official and even Ferguson admitted that his players had gone too far.
Strange, then, that at its February meeting, Fifa’s international board is set to drop the rule allowing the referee to move a free kick ten yards nearer the goal if players do not retreat or they dispute the decision. It happens only once in every six games, compared with one in three when the experiment was launched in England, but the FA believes that the decrease is an indication that it worked.
Anything to help the referees should be encouraged, although now that they can earn up to £60,000 a year, the 21 leading officials in England know that they must raise their own standards. The popular perception in Britain is that referees should attempt to emulate Pierluigi Collina, although the widespread praise for his erratic handling of England’s explosive encounter with Turkey in Istanbul in October was based purely on reputation. In fact, he shirked most of the big calls.
“Any referee benefits from being away from his own country, where you are seen every week,” Baker said. “People in Italy say ‘why can’t Graham Poll referee every match?’ We have some good referees here and the more people we encourage to take it up, the better for everyone in football.” No ref, no game. Is it too much to hope for that Ferguson and company remember that before they slag off the referee?
If you are interested in taking up refereeing, e-mail the FA at: newrefs@thefa.com
Badge of honour
FORMER PLAYERS COULD BECOME top-flight referees within three years of retiring if the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) is successful in setting up an academy for training officials. The PFA is seeking to resume talks with the FA to enable former players to be fast-tracked through refereeing qualifications.
It takes about nine years for an official to graduate from park pitches to Football League level and the PFA believes that the slow process is the main reason that professional players do not consider taking up the whistle. Before he was ousted as chief executive of the FA, Adam Crozier had expressed support for an academy that would allow footballers to make a quicker transition and the PFA is seeking to resume discussions with Mark Palios, Crozier’s successor.
“If you have finished playing in your early 30s, there is no incentive to become a referee if you know it could take until your 40s to make the top level,” John Bramall, a senior executive at the PFA, said. “We believe that a player with the right capabilities could be trained up within three years.
“Apart from the elite, most players need a profession to go into and we should be encouraging them to stick in the game. Everyone thinks former players could bring something to refereeing. We want to take this idea forward but there is reluctance from the referees’ association.”
The PFA is proposing that the best young referees from the grass roots could join former players in an academy. That would help to answer the criticism that footballers would undermine the existing system by leapfrogging those who had trained for years.
Frank Sinclair, the Leicester City defender, is among a number of players who have already taken junior refereeing qualifications. “If you have played the game professionally, you don’t want to find yourself refereeing a park match,” he said. “It would be good for the game if players became refs but it will need a high-profile former player to break the ice. I would encourage other players to give refereeing a try. It opens your eyes to what referees do and it makes you think twice about opening your mouth.”
Sinclair should know just how hard a referee’s job can be. As a 19-year-old on Chelsea’s books, he was once banned for nine matches when on loan at West Bromwich Albion after a clash of heads with Paul Alcock, who was the referee in a match against Exeter City.
