Referees - incompetent or just followling orders?

Integrity. "We believe that, just as the game itself, FIFA must be a model of fair play, tolerance, sportsmanship and transparency" Performance. "We believe that FIFA must strive to deliver football of the highest quality and as the best possible experience, be it as a player, as a spectacle, or as a major cultural and social enabler throughout the world" (The FIFA website 2009) I think it's fair to say Ireland have been well and truly shafted in their World Cup qualifier. As one Irish banner put it: 'If you want to handle the ball then play us at rugby'! You knew something wasn't quite right when Michelle ...  Read the complete review

Referees have recently been one of the most controversial talking points in football in recent seasons. Their decisions in matches have caused many outrages amongst fans. I am sure many fans around the country when watching football will berate the referee when decisions go against them. I have certainly done so. Most notably was last season when a referee from Norway by the name of Tom Henning Overbro officiated a champions league semi final clash between Chelsea and Barcelona. He made a number of key mistakes which led to huge frustration on Chelsea's part at the end of the game as they were knocked out in controversial fashion. He was guilty of making a ...  Read the complete review

This review follows a particularly inept display of refereeing on Wednesday night that ruined a European Champions' League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona, but it is not about that game specifically. Since professional football has become big business as well as the world's most popular sport, the role of referees has become increasingly critical. A wrong decision by a match official can determine not only the mood of millions of fans, but also the destination of millions of pounds in revenue. And wrong decisions - crucially wrong decisions that determine results - are frequently made, as can be readily demonstrated by televisual evidence. ...  Read the complete review

As with all of my case studies I am going to give a yes section and a no section to my debate then make my own mind up based on how I can convince myself, by the way I don’t have a split personality I just like to argue with myself! Yes Referees are incompetent, lets look at the facts referees seem to get at least one big decision wrong a game, was it a penalty, was it over the line, surely anybody can see this but somehow the referee’s for one reason or another get it wrong. Each match has one ref and two assistants and a forth official, so between one of them they should be able to get the decision right, my argument is why don’t the ...  Read the complete review

The man in the middle has a pretty tough job and to be honest the assistant ref has an equally tough time of it with the confusion over the changes to the offside rule. Having umpired hockey matches before I know just how hard it is to watch the flow of play and be able to monitor whether a player is in an offside position and to be honest half the time I would say that I was guessing. Thankfully now the sport has got rid of the offside rule and it is one less thing to worry about. One of the main things that makes a referee life tough is the attitude of the players, football is unique as a sport that seems to allow verbal abuse of the officials, ...  Read the complete review