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“How are referee's performing?”

04 Jan 2012

By Guest Blogger Thomas Rooney:

It is a bold statement to make, even for someone who enjoys poker net, but here we go: referees have been too lenient in the Premier League this season.

Discuss…

Pint in one hand, and a pool cue in the other, I was keeping an interested eye on developments in the Tottenham versus Chelsea match recently. The game was being monitored even more closely by the Premier League’s top official, Mr Howard Webb.

Now, I have have often been critical of referees, especially when they give a decision against my own team, but in times during that game (during which I was an impartial observer), I genuinely got the feeling that Webb was being far to lenient.

Refereeing statistics are due to be revealed in January, showing how Premier League officials have got on over the past calendar year. Figures relating to how many yellow and red cards will be included for example.

Whether this will show there to be an actual decline in the number of bookings and sending offs remains to be seen, but there really is a sense that, just lately, the refs are backing off just a little.

For much of the last decade there has been a lot of talk about officials ‘clamping down’ on rash challenges and perceived foul play. But maybe that reached a peak just a couple of seasons ago.

I use the Tottenham versus Chelsea game as an example, but actually there have been many recently, where seemingly obvious penalty appeals have been waved away without even so much as a second thought.

Handballs are a case point. The rules dictate that a player must deliberately handle the ball for it to be given, or indeed have their hand in an unnatural position. Yet there have been many players with their hands raised far above their heads, or their arms flailing wide who time after time seem to get away with it.

Lets get things straight here, I am by no means suggesting that a bit of leniency on the part of the referee is a bad thing – on the contrary, I am all for it. It is good to see the referee letting the game flow, and players making hard but honest challenges. That is what football is all about, right?

But as the Sky Sports commentator, Martin Tyler pointed out in the game between Tottenham and Chelsea, we need to see some clarity. I interpret that in one way: the referees need to all be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Tyler rightly pointed out that it will be impossible for 20 individuals to all officiate a game in the same scripted way. But with time, who knows, maybe some of these grey areas (of which there are still far too many) will be cleared up.

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24 Jan 2012 - 23:11 GMTPOOKSTER

Referees have been very inconsistent and poor this season, something needs to be done!