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Page updated Tuesday 21st April 2010 |
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Top referee believes diving is related to professional ethics By Rory Smith The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 11th November 2009
REFEREES supremo Keith Hackett has insisted it is players' ethics, rather than officiating standards, which must be improved if diving is to be stamped out in football in light of the David Ngog controversy. The Liverpool striker's blatant act of simulation, leaping over the outstretched leg of Lee Carsley to hoodwink referee Peter Walton into handing Rafael Benitez's side a penalty, was described by Carsley and his manager, Alex McLeish, as "embarrassing" and "a joke". That Walton, 50, did not spot Ngog's deception has raised questions over whether video technology or an extra pair of assistant referees, as has been implemented in the Europa League with some success, should be introduced to improve refereeing standards, but Hackett believes it is the players who must take responsibility for their actions. "Ultimately it is down to players not to commit acts of simulation," said Hackett, the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials board (PGMO). "Nobody in the game supports the act of simulation and that is true of managers and all the organisations, such as the League Managers Association. "The managers are working very hard to cut out this behaviour and I know from speaking to them that they abhor it. However, these acts do take place because players do go down and that puts pressure on referees. "It is difficult and sometimes the speed and quality of the player and the way they can juggle the ball does catch referees out. I have said to managers that this is an area of great difficulty for referees and it can come down to the viewing angle. It's easy for the media and fans, who have the benefit of replays and different viewing angles to see whether or not that it was a dive. Referees don't have that and have to make a decision on the spot." Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, suggested it would be "naive" to believe players would not "try to take short cuts or gain an advantage" but expressed sympathy with the plight of referees in the modern game. "Football is a major spectator and participant sport and you don't want to encourage any feigning contact or feigning injury," he said. "But sometimes you need to be in the hearts and minds of the players and ask what was the particular challenge, did it cause him to lose balance, did he need to go down, or was it exaggerated? This is a job again for the referee and who'd be a referee in this day and age?" McLeish admitted that, while "there was no real debate about whether it was a penalty, there was no contact," such errors are part of football, an attitude lauded by Hackett as "magnanimous". Benitez, too, revealed he had spoken to Ngog and the striker, who had opened the scoring for Liverpool, had confessed~ehad doubts. Such honesty, though, will do little to stem the growing tide of criticism directed at the Premier League's officials. Sir Alex Ferguson, Benitez and Sam Allardyce have drawn attention to the perceived dwindling standard of referees' fitness, aptitude and decision-making. Hackett, a staunch defender of his colleagues, admitted he would meet Walton to discuss the incident.
Send-offs on the slide as players follow rules
By John Ley The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 30th September 2009
THE goal count is up, drawn matches are down and now, most importantly, red cards are on the decrease. The Premier League has rarely appeared as healthy as it is today. So far this season there have been 196 goals - an average of almost three a game - while only four of the 66 games have been drawn, fewer than the five in last weekend's Serie A games. Significantly, there have been just four red cards, while at this stage of the campaign last season 10 players had seen red in the Premier League John Terry's dismissal was later rescinded. There is a theory that all three aspects have come together this season to produce a thrilling start. A combination of the Football Association's Respect campaign, the Premier League's ‘Get on with the Game’ initiative and an acceptance by all parties to endorse improved attitudes is having a positive affect. The early signs of an improvement came last season when there were 63 red cards in the Premier League, compared with 116 in Italy and 148 in Spain. And, in 2008-09, the average number of free-kicks awarded in England's top tier was 24, well down on the average of 45 a game in both Italy and Spain. At the start of the present campaign every club was sent four DVDs: offside, denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity, handball and foul recognition. Each contains 20 examples with Mike Riley, who takes over from Keith Hackett later this season as the referees' chief, explaining all the vagaries of the law. The penny is beginning to drop. The Premier League's Get on with the Game initiative followed on from the Respect campaign and is aimed at "eradicating unacceptable behaviour in the game and, more specifically, behaviour towards match officials". The programme includes players, managers and chairmen signing up to charters each season, detailing standards of acceptable behaviour. As well as this, captains and managers meet officials in advance of matches and captains have been given enhanced responsibilities in respect to their relationship with referees and managing their team-mates. Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, said: "I think we are trying. Sendings-off are necessary because if people commit bad fouls and do things they have to be sent off, but it's not something you look forward to happening when you go to a game because you want to see 11 against 11, you don't want to see 11 against 10." Indeed, the game's hierarchy has noticed fewer heated exchanges between players and officials, while there has been a decline in the number of aggressive, two-footed challenges. Referee Martin Atkinson observed: "Of course not every tackle will be perfectly timed and there are still going to be fouls committed. So we've still had to caution players, but we've had a much better reaction from them. "In the vast majority of cases, players have accepted our decisions and acted professionally."
THE MANAGER ROY HODGSON (Fulham)
''I'd like to think the League's getting fairer, I'd like to think the Respect campaign is working. I'd like to think that people are playing the game at a very intense and fiercely competitive level, but that they're trying to do it as fairly as possible. And the referees, undoubtedly, are trying their best to keep games going and to not spoil games, I suppose, by having to send people off."
THE PLAYER STEVAN GERRARD (Liverpool)
"I think going in and speaking to the referees and seeing what they want from the players and how they expect them to behave means me as captain can go back into the dressing room and share that with the players. I think the standard of refereeing has improved and the relationship with the players has improved. I think we're all after common sense and it's important that we do get on with the game."
THE REFEREE MARTIN ATKINSON (Yorkshire)
"The 'Get on with the Game' initiative meant that we knew we had the support and the backing of the Premier League to discipline players who don't behave well. Overall, it has helped us a lot in managing the game, but also the players know what's expected of them now. The captains, in particular, have been fantastic and it has really helped to meet with them before the game."
Uefa caves in and the game takes another step to the dark side Henry Winter The Daily Telegraph Monday 14th September 2009
A CHUNKY magnet has just been placed alongside football's moral compass. So remember the date with anger. Sept 14, 2009, will go down in footballing history as a dark day in the battle against the dark arts. Uefa's decision to scrap the two-match ban it imposed on Eduardo for allegedly diving against Celtic is both ludicrous and damaging, making a mockery of Michel Platini's initial, commendably strong stance. The Football Association's hesitation over punishing Emmanue Adebayor further frustrates those hoping the authorities are going to tackle player excess. The game's sheriffs might as well hand in their badges after yesterday. The FA will doubtless get round to charging the Manchester City striker with violent conduct today, setting in train a "fast-track" disciplinary process that leads to a three-game ban for allegedly raking Eduardo's Arsenal team-mate Robin van Persie. Following his score-settling antics on Saturday, Adebayor also faces a further game in purdah for inciting Arsenal fans. Fairly straightforward, the straight-thinking majority would suggest. Think again. Uefa's astonishing U-turn on Eduardo has changed the landscape, making governing the wild west town of football far more difficult. Yesterday was a doubly good day for Adebayor. Not only did the FA's law enforcers delay taking action against him, dithering that will surely be seized on by his lawyers, but Uefa's voite face over Eduardo offers him a potential reprieve. Whisper it along the Holloway Road but Arsenal have done Adebayor a favour. A figure loathed by many within the Emirates home dressing room and by even more on the terraces, Adebayor will probably appeal against any FA punishment. City's talented legal and PR staff will swarm all over the paperwork and procedure. Arsenal's certainly did. Celtic will feel second-class citizens of Uefa's world, that there is one rule for those who qualify for the Champions League and another for those who fail to make the VIP party beginning this evening. Uefa is effectively accusing Celtic of exaggerating their reaction to Eduardo's fall to earth. Unfair. Having been at the Emirates, having seen the way Artur Bornc pulled out from his challenge, having seen how the Arsenal forward hurtled downwards, put me in Glasgow's corner, not London's. Even Arsene Wenger clearly had doubts about the legitimacy of his No 9's collapse, intimating as much during his post-match press conference. Wenger then changed his tune, passionately backing his striker. Fair enough. That's his job as Arsenal manager, to see only good in his players. Eduardo is undoubtedly a likeable, decent man, devoid of much of the ego that can stain the millionaire modern professional. Standing next to the Croatian international at a Heathrow carousel following a flight from Zagreb, it was impossible not to admire the unfussy way he juggled family and baggage. Arsenal always talk highly of Eduardo, always insist he would never dive, yet it will take more than Wenger's character references and Uefa's wavering to rinse away the sour taste. The Eduardo fiasco, and the FA delay over Adebayor, underline one reality: the need for proper disciplinary juries sitting in retrospective judgment on such games. The FA must consider the permanent establishment of a video-review panel, involving those who have served with distinction as player, manager or referee, individuals such as Gary Mabbutt, Steve Coppell and David Elleray, to deliberate on controversial incidents: The Premier League yesterday said it would welcome this. A similar panel should convene in Nyon to assess European games. At least the miscreants would know they were being watched.
Mawhinney calls for law and order
Football League chairman demands referees clamp down on player indiscipline Henry Winter The Daily Telegraph 18th September 2009
LORD MAWHINNEY, the chairman of the Football League, has called on referees to clamp down on indiscipline, dismissing petulant, dirty players and reducing games to "seven v seven" if necessary to produce a "far better spectacle" in the long term. Mawhinney's comments come in the wake of Emmanuel Adebayor's goading of Arsenal supporters and his raking of Robin van Persie, an offence that brought the Manchester City striker a three-game ban yesterday. "Player behaviour is better in the Football League than in the Premier but everybody's behaviour would be improved if the referees applied the rule-book rigorously," Mawhinney said yesterday. "A referee said to me, 'But Brian, if I did that, I'd do nothing but hand out yellow cards.' Absolutely right. I am conscious that people will say 'Mawhinney used to be a Conservative minister, he has a bit of a law and order streak about him' but it needs to be done. There would be three or four weeks of mayhem, yellow cards and seven v seven, after which the penny would drop for players and managers, they would play it by the rules, we'd get back to 11 v 11 and the game would change inexorably for the better. It would be a far better spectacle. "There would be far less petulance, snarling and, the one that really bugs me, not retreating 10 yards at a free kick. You almost get the impression it is practised on the training ground. And commentators look at a bad foul and say 'but he got the ball', it was 'a superabundance of.enthusiasm'. Excuse me! It was a bad foul.". Adebayor's behaviour clearly enervated Mawhinney. "What's that all about? I heard a commentator say, 'It's all about passion, do we want a game without passion?' Passion is great but that [Adebayor's behaviour} is not passion. "People try to get away with what they can and that includes managers. When you see interviews with managers after the game it's all about what the referee did or didn't do. Think how refreshing it would be if the manager said, 'Do you know what the problem was? My players weren't able to hold on to the ball and my top striker missed several chances'."
Graham Poll writes on ‘Diving’ The Daily Mail, Tuesday 1st September 2009
IT WAS on the eve of the Barclays Premier League season that. Sir Alex Ferguson spoke with authority and insight. 'Players who cheat are killing the game. It's not the referees,' observed the manager of the champions. How right and prophetic those words have turned out to be. We've played only four rounds of fixtures and there is an avalanche of players cheating. The problem when the prize is so great is that the desire to succeed is breeding a win-at-all-costs mentality and it is no good blaming referees for not detecting highly-skilled professionals who are completely at ease when cheating to win. There is a clear issue that has been present for many years but never so prevalent as now. It cannot be resolved until all involved accept there is a problem and agree to work together to improve the game. Just look at Arsene Wenger's reaction when referring to Eduardo's dive to win a penalty against Celtic last week. 'He's not a diver; he was just getting out of the way of the keeper.' Now look at the comment of Celtic boss Tony Mowbray after the dismissal of Aiden McGeady for his second caution on Sunday. McGeady simulated a foul when it was clear there was no contact between the players, Mowbray said: 'He didn't dive, never in a million years.' Replays are conclusively showing clear acts of simulation in both incidents - and they are not isolated. In the two live games on Saturday I saw Michael Ballack dive to win a free-kick just 20 yards out in Chelsea's game against Burnley and, of course, Emmanuel Eboue's pathetic attempt to deceive Mike Dean in the 70th minute of Arsenal's defeat at Old Trafford. Of these four incidents, referees detected only two dives and issued cautions. That is down to viewing angle which, if officials get it right, makes detection much, much easier and I trust that more training will be undertaken in. the next fortnight to help the referees get a higher percentage right. These acts are not always clear-cut. There are question marks over the way Liverpool's Fernando Torres went to ground after a tackle from Zat Knight when Liverpool were trailing 1-0 to Bolton; There was doubt in referee Alan Wiley's mind and so, following guidelines, he did not penalise. The problem is clear. The rewards for diving far outweigh the risks. If successful, the, diver can win a penalty and perhaps see his opponents reduced to 10 men. If caught he gets a yellow card: In response to this problem, some suggest that simulation should become a red card offence; I am not in favour of this because it would apply too much pressure on the match officials, who would naturally err on the side of caution. It is little wonder that UEFA are looking at imposing a two-match ban for those who deceive the referee. Yet while their intentions are honourable, their solution does not seem to be fair or equitable as the same unfair act is punished in very different ways. It is also nigh-on impossible for UEFA to judge every potential simulation unless they intend to review every second of every match played under their jurisdiction. The solution, of course, lies with the perpetrators and their managers, who appear unable to see the wrong-doings of their own players but are eagle-eyed and quick to apportion blame when they are on the receiving end. We should see the PFA working tirelessly in a bid to stop their members clearly cheating to win and the LMA should urge their managers to work in training to open the eyes of players as to the damage they are doing to the game. In the meantime, the FA, in consultation with UEFA and FIFA, should work out a consistent punishment for divers to ensure the risks start to outweigh the rewards. A two match ban, whether the referee sees it or not, would seem to be the best way, because fine are irrelevant for millionaires. The 'three strikes and out rule' might be worth exploring, too; clubs whose players consistently cheat eventually collect a points deduction or an elimination from a competition. Under such a scheme, Arsenal, with two recent incidents, would be one away from further punishment, although Eduardo and Eboue went down in different competitions, so that may not be so easy to enforce. The 'media can only name and shame the culprits. The players have the power to put an end to this debate by staying on their feet.
‘Piggy in the Middle’
Jim White writes in the Telegraph Sunday magazine about referees
According to the official report, the match between Ynystawe and Cwm Albion Under14s in the Swansea Junior Football League last spring was 'ill-tempered'. That's one way of putting it. By the time Ynystawe had taken a 2-0 halftime lead the referee, an experienced Swansea official called Clive Stewart, had already sent two players off for violent conduct. Worse, as he attempted to calm things down, he was subjected to a barrage of impassioned comment and opinion from supporters, who largely consisted of the parents of the youngsters involved. If anything they seemed to be encouraging the on-field aggression. In the second half, tempers hardly softened, even after Cwm equalised. But it was when Ynystawe took a 3-2 lead that things erupted. On the pitch, elbows were flying, studs making regular contact with flesh and bone. Off it, the shouting and snarling increased. So much so that, concluding that the safety of all concerned was being severely compromised, Stewart was forced to abandon the game, a Sunday morning run-around for teenagers. After he had brought things to a premature halt and red-carded two further participants. Stewart was making his way to the changing-rooms, shaking his head at the spectacle he had just encountered, when he was approached by Richard Norman, a spectator whose son had been playing. Without warning Norman punches the referee in the face with such force that Stewart required 10 stitches in a wound across his nose. For his vicious assault, Norman was later given a four-year sentence for wounding, of which, after various reports had been submitted, he was expected to serve nine months. At the time of the attack Stewart, was 62, had been giving up his time to referee Junior matches in the Swansea leagues for 23 years . There are more than 50,000 qualified referees m England, varying from veterans padding around local parks to the elite group of 16 Premier League referees. The best practitioners do it as a full-time job, earning up to £90,000 a year, yet most do it for little more than their petrol money. Referee training has never been more rigorous, involving constant assessment. Successful candidates progress through the ranks, running out as linesmen as part of their learning progress. At the peak of the game, top refs can take part in up to three matches a week, skipping from Premier League to Champions League to international matches. Here they come under intense scrutiny, their every judgment and decision pored over by media and managers. But before they even start to engage with the very best players in the game, they are obliged to learn their craft out on the parks and municipal pitches, officiating in the nation's minor leagues. And here they face very different challenges. The unhappy truth is that the attack on Clive Stewart in Swansea is by no means an isolated case. Every season the grassroots of our national game are spattered with the blood of match officials. Young and old referees get head butted, punched and chased to their cars in fear for their wellbeing. While it is unlikely to happen in the Premier League, in Saturday and Sunday leagues (where referees often have no linesmen to support them), assaults on match officials currently run at more than 300 a year; the Manchester County FA alone recorded l42 attacks on referees last season. That is just the physical assaults, the ones that get reported. The verbal abuse is so commonplace as to be not worth documenting, but is sufficiently morale-sapping to provoke as many as 7,000 referees in the past couple of seasons to give up. Referees often describe themselves as a breed apart. But the current circumstances are testing even their resolve. 'We are very concerned about the numbers who are leaving the game because of the behaviour of players and spectators towards them,' says lain Blanchard, the Football Association's national head of referee development. That's why Blanchard launched the FAs Respect initiative at the start of the 2008/09 season, with the aim of reducing the abuse officials receive at the game's top level, thus causing good behaviour to trickle down to the lower leagues. The FA knows the situation won't change overnight - it is a long-term project - but with the English game's leading manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, suggesting this month that the Premier League's best officials are not fit enough to do their jobs effectively, there is some way to go. Yet Blanchard is adamant that something had to be done to protect referees. 'We needed to raise awareness of the issue,' he says. 'Eighteen months ago the referee dropout rate was as high as 80 per cent in places. The level of abuse is appalling. What some people don't seem to acknowledge is that the referee is vital to the working of a match. Without a referee you simply will not have a game of football.' Listen to the abuse directed at him and it is not hard to form the belief that the referee has become one of society's handiest outlets for anger, the person on whom to unleash a week's frustration and disappointment, the nation's punchbag. Which raises a question that has a serious bearing on the future of football: these days, who would be a football referee? It is an early-season game between Reading Town and Wantage Town in the Hellenic League Premier Division. Three rungs below the Football League, this is a competition populated by reasonable footballers, some former professionals, young twenty and thirty something men who take their weekly run-out very seriously indeed. There is a sprinkling of a crowd, perhaps 70 strong, mostly friends and family of the players. In a portable building, behind a door marked MATCH OFFICIALS ONLY, Oliver Dalton is preparing for the game. Over the ensuing 90 minutes he will be in charge of the 22 men .on the pitch, plus another couple of dozen sitting on the benches. His decision is final. At 18 he is younger than anyone else involved in this afternoon's game. But that is the way football is going: younger referees are being fast-tracked into the system to patch up the gaps left by their departing elders. The local FA has high hopes for Dalton and is keen to entrust him with games such as this. Today an assessor is on the touchline, checking his performance. Dalton arrived an hour and a half before kick-off and, with 15 minutes to go, is briefing the managers of the two teams on new rules about technical areas (the space in front of the benches that managers and their staff occupy during matches). 'Only one person is allowed in there at a time,' he says. 'Now, I'm not looking to enforce it but if I start getting grief from there and I see there's about half a dozen of you in there, then I might take action. OK?' The two managers tell him he won't get any trouble from them on that score and everyone shakes hands and wishes each other all the best. It is the friendliest moment of the afternoon. Dalton is here, he says, because he loves football. A reasonable school player, he realised at 14 that he was not going to get to the top and - following the example of his father, who was a local league official- took up refereeing because it might enable him to experience the game at a level far higher than he would be capable of playing at. He is now a level four referee, which allows him to officiate Hellenic games; he is hoping to be promoted to level three by the end of this season, which would propel him up to Conference standard, with only two steps to go before he is sufficiently qualified to step out at Old Trafford or the Emirates Stadium. “Anyone who's seen me play will tell you I was never good enough to play in the Premier League,' he says. 'But you never know, I might ref there.' The statistics suggest he has made a wise decision. At 16 years of age, a boy's chances of becoming a Premier League footballer are one in 100,000. But a 16-year·old who chooses to train as a referee has a one in 100 chance of officiating a Premier League game. 'Refereeing does appeal to kids,' Blanchard says. 'They find the authority it gives sexy.' Dalton's prime motive is not that. He says refereeing is an enormous physical and mental challenge; there is no comfort zone out there on the pitch, and for him that is exciting. He says that since he has taken it up he has felt a boost in his self-confidence; his time and man management skills have improved enormously. He thinks it has helped him grow as a person. And then there is the money. After four seasons of refereeing, he has saved enough to head off in a car he bought for himself to the University of Warwick, where he is studying economics. I’d never have managed that on a paper round,' he says. Today he will receive £47 for his efforts. Keith Hackett, a former top-flight referee and the outgoing general manager of the Professional Game Match Officfu1s Board, which selects referees for Premier League matches and aims to improve the standard of refereeing across the board, thinks Dalton has a rocky route ahead of him. He says it has never been tougher to be a referee. It is certainly a much more imposing task than Hackett faced in the 1970s and 80s. It is not only the abuse - though that is worse than it used to be. It is that the speed and intensity of the game has increased exponentially. 'Without a doubt it's harder now than when I did it,' he says. 'Young lads coming through into refereeing now, they’re athletes, they have to be.' To meet the demands of the game, Hackett suggests, top referees have to be physically in much the same sort of condition as the players they direct. A ref can run up to l2,000m during a match, 2,000m of which can be at pace. To check that his members are maintaining their fitness, Hackett introduced the ProZone data analysis system, in which their every move on a field is monitored and the statistics of their performance studied in great detail. But not everyone is convinced by the findings. Sir Alex Ferguson, the country's most decorated manager, recently questioned the capacity of the Premier League referee A1an Wiley. 'He was walking up the pitch for the second goal, needing a rest,' Ferguson boomed after Manchester United's home game with Sunderland. 'He was not fit enough for a game of that standard. The pace of the game demanded a referee who was fit. He was not fit. It is an indictment of our game.' Ferguson later apologised for any embarrassment he had caused Wiley, insisting he was only trying to highlight a problem in the English game. Wiley made no public comment. (According to the ProZone stats, Wiley had run nearly l2km during the game, more than all but seven of the players.) Several times a season the elite refs meet for a physical assessment and a bit of a get-together. I was privy to one held in Leicestershire recently. The car-park alongside the field where some of the physical tests were to take place was full of expensive vehicles; my own looked paltry among the glittering Mercs, Audis and BMWs. A couple of the sleeker models had personalised number plates including the word REF. Given that most top officials earn less than £90,000 a year, it seemed a more ostentatious collection than might be expected. But there was a reason for the flash motors. 'If we were spotted turning up in an old banger like yours to a Premier League ground,' one referee explained, 'we'd lose the respect of the players straight away.' Once out of their cars, the men were put through endless tests to check on their sprinting, their recovery rates, and their ability to get from foul A to handball B at a lick. They were tested on their angles, the speed at which they took up a position within the preferred average of l4.5m distance from the action. As they went about their business, the banter was unending. When they had a game of football at the conclusion of the session, with me as the referee, they had much fun at my expense; their language was ripe and their dissent constant. At one point, one leading official - a household name - stood about half an inch from my nose and loudly told me that 'You really haven't a clue, have you?' I let it pass. In any case, he was too quick for me to catch him up to flourish a yellow card. Fitness, though, is but the half of it. 'What we look for in our referees is a full knowledge of the laws of the game, plus the courage to ensure those laws are followed,' Hackett says. 'It takes some personality to do that. Some people used to say that someone like Graham Poll [England's top referee until a few years ago] was arrogant, but a referee needs a sense of self-assurance.' According to Andre Marriner, 38, who joined the elite list of Premier League referees in 2004, the rewards are manifest. 'For me there's nothing better than being a referee,' he says. 'I was at Everton the other day, one of my favourite grounds, and the atmosphere was amazing. Running out of the tunnel, the sound of the crowd, the compactness of it all, it makes the hairs stand up on the back of the neck just thinking about it. There is nowhere else I feel more alive. It makes it sound almost like fun. But then Marriner, like his fellow officials, has developed a capacity to ignore much of what is going on In order to remain in the middle there is something else a referee needs: a skin apparently constructed from tungsten. As the financial stakes have grown at the top of the game, so has the intensity of the response to referees. ‘a Premier League referee is taking responsibility for at least £100 million worth of assets, minimum,' Hackett says. 'His decision-making processes will be on show in front of the inhabitants of 207 countries across the world. The repercussions of what he does have never been more substantial It is all too much for some modern managers, who have led the assault on match officials. When team bosses themselves are under such intense pressure to deliver results, any target on to which blame can be diverted is seized upon. 'You have to remember we are competitive people,' says Owen Coyle, the manager of Burnley, promoted to the Premier League this year. 'We up expect our referees to be up to the job, and if they're not, then we are not slow to tell them. The dialogue, though, is entirely one-way. ‘We’re such an easy target, and we have to take whatever they throw at us, which usually they do to distract attention from the shortcomings of their team, says Marriner, who worked as a postman before the taking a career break to devote his energies to being a Premier League referee (all top referees are full-time these days). 'We all make mistakes, but imagine if we came out and criticised a forward for missing an open goal. We just wouldn’t do that.’ It is in the immediate aftermath of a game, when emotions are still boiling, that the referee is most exposed. Coyle believes that managers should be brave enough to admit when they have made false accusations about the officials. ‘No one is more critical than me of referees,’ he says. ‘But they have the hardest job. And we need to acknowledge that. Last season, against Queens Park Rangers, they scored when I was convinced their player was offside. I gave the linesman fearful abuse. I said to him - and 1 was furious - when you look at the replay 1 hope you ring me to apologise, because you got it all wrong. But you know what? - When I looked at the replay I realised it was me who'd got it all wrong. He'd made a brilliant decision. So I rang the lad to apologise. And he was so decent about it, he made me feel 10 times worse for having a go at him in the first place.' Coyle's moment of contrition, though, was private and retrospective. The verbal critiques of the sort Ferguson launched at Wiley are delivered weekly, in the press and on television, and are very public. And on the parks, amateur coaches are watching, follow that lead, picking up Ferguson's and Coyle's bad habits, casting the referee as the cause of all their troubles. Watching Oliver Dalton from Reading Town's touchline - quick, athletic, close to the action, on top of every contentious moment - a neutral would suggest he was admirably even-handed in his decisions, getting every one right. But there is no such thing as a neutral at a football match. Apart from me and the referee's assessor (who tells me afterwards that Dalton is 'an outstanding prospect'), everyone in the ground is partial. The emotional imbalance means that, as the game reaches its climax , both teams seem convinced he is biased against them. From the crowd, whenever there is a collision or foul, comes the throaty, accusatory cry of 'ref-er-ree!'. One particularly voluble man greets every decision against his team with 'you are shit!' and every decision in favour with 'I see you've found your bloody glasses at last, then'. From the players comes a squeal of dismay when a ruling goes against them, no matter how legitimate. 'You just have to block it all out,' Dalton says of the endless noise directed at him. 'If you start to worry about it, start to take into account what they're complaining about, then you lose it. If you get a decision wrong, you just have to make sure you get the next ones right. What you must never do is try to compensate for a mistake.' Besides, Keith Hackett suggests, the riper the language and the more hostile the players and fans, the better the learning environment. Abuse is an essential part of the learning curve for a would-be referee. 'It hardens you up,' he says. 'You can't be a shrinking violet to be a referee. You have to be able to take it. And you learn to take it in the lower leagues and the parks. I used to love going back there when I was a top official. Just to test myself. See if I was mentally strong enough.' Andre Marriner agrees. 'Crikey, yeah, the abuse is untold,' he says of his experience in lower-league football. 'Far, far worse than at the top. I got a real taste of it when 1 was coming through the leagues. Sometimes I'd go home after a game and think: why am I taking this? But I spoke to colleagues, shared experiences, realised it was nothing personal, that's just what it is to be a ref. That is how you learn. And if you don't learn to deal with it, you'd find it very hard at the top where the intensity is so much greater.' As DaIton's game draws to a close, the sound of the final whistle seems to dissipate the tension. The players suddenly appear to deflate, their anger oozing out on to the turf. They shake each other's hands, most shake the referee's, several slap him on the shoulder. One of the coaches - the one who has earlier accused him of being blind - trots on to the pitch and congratulates him on a good performance. 'That's what happens,' Marriner says: 'It's a passionate game. But passions soon cool once it's over.' Well, some do. As Dalton makes his way to the changing-room, that shouty home supporter remains exercised. While Dalton walks across the pitch, he bundles round the perimeter fence, loudly suggesting that the ref should be wearing the green shirt of the opposition. The red-faced man arrives at the door of the official's changing-room at precisely the same moment as Dalton. For an instant a confrontation looks inevitable. But the referee's two assistants step in front of the man, allowing Dalton to slip inside unchecked. His accuser swears, kicks at the closing door and heads for the bar. 'I never get intimidated at this level,' Dalton explains, as from one of the dressing-rooms comes the sound of the manager yelling at his players for their lack of effort. 'It's because there's three of you. Having assistants is an enormous help. On the parks, you're on your own, and that's when it can get scary. I remember once sitting in the dressing- room, with the door locked, for a good 10 minutes while a bloke outside threatened to kick my head in. Eventually he left. But I dashed pretty smartly to my car and got the hell out of there in case he was waiting.' Referees. They really are a breed apart.
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Manager/referee abuse Gary Lineker speaks out Mail on Sunday Sunday 1st November 2009
HOW can Premier League managers expect their players to behave when they don't themselves? How can they call for discipline if they are not capable of containing their own emotions? The lack of respect from managers to referees is no longer acceptable. And I am not just talking about Sir Alex Ferguson to Alan Wiley-I mean all managers who berate officials in an abusive fashion. It's time for the League Managers' Association to get involved and bring in their own rules on how to behave properly. The savage and personal criticism referees receive from managers is a blight on the game. And the punishments - a fine or touchline ban -- seem irrelevant in trying to stop it. The only way to really stamp it out is for the managers themselves to hold up their hands, accept it isn't right and sign a code of conduct drawn up by their own organisation. It is Ferguson's outburst that has put the subject in the public domain and he will find out his punishment soon. But I'm afraid most managers, with the exception of one or two, go too far. It makes the managers look ridiculous, too. How many times have you heard a post-match interview where one manager slaughters a referee over a penalty, then the second says it was the correct decision? Emotions run high in football and there is nothing wrong in disagreeing with a referee, but the manner in which it is done has too often become unpleasant. Often, managers don't want to criticise their own players so they go for the referee as a convenient scapegoat. It's not right and has nothing to do with being 'passionate'. Rather than see Sir Alex banished from the touchline, I would like to see him apologise fully, vow publicly never to do it again and use his influence to help the LMA draw up an agreement on how to behave. They are managers, after all. Let's see if they can manage themselves.
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FA have done game a favour Kevin Garside The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15th September 2009
EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR will not be happy. Mark Hughes will not be happy. The fans of Manchester City will not be happy. The rest of football can rejoice at the book being thrown at the Togolese striker by the Football Association. After the pitiful retreat by Uefa in the Eduardo diving case, thus giving carte blanche to offenders to betray the spirit of the game with impunity, the FA's charge sheet reads like a divine text that might yet deliver us from evil. Adebayor has until the close of play today to respond. Judging by the logorrhoea that gripped him before the Arsenal game, he will not be short of words. The FA judges the boot that he sank in the cheekbone of Robin van Persie, which led to a charge of violent conduct, to be the greater sin. Adebayor also has to answer a second charge of improper conduct resulting from the moronic celebration before the Arsenal fans that followed his goal. Adebayor has subsequently apologised for his infantile behaviour on both counts. Good, but it ought not to save him. Hughes excused his player on the grounds of his emotional state, which, he said, was roused to a peak by the visit of the club he left in the summer. Some will applaud Hughes for his unconditional support. Fellow managers certainly, as Sir Alex Fergnson did in the Eduardo case, claiming that he would have acted just as Arsene Wenger had in publicly backing his man. While such a course serves the interest of the club and player, it does continued harm to the game. It is time for those in positions of responsibility to rise above vested interest, to distance themselves from the self-indulgence of overpaid prima donnas and see things as any right-minded individual would. How refreshing it would have been had Wenger condemned Eduardo for his behaviour in the penalty box against Celtic instead of mounting a defence on technical grounds. You cannot prove intent, he said. Oh dear. Similarly it would have been a joy to hear Hughes admonish Adebayor for his deportment. Adebayor will say that he was abused by Arsenal supporters. While none would defend the mindless attitude of the mob, it is for the police to bring yobs to account. Adebayor is paid handsomely to execute his professional duty, which includes ignoring bigots in the stands. By behaving as he did Adebayor legitimised the behaviour of the brute on and off the pitch. This is not without consequence, as any father with a son playing junior football would tell you. It is time to change the culture of the game. And that starts at the top. It starts, one hopes, with Adebayor.
Psychologists' diving guide can help' referees spot cheats Richard Alleyne Science Correspondent The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15th September 2009 REFEREES could be helped to spot a footballer making a false dive by psychologists who have come up with a guide for identifying cheating. Dr Paul Morris, of the University of Portsmouth, has found that footballers use a series of distinct actions when faking a fall during a match. These include clutching their body where they have not been hit, taking an extra roll on the ground and taking controlled strides after being tackled but before falling. The biggest giveaway is when they hold up both arms in the air, with open palms, chest thrust out legs bent at the knee in an "archer's bow" position. Dr Morris conducted his research by showing 300 people short clips of tackles from televised games, employing amateur footballers to stage various scenarios in front of observers and examining footage of dives and tackles frame-by-frame. He said: "We think even experienced professionals could enhance their decision-making by studying the categories of deceptive behaviour we have identified."
Managers face action if they talk about referees before games
Writes Mikey Stafford The Guardian Wednesday 5th August 2009
Managers were yesterday warned they are no longer allowed to comment on referee appointments before a match as part of a new batch of rule changes announced by the Football Association. Other changes include the punishment of clubs should three or more of their players surround a referee, as well as the fast-tracking of managerial misconduct charges. The FA is seeking to prevent the influencing or undermining of referees prior to matches and the new regulations unambiguously prohibit managers, players or anyone involved with a club from saying anything - positive, negative or otherwise - about an appointed referee. "Clubs are being advised that any media comments by managers, players or any other club officials relating to appointed match officials prior to a fixture will no longer be allowed," read an FA statement. "Such pre-match comments will be deemed improper and dealt with accordingly. "Post-match comments in relation to match officials and incidents are still permitted provided they are not personal in their nature, imply bias or attack the integrity of the officials in charge of.the match, or in any other respect bring the game into disrepute.' Before Everton's FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United last season, David Moyes publicly questioned Mike Riley's appointment as referee, saying it had been suggested to him that the official was a United supporter. Riley, who has since replaced Keith Hackett as manager of the Professional Game Match Officials board (PGMO), was announced as a replacement for the unwell Steve Bennett days before the tie on 19 April. "If you're saying that he [Riley] is a United supporter, you'd hope the FA would look at it," said Moyes on the eve of the semi-final. "It is something one or two managers would have something to say about." Everton subsequently won the match and the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, said Moyes' remarks may have influenced Riley in a crucial decision .when Danny Welbeck appeared to have been fouled in the area by Phil Jagielka during the first half. No spot-kick was awarded and Everton went on to progress to the final via a penalty shoot-out. Ferguson himself stood accused of trying to influence Steve Bennett ahead of Liverpool's 4-1 win at Old Trafford in March . The Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, said that his counterpart's criticism of the treatment of Cristiano Ronaldo by opposition players prior to the game was an attempt to influence the referee. "The referees, though, have experience and they will know Ferguson. Saturday’s referee has experience and he is strong enough," said Benitez. It seems, however, that under the new rules it would be the Spaniard and not Ferguson who would face censure as he has commented directly on the match official, while Ferguson was speaking more generally about the treatment of one of his players. Under other rule changes, clubs can now be charged if three or more players surround the referee in a "confrontational manner", Previously the charge required officials to report "harassment or intimidation" by three or more players. Also, managers and coaches reported for misconduct in the technical area will be subject to a fast -track disciplinary system taking no more than three or four weeks.
Respect means living up to the wage packets
The Daily Telegraph Monday 3rd August 2009
As the football season kicks off shortly perhaps we should make a note to see what we get for our money from footballers at the highest level. That most are hugely athletic and skilful cannot be seriously doubted, but the extraordinary sums they are paid are we not right to demand that they show acceptable behaviour and give their all during matches? Let us see to what extent the Football Association’s Respect campaign has altered the actions of professional players and managers – on and off the field Football, as the national game, has obligations, which have been recognised but too often remain unfulfilled. The seemingly inexhaustible supply of money in the Premier League should serve not only to make its players wealthy beyond any ordinary measure, it should also bring with it the acceptance of properly professional standards of conduct
Martin Bodenham
Taken from Four Four Two July 2009
The man who sent off a stricken Keano has swopped whistle blowing for finger-raising in the “more civilised” world of county cricket "Becoming an umpire wasn't really something I'd entertained when I packed up refereeing, I'd always played cricket and if there wasn't an umpire at any our games I would go out and do a stint, but doing it full-time had never crossed my mind, After spending so many years at the top in football, I started umpiring more and more in club cricket, and then Peter Moores [the former England and Sussex coach] suggested that I try and get on the ECB’s reserve list. I spent three years on there, and now here I am in my first full season as a first-class umpire, I even got a congratulatory e-mail from Graham Poll when he heard about my appointment. I started this season at The Parks, with Oxford University against Worcestershire - you couldn't really have got anywhere further removed from running out to ref a match at Old Trafford or Anfield, There certainly weren't 50,000 people there, I loved my time as a Premier League referee, and am proud of what I achieved in my career. I refereed three FA Cup semi-finals and the League Cup final between Leicester City and Middlesbrough in 1997, I was also one of seven or eight English referees who were on FI FA’s international list, which, when you consider that there's around 25,000 referees in this country, was also a huge achievement. Sadly I'm too old to get on the ICC's Test Match panel, but there's still a chance I could umpire a final in domestic cricket. Later this year I'll also become the first person to officiate at both Wembley and Lord's, There's no real difference between the officiating in the two sports, it's all about managing players and managing situations, Obviously I had to deal with some combustible situations during my time in football- everyone always brings up the Roy Keane and Alfe Inge-Haaland confrontation - but I was also in charge at Old Trafford when we had the Peter Schmeichel and lan Wright spat, which was another incident that was pored over by the press for days on end. So far, on the cricket pitch things have been have a lot quieter. You would probably have to say that cricket is a more civilised game than football, you do have the odd flashpoint, with some bowlers getting carried away with their appealing, but in general the guys are fairly well behaved on the pitch, I can't see any need for a Respect campaign similar to the one we've seen in football this season, I sat down the other night and watched the Chelsea-Barcelona game - it was the kind of match that makes you glad you're no longer a referee! Cricket, of course, has begun introducing technology to help the officials, and there's no doubt that with some of the technology that's now available some of the decisions made by the Norwegian referee would have been very different. But I don't see how technology - apart from on the goal-line - would work in football, the game is just too fast. In cricket it's fine as long as everything is communicated correctly to the players and the crowd, For me this season, it's been a case of so far, so good and I'm really enjoying my second coming as an official. OK, so the days are longer and you need to stay on your game for six hours not 90 minutes, but when the sun is shining and the cricket's good, there's nowhere else I'd rather be."
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