Most liked posts in thread: Standard of Officiating in League Two

All refs should be full time professionals in the football league on a salary scale according to the league they are approved to ref in, There is enough money in the game to support this, Refs should be P/T in the lower leagues with a pyramid system of reviews to promote refs to the full time positions, All the full time refs should have to complete one pre season course and two training sessions in the season, The assessors at the game should score the competence with those continually not coming up to standard and performance reduced back to part time

 

Agree with idea of properly funding and training referees.

Off on a tangent slightly, but I'd also clamp down on the disrespect of referees at the same time. It shouldn't be acceptable for a player to abuse the officials. When Cooke got booked yesterday towards the end for kicking the ball away, he clearly told the ref to F off afterwards. Playing football shouldn't be a free pass to be a two-hat to people just doing their job.

 

The ref disallowed the goal yesterday purely in response to their players protesting. Amateur stuff

 

Explain why their sending off was not correct, Bridge already had a yellow, he was holding Connolly back which was also deemed a foul by the referee and gave him his second yellow which triggered the red.

 

Massive lesson to be learnt from Rugby League the referees don't take sh*t from players very refreshing to see the referee getting respected by players.

 

For things to change it has to start with the players. Refs are going to get things wrong, its the nature of the game, but surrounding the ref and in the case you mention swearing at the ref should be clamped down on immediately. Players should be able to self regulate their behaviour, i'd expect a sane human being to be at least able to do that.

 

Sorry Park, decided not to reply to your ‘respect has to be earned’ comment (as, like a couple of other posters said in reply, the role of ref is what should be respected) though was tempted.

However, I can’t let this one go - I’ve heard it so many times before and fundamentally disagree with it. There’s a few issues with it for me.

There’s the cliche of the ex-pro’s “know the game” better. Obviously they’ve played it, but really that’s knowing how to lie and cheat their way through a game, not actually understanding the laws that need to be applied. I suppose you could argue they might therefore know what to look for in deception by the players, which is a plus - but for me that doesn’t automatically mean they’d be able to properly ref a professional match.

I’ve also heard a suggestion ex-pro’s should be fast tracked. Firstly, where are all these ex-pros sticking their hands up to referee (clue: there aren’t any, because they can earn a far more comfortable living after the game without hassle e.g. TV, radio). Secondly, per my first point above is it really a good idea to fast track someone to the higher levels when they’ve spent their entire pro careers doing pretty much the exact opposite of what’s required of a ref. A good footballer does not (necessarily) equate to a good ref.

Refs are allowed to - and will - make mistakes. Despite that, their knowledge and understanding of the game at pro level is very high. However, in L2 you’re seeing refs make apparent errors more often because (for example) their positioning may not always be perfect in every situation, not because they don’t know the laws, don’t understand the game or whatever.

I criticised Saturday’s officials because as far as anyone could tell, they couldn’t have properly seen the Donaldson incident. If they have ‘guessed’ at an incident such as this one though, their assessor will significantly mark them down for it.

I suppose what I’m saying is that you don’t get to ref at EFL level without a significant amount of experience refereeing through the pyramid, regularly assessed, detailed analysis of performance in particular once they reach EFL, dedicated fitness and training programmes etc etc. Do some of them get their chance too soon and in front of crowds like at VP? Maybe. But to suggest they don’t have the knowledge/understanding is off the mark IMO.

 

But they're supposed to Bronco like RL, rules state that only the captain is to approach the ref and they are not allowed to surround him. The ref needs to be firmer and tell them, next time you will be booked that is the way you stop it. Likewise swearing at the ref, it's an offence, tell them next time you'll be booked, it will be stopped. Like timewasting, see a team that's winning and player takes the ball 20 yards upfield to throw it back, have a word, next time you're booked!!

Remember a couple of seasons ago in PL and loads of pens were given in first few weeks for defenders holding in the box? Stopped for awhile until refs stopped given them and we're back to the same nowadays. Refs need to be firm.

 

The ref wasn’t that bad yesterday, certainly nowhere near as bad as most of the other officials we’ve had this season. I agree with the general gist of this post though, if the lower leagues want to take themselves seriously they need to take a long look at the standard of officiating. It appalling on a regular basis.

 

A few of us were saying he would try and even it up second half and the disallowed goal might have been him doing that. If you think about it even if it was the right decision and I don’t think it was from a perfect vies of it. The ref thought it was a perfectly good goal because he allowed it at first. The linesman didn’t flag so he saw nothing wrong so the only way he could have changed his mind was their players protesting or the fourth official who could not possibly ha e bad a view of it. Terrible reffing

 

Very few players want to be refs. Hardly any. The best ref around is Andy Madley and he was a footballer who had to retire before his career started. His brother was the same. Perhaps this is a good avenue to go down.

 

Refs are that incompetent they cannot even get VAR decisions right and when it should be used,
#wedeservebetterreferees

 

Unfortunatly the referees and FL have let (once again) players to control different situations.
As you say after that directive went out the referees who were surrounded by other players should have told them go away or I will book you unfortunatly the referees have not helped themselve letting players take over the situation.
It was a good law/rule to implement unfortunatly the referees did not follow it through, me and the grandson used to comnent when they were shaking hands with each opposition player, once the game kicks off they will be doing all thet can to get their fellow profesionals booked or even sent off, we witnesses ourselves last Saturday.

 

I actually agree. He was right on both sending off decisions. He missed a couple free kicks for grabbing by centre halfs on both sides. His major mistake was the disallowed goal.

 

The disallowed goal was a baffling one due to the official furthest away was the one who made the call but don't think he was as bad as some previous refs this year. Both reds deserved and nothing much else of note happened in the game decision wise.

 

The ref was very poor yesterday yellow cards for nothing the first one for their player sent off was ridiculous. He gave two to our player arguing ridiculous decisions allowed himself to be influenced by their players over the goal that wasn’t. Possibly on the scale of how bad the refs have been so far this season he wasn’t the worst but he was bad.

 

Maybe all the players should start with 2 yellows, If you do not do a serious offence in the first half one is taken away at half time, If again none in second half then another is taken away, If you finish with both yellows then banned next game

 

The players should respect the role of the referee, if not the individual.

 

Of course they should but it when its continual poor decisions the frustration must be there