Stop expecting perfection from us - top referee

[Smurph]

You can't compare tennis or cricket to football ! Footy refs have hundreds of decisions to make each game involving the actions of 22 players. Rugby refs also have far less cheating.

Overall refs do a decent job, they know the laws far far better than the average fan, who is biased anyway, and a throwaway line of "get better at what you do" is so easy to say when their competence bar is quite high already. They can't compete with TV slow-motion. So accept they make mistakes, like players, and live with it, is all I say. But don't drive them out of our game.

Sorry, with the money involved in the game basic errors are just not acceptable

 

[Smurph]

But it perhaps explains the decisions that go for us.

I get the subjective issues, it’s the blatant mistakes which are the issue.

 

[Smurph]

I think football fans (and I include myself in this) are less accepting of referee mistakes than in rugby, cricket and tennis.
In fact I’m more accepting of a poor refereeing decision in rugby than I am in football. Maybe it’s because I’m not as invested in rugby, but I am a fan of it.

very rarely will you see a poor decision in rugby let alone something incompetent.

 

[Smurph]

You can't compare tennis or cricket to football ! Footy refs have hundreds of decisions to make each game involving the actions of 22 players. Rugby refs also have far less cheating.

Overall refs do a decent job, they know the laws far far better than the average fan, who is biased anyway, and a throwaway line of "get better at what you do" is so easy to say when their competence bar is quite high already. They can't compete with TV slow-motion. So accept they make mistakes, like players, and live with it, is all I say. But don't drive them out of our game.

ChatGPT has give me my final say on this subject.

The standard of refereeing in the English league simply isn’t good enough because too many officials are inconsistent, indecisive, and hide behind VAR rather than owning their decisions. Week after week we see basic laws of the game applied differently depending on who’s in charge — what’s a yellow card one match is a red in the next, and blatant fouls are waved on while soft touches draw whistles. Players and managers are left baffled, fans feel the game’s credibility slipping, and the referees themselves lose respect because no one knows what to expect. It’s not about abuse or agendas — it’s about standards. At this level, with the money, scrutiny, and stakes involved, referees need sharper fitness, better positioning, clearer communication, and the courage to apply the laws consistently without bottling it under pressure. Until that happens, English refereeing will keep being seen as second-rate on the world stage.

 

[CygnusX1]

very rarely will you see a poor decision in rugby let alone something incompetent.

True. I think the video refs in rugby work well with the on field officials to talk through the incident to apply the laws of the game. VAR referees and on field football referees are full of self importance who don’t seem to be able to do that.

 

[JustJack]

Not talking about subjective decisions, we’re talking about blatant mistakes.

Sorry, with the money involved in the game basic errors are just not acceptable

What basic errors? Give examples..

 

[Smurph]

What basic errors? Give examples..

A quick google search will give you what you’re looking for

 

[Andrew - North Hill]

I don't like this from Anthony Taylor. Basically he's gaslighting us into thinking we (the paying public) are the problem.

We're not. We just want referees to do their jobs properly. Some of the refs we've had at home this season have been atrocious. They will get into great positions, see an entirely obvious foul, one that any of us can see from the stands, yet they'll wave play on. They'll book a player on one side for a shirt pull, then wave one through 5 mins later for the other team. Watch the Championship highlights every week, every team has to put up with rank awful decisions.

That's before we even get onto VAR. There was a Brighton guy nearly decapitated in the Chelsea box the other week. The onfield ref saw it and did nothing, and the VAR just made up some bullshit to back up their pal. Yet it was the most obvious penalty you've ever seen in your life. Every weekend we're seeing decisions like that by VAR, with some bullshit justification they give every time for making bad decisions.

They need to understand that respect is not a given, it has to be earned. Too many refs are far too precious these days. What happened to the old days where they just stayed out of the limelight? Bring those days back imo.

 

[JustJack]

A quick google search will give you what you’re looking for

A Google search of what? Just give the details of these basic errors

 

[Smurph]

A Google search of what? Just give the details of these basic errors

We both know they’re out there and fairly easy to find.

If you just want to be argumentative for the sack of it, crack on.

 

[swansvalleyjack]

A couple of extra points for this interesting debate

First, impossible expectations. People don’t expect a striker to score every time they shoot, but for referees every decision needs to be correct. No one notices the things referees do right, but everyone remembers the errors.

Secondly, fans mistake refereeing for an objective science, practised badly. But football is a physical sport, and judging whether each contact is within its laws will always involve subjectivity. Different referees will judge incidents differently. Until we accept that subjectivity is part of the game, we’re never going to be satisfied. The thing is for many decisions, there is no such thing as ‘correct’.

 

[Smurph]

A couple of extra points for this interesting debate

First, impossible expectations. People don’t expect a striker to score every time they shoot, but for referees every decision needs to be correct. No one notices the things referees do right, but everyone remembers the errors.

Secondly, fans mistake refereeing for an objective science, practised badly. But football is a physical sport, and judging whether each contact is within its laws will always involve subjectivity. Different referees will judge incidents differently. Until we accept that subjectivity is part of the game, we’re never going to be satisfied. The thing is for many decisions, there is no such thing as ‘correct’.

Do they remember the errors because they’re that bad and shouldn’t really be happening?

 

[PaulMatthews]

Do they remember the errors because they’re that bad and shouldn’t really be happening?

You don’t give up do you?

 

[Smurph]

You don’t give up do you?

It’s a discussion about the standard of refereeing.

Up to you if you want to reply or not.

 

[Smurph]

Last seasons most high profile errors in the premier league, I can only imagine they get worse as we drop down the leagues.

I guess we can be our own judges when it comes to the standard of officiating.

Every Premier League VAR mistake revealed: Find out the winners and losers

Which Premier League clubs got the worst of the VAR gaffes? Which actually benefited from mistakes? We've got all the answers with the official stats.

www.espn.co.uk

This one is my personal favorite from the season before last.