Are referees merely incompetent or ........

[fulwoodshrimp]

The standard of refereeing this season has been abysmal with one or two exceptions. I am intrigued what the assessors say to the refs after games. What on earth could the assessor say positively about last night's clueless, incompetent official? What training are referees receiving? How are they recruited? What guidance do they receive? Whatever the answers are to these questions the system is not working and we are producing referees who are clueless and don't seem to understand the game or understand what constitutes a tackle. They seem unable to spot when players are pretending to be injured. Last night's disastrous referee didn't seem to notice a Barrow player going down injured holding his head but then receiving treatment for a supposed leg injury!!! Are these poor performances by the men in black purely incompetence on their part or are some referees encouraged by one means or another to show favouritism to a team? Is the performance of referees monitored and if something suspicious is noticed what is done? It seems looking from the outside that referees are free to be incompetent and biased towards a team without any sanctions or any action to remove them. They seem a little clique where poor performance isn't punished and officials are allowed to continue deciding the results of many games. If this is allowed to continue it will eventually destroy the game. No doubt last night's referee Ben Speedie will be allocated another game on Saturday and be allowed to continue to display his incompetence and ruin another game. Something needs to be done about the appalling standard of refereeing.

[CityShrimp]

Removing or demoting poor referees is all well and good but you are assuming that there are better, more competent referees in the wings ready to take their places - therein lies the problem; there aren’t any.

Maybe if the game was changed to encourage more respect for referees, more people would want to do it and there’d be more competition/higher standards? It feels like a chicken and egg situation though because people seem to use the excuse that the refs are crap to disrespect/abuse them - which surely makes the problem worse in the long run because nobody then wants to do it.

People constantly suggest that ex players should referee. There might be some merit in this but I don’t think people realise how long it takes for referees to ‘climb the ladder’. The young ish refs (20s and 30s) will have started refereeing as kids/young teenagers and it probably takes 10 years + of refereeing at a dire level to work your way up to football league refereeing. If you’re a 37 year old player who has just retired from playing in the NL or EFL, is it attractive to start refereeing on a local park in the dog and duck league, dodging dog shit and being abused for 10 years before you get anywhere near even conference north refereeing? Probably not.

To finish with a positive suggestion (albeit who’s listening to me, eh) Maybe the FA should look at overhauling the ladder and offering accelerated routes for ex players and quicker promotions for refs who show promise, so that the ones who are half decent are shunted up the ladder and into the EFL faster.

[Freez]

I didn’t feel that the ref affected the outcome at Barrow, we were perfectly capable of shooting ourselves in the foot in that respect.
However, I do believe that the captain and only the captain should be able to talk to the ref, and he should be addressed as “Sir” as in both rugby codes. Surrounding him, hounding him, swearing at him, claiming a throw when they clearly headed it out, it’s all wrong. Refs have a tough job, no doubt, but the aggression seen outside the ground last night after the game was partly down to the frustration of the fans feeling they had been unfairly treated surrounding certain incidents when Barrow appeared to gain a free kick from a similar transgression by us.

[black morse]

I recently read a biography by Brian Clough and he said the Nottingham Forest team all had to show respect to the referee and that way he felt they were treated similarly by the referee. Referees have always received abuse by fans who felt unfairly treated and I am sure that fans of every team think the ref is against them. What makes their job more difficult now is that while they have to make split second decisions the fans can mull over slow motion videos of incidents. Ask yourself...would you like to do a job like that and get subjected to the abuse they get? Would you?

I'm sure there are a minority of 'bent' refs (there are in every job) but the majority are trying their best (albeit at various standards) but I agree with everything Freez says.

[Dave (Barra)]

The standard of refereeing this season has been abysmal with one or two exceptions. I am intrigued what the assessors say to the refs after games. What on earth could the assessor say positively about last night's clueless, incompetent official? What training are referees receiving? How are they recruited? What guidance do they receive? Whatever the answers are to these questions the system is not working and we are producing referees who are clueless and don't seem to understand the game or understand what constitutes a tackle. They seem unable to spot when players are pretending to be injured. Last night's disastrous referee didn't seem to notice a Barrow player going down injured holding his head but then receiving treatment for a supposed leg injury!!! Are these poor performances by the men in black purely incompetence on their part or are some referees encouraged by one means or another to show favouritism to a team? Is the performance of referees monitored and if something suspicious is noticed what is done? It seems looking from the outside that referees are free to be incompetent and biased towards a team without any sanctions or any action to remove them. They seem a little clique where poor performance isn't punished and officials are allowed to continue deciding the results of many games. If this is allowed to continue it will eventually destroy the game. No doubt last night's referee Ben Speedie will be allocated another game on Saturday and be allowed to continue to display his incompetence and ruin another game. Something needs to be done about the appalling standard of refereeing.

Nothing in there about Senior escaping a red? Funny, that.

Mellon, Bloxham and McKiernan weren’t adverse to going down easily either - it’s not just the opposition who try the dark arts, if you actually bother to watch the game.

L2 refs aren’t great but the idea that there’s a conspiracy against Morecambe is twaddle of the highest order.

[fulwoodshrimp]

I do agree Dave, that Senior was lucky not to be sent off but to suggest some teams do not suffer at the hands of poor referees is twaddle. "Bigger clubs" tend to get the 50-50 decisions against smaller clubs like Morecambe and Barrow but I think Tuesday's referee was incompetent and didn't seem able to differentiate between the player committing a foul and the player being fouled. I would support more ex-pros becoming referees as they read the game better than many referees who have never played the game and have no "feel" for it.

[Keith]

Nothing in there about Senior escaping a red? Funny, that.

Mellon, Bloxham and McKiernan weren’t adverse to going down easily either - it’s not just the opposition who try the dark arts, if you actually bother to watch the game.

L2 refs aren’t great but the idea that there’s a conspiracy against Morecambe is twaddle of the highest order.

To be fair, in the match thread, I wrote:

Decision our way, Senior should probably have had a second yellow. Very fortunate.

Be interesting to see how they come out in the second half and whether Derek will make any changes?

...If Love is fit, then bring him on for Senior, before he gets sent off? He's definitely going if he commits another foul.

I don't think he was deliberately biased, but not very good, and the majority of 50:50 decisions went to Barrow, but he bottled three big decisions, including (for some reason not being spoken about) a clear pull backwards on Mellon, in the box. That was at 0-0. The second pull on Mellon, on the halfway line, which somehow went to the offender, and not sending Senior off were all big decisions that he got wrong.

People constantly suggest that ex players should referee. There might be some merit in this but I don’t think people realise how long it takes for referees to ‘climb the ladder’. The young ish refs (20s and 30s) will have started refereeing as kids/young teenagers and it probably takes 10 years + of refereeing at a dire level to work your way up to football league refereeing. If you’re a 37 year old player who has just retired from playing in the NL or EFL, is it attractive to start refereeing on a local park in the dog and duck league, dodging dog shit and being abused for 10 years before you get anywhere near even conference north refereeing? Probably not.

I agree, but there are lots, probably hundreds of young lads who get released from academies every year. While many of them will drop in to non-League and play part-time, there will be many who are lost to football, despite having already spent many years immersed in this world. I wonder if they are ever approached with a view to becoming refs? If the FA offered an alternative pathway, maybe more would enter the career in that manner? But, the FA would also need to make it financially viable. If a young person needs to develop a career and only do refereeing part-time, then it won't be worthwhile. But if they could be earning £50k+ by the time they are 22yrs old, then it is a 'career' worth pursuing.

That would also mean they can focus upon physical & mental fitness too. We often comment that players look like they are beginning to look tired towards the end of a match, but never consider that the ref has probably run further than most players and had to concentrate far more?

[Dave (Barra)]

Nothing in there about Senior escaping a red? Funny, that.

Mellon, Bloxham and McKiernan weren’t adverse to going down easily either - it’s not just the opposition who try the dark arts, if you actually bother to watch the game.

L2 refs aren’t great but the idea that there’s a conspiracy against Morecambe is twaddle of the highest order.

To be fair, in the match thread, I wrote:

Decision our way, Senior should probably have had a second yellow. Very fortunate.

Be interesting to see how they come out in the second half and whether Derek will make any changes?

...If Love is fit, then bring him on for Senior, before he gets sent off? He's definitely going if he commits another foul.

I wasn’t replying to the match thread, I was replying to Fulwood’s post. Good to see somebody acknowledging it though, fair play.

We got some decisions, you got some. It’s more cock up than conspiracy with these refs.