Things Have To Change

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I blame ex players for not getting involved as complaining about it is not going to change anything. Actions speak louder than words and until that happens nothing will change.

Every year in sport we see the same poor decisions repeating themselves over and over again and no one has tried to rectify this. It doesn't matter what sport you are watching as this is widespread amongst all sports. The problem is the officials still have an amateur mindset from days gone by and haven't improved.

A professional referee earns a decent wage and that is exactly what it is whilst the players are earning 10 or 20 x that of the officials. This is what has to change in order to lure the ex players back into the game or progress from playing to officiating extending their careers.

Being a referee is not for everyone and takes a certain set of managerial skills as you are managing a group of players all having different personalities. Obviously players with a poor track record can be automatically eliminated from ever moving onto the other side.

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Football is a prime example as there are 140 different leagues in the UK comprising of over 480 divisions or 7000 teams plus. Understandably most of this is amateur matches and why each county is run by volunteers. This would not work for fast track players as they would take up too much time as they need to be assessed every match. Those ex players need to be given games in the second division as a starting point.

The reality is many matches in the lower leagues struggle every weekend for a referee let alone a linesman as there is a shortage. When I was refereeing rugby after I retired from playing I was on a fast track given a time frame of roughly 3 years to break into the top ranks. The matches I was refereeing would come thick and fast with multiple matches on a Saturday at different venues. A school game before lunchtime followed by a club match in the afternoon and maybe another one after that depending on who was available and the logistics involved.

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My old county which I refereed for in rugby was very amateurish in it's set up as it was voluntary so it is hard to be fast tracked when you are taking it a s a career move. If you are being fast tracked you need to fall directly under the FA or governing body of that sport.

The plus side of it is the more games you have under your belt the more you learn and it is not the rules, but your positioning on the field. That takes time along with fitness as you have to be fitter than the players to keep up as you are basically following the ball around the field at 3/4 pace for 80 or 90 minutes.

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How many calls are the correct calls even when being checked by the Virtual Assistant Referee? This is not a massive difference right now but check back in 3 months time as we have had only 7 matches so far.

There is a big difference between ex players and non players refereeing as the non players do not understand what is really going on. They see one side of a match how the rules tell them to see it and many times things are missed. I know this as when I watch a game of rugby on the television there are at least a dozen missed calls per match which in many cases could and would change the final outcome. How sad is that as teams are being robbed of possible wins due to poor officiating. These officials are meant to be the best of the best and in many cases not worthy of being on the field.

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One incident from the weekend went to the VAR and the decision was no penalty. I never watched the game but that looks as though the Leeds player is impeded if you are asking me.

In football we have the VAR in the English Premiership as a prime example and wouldn't it be great to see ex players from the top 3 divisions including the Premiership controlling their sport. No one can read a game like an ex player and it is harder to con an ex con when it comes to diving in the penalty area. Players know what to look for as they have all done it at some point.

The current crop of referees would not enjoy ex players coming into their domain however as they would feel under threat so it would take a good 3-5 years to happen if and when it did. Salaries would have to be doubled or tripled to get them involved and I think that is a fair price to pay for making the game a better spectacle.

A sport like Rugby keeps harboring on about safety yet the officials are blinded by their ignorance in what is taking place before them. A tackle leading with the shoulder to the upper body followed by a trailing arm is foul play yet, they see it as the arm is being used so therefore the law book states it is legal. Any ex player will tell you this is a cheap shot and should be red carded as the intention is to injure the opponent and nothing else. Maybe someone being killed on live tv will up the ratings as that is where the sport is heading if they don't step in and remedy this quickly.

The money is available in sport so paying ex players to step up and further their careers giving them another option outside of coaching or management should be prioritized. Nothing in the sport will change until the governing bodies actually admit there is something wrong and need to do something.