State of Refereeing

[BenA]

As a younger fan of Southend and seeing League 1 and League 2 football practically all my life, I've always known the refereeing to be a rubbish.

Just wondering, to older Blues fans, have referees always been this bad? Or is it just we are noticing their obvious mistakes now?

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Probably easier to see obvious mistakes now as every game is recorded and key decisions shared on social media within minutes of the end of the match.
Refs seem to be more the centre of attention than years ago.
I'm sure the likes of Lord of Football on here and Mick will have more of a say on the standard.

I wonder what it was like years ago as we went from 1906 until I think the mid 1960's before we even had a player sent off!
Can anybody confirm who and when our first red card was?

 

[Mick]

Probably easier to see obvious mistakes now as every game is recorded and key decisions shared on social media within minutes of the end of the match.
Refs seem to be more the centre of attention than years ago.
I'm sure the likes of Lord of Football on here and Mick will have more of a say on the standard.

I wonder what it was like years ago as we went from 1906 until I think the mid 1960's before we even had a player sent off!
Can anybody confirm who and when our first red card was?

Do you mean first red card or first ever sending off? I think first football league red card was in 1976.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Do you mean first red card or first ever sending off? I think first football league red card was in 1976.

Ah right so who was our first player sent off and what year?

 

[Mick]

Hmm... not sure but I do recall Eddie Firmani being sent off at Hull at the end of the 65/66 season.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Hmm... not sure but I do recall Eddie Firmani being sent off at Hull at the end of the 65/66 season.

Yes 1966 rings a bell. I'm sure in one of the SUFC history books it mentions that as our first ever dismissal.

 

[Sleaford Shrimper]

I can't answer your question about the first Blues player to be sent off but I can offer my own personal opinion about referees over the course of the past 50 years or so. My experience is that referees and linesmen have always incurred the anger of supporters for some of the decisions they have made. To the tune of 'Oh My Darling Clementine' , "Who's your father? Who's your father? Who's your father, referee? You ain't got one, you're a b*stard, you're a b*stard, referee" was a fans' chant heard pretty much every game at every ground in the League in the 1960s. There are two big differences between then and now. Firstly, there was no television slow motion replay of every questionable decision - so no 'proof' as to whether the ref was right or wrong. And, secondly, referees were, by and large, pretty anonymous characters, whereas nowadays too many of them feel that they are as much of a star attraction on the pitch as the players are. More often than not, in the cold light of day after our initial emotions had subsided, we shrugged our shoulders and concluded that the officials were human and, therefore, made mistakes from time to time and we had no proof as to whether their decisions were right or wrong.

Another thing that has changed is the nature of players. Back in the day there were some very hard players who got away with some pretty calculated thuggery week after week - Chelsea's 'Chopper' Harris, Leeds United's Norman Hunter and Billy Bremner, and Arsenal's Peter Storey spring readily to mind - but the players on the receiving end hardly ever made a meal of the treatment they got, nor did the vast majority try to con the referee, so the referee's job was a lot easier. Players tended to accept that very hard tackling and being fouled were part of the game. If a player went down in a crumpled heap, it was almost always because he was genuinely in pain. Over the years, players have turned feigning injury, making it look as though they have been fouled and so on into an art form, thus giving match officials the difficult task of deciding what is a genuine foul and what isn't without the benefit of slow-motion action replays before they hsve to make their decisions.

In summary, match officials have always made some bum decisions but video technology and their own apparent thirst for stardom make us see them in a far less forgiving light.

 

[RobM]

Yes 1966 rings a bell. I'm sure in one of the SUFC history books it mentions that as our first ever dismissal.

Not sure. I think the 1966 dismissal was the first for 40 years. I'll have a look in the books when I get time to peruse.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Norman Hunter bites yer leg! He'd get sent off every game these days. It's a shame, I remember seeing Italian and Spanish players writhing round as if they'd been shot and diving in a World Cup in the 70s and thinking I'd never want to see that kind of play here. Now, with the open market across the world for players, it's infiltrated our game and far too many players do it.

With the ability to review things now so easy, I would like to see the FA take retrospective action in cases where players have clearly simulated - whether that be injury or simply diving. Perhaps if this happened more then less would do it.

I am fed up by what is effectively cheating going on and costing us. I'd also like to see that poor officiating gets punished. The fact we seem to have been SO hard done by lately is really worrying.

 

[Sleaford Shrimper]

I am fed up by what is effectively cheating going on and costing us. I'd also like to see that poor officiating gets punished. The fact we seem to have been SO hard done by lately is really worrying.

I agee with you. My biggest gripe is with linesmen or 'referees' assistants' as they now have to be called. Their main job was, and still should be, to ADVISE the referee on offsides and when the ball has gone out of the field of play and on other matters in their QUARTER of the pitch. Too many of them are failing to get the first two of these simple tasks right and insist on poking their noses, uninvited by the referee, into matters that take place outside their designated quarter of the pitch. On Saturday, the alleged foul that led to Gillingham's penalty took place in a quarter of the pitch that was the referee's patch, yet the linesman was allowed, uninvited, to signal for a penalty. The referee, who was rightly nearer to the incident should have trusted his own judgement and only have consulted with the linesman if he felt it was necessary. Southampton were deprived of a totally legitimate goal in the League Cup Final yesterday by a linesman who got a simple offside decision wrong.

Referees are not blameless, however, because a lot of them, like the guy at Gillingham on Saturday, seem to let the linesmen make decisions for them rather than simply listening to their advice and then making their own decisions. In my years running the line in youth football, I was normally told by the referees that I worked with that they wanted me to judge awards of throw-ins and offsides and only to wave my flag for other incidents if they happened in front of my nose. In my opinion, that's still the way it should be.

 

[Zeuss]

It's in all 4 divisions that nearly all the referees are abysmal-and the linos,who have a much,much easier job,are,if that's possible,even worse!
The only satisfactory solution is to get rid asap and bring in different,better people-upping the pay would be extremely important and bring in/fast-track men who have played and therefore understand the game .

 

[AndyT]

State of Refereeing : Donna Summer's less successful follow-up! :sad:

 

[fbm]

Norman Hunter bites yer leg! He'd get sent off every game these days. It's a shame, I remember seeing Italian and Spanish players writhing round as if they'd been shot and diving in a World Cup in the 70s and thinking I'd never want to see that kind of play here. Now, with the open market across the world for players, it's infiltrated our game and far too many players do it.

With the ability to review things now so easy, I would like to see the FA take retrospective action in cases where players have clearly simulated - whether that be injury or simply diving. Perhaps if this happened more then less would do it.

I am fed up by what is effectively cheating going on and costing us. I'd also like to see that poor officiating gets punished. The fact we seem to have been SO hard done by lately is really worrying.

Norman Hunter was nothing compared to some of the continentals and South Americans in the 1960's... for those who want to know what it could be like in the old days, check out this video of "The Battle of Santiago" - Italy v Chile, 1962 World Cup.

I just love David Coleman's introduction. I frequently revisit this... it gets worse every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5jVMSlpZhg

 

[AndyT]

Love that match! :thumbsup: .. The ref is excellent. Dishing out a stern talking to for a left hook!

Remember some fella used the clip for a Bury home defeat ... In fact, here it is! :smile: :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuhYPcV9drc