What do you think of the current standard of the football referees in the English Premiership? Do you think a system of video replays should be introduced to help these referees and to stop what are some important mistakes being made? These two questions are things which myself and my friends debate on a regular basis, especially after a few beers.
Do not get me wrong; I am fully aware that I have never been involved in professional football in any shape or form; I am actually involved in various projects to do with stuttering treatment, DVD duplication service and about training for foster carers.
There was a match a number of seasons ago which sticks in my memory, a bad memory at that. It was a very important match between my favourite team Birmingham City and one of their local rivals Stoke City. It was an important match because Birmingham really needed to win the game as they were in danger of being relegated in that particular season. The three points for the win would certainly have helped them in their quest to survive.
With only around ten minutes of the match remaining Birmingham were leading a tense match by one goal to nil. At this stage one of the Stoke City footballers clattered into the B’ham City goalkeeper, who had the football firmly in his grasp, over. The ball slipped from his grasp and one of the other Stoke players kicked it into an unguarded net.
It was a mystery to many of the home supporters as to why the referee had not blown up for a free kick to Birmingham, I for one was fuming. I could not believe it and nor could any of the other Blues supporters, when the referee let the goal stand. I am normally quite a calm person but became so angry it was untrue. The next thing that happened was one of the Birmingham fans ran onto the pitch and fully punched this referee in the face. The players were taken off the pitch while order was restored.
I remember thinking at the time that this referee had deserved to be hit, but I later changed my mind, once I had had time to calm down. We are all capable of making a mistake of course.
I personally think that the overall standard of referees in the Premiership is very good and that we should start to get off these peoples back. I would however like each referee to be interviewed after each match in the same way as the football managers are. By doing this they could explain to the supporters why they made certain decisions during the match.
