Oh boy, let’s just start writing and see what we end up with……

Referees eh? Just here to spoil everyone’s fun, aren’t they……?

Well, not really. Without them the games wouldn’t go ahead. Or even worse they WOULD go ahead with me reffing them. Then you might appreciate what we have.

There are people out there, normally perfectly reasonable people, who from the minute they step foot on a football pitch seem to forget that referees are only human, and think they can speak to them in ways they would never speak to anyone else in any other aspects of their life, but does anyone really think being a referee is that easy?

‘But they are getting easy decisions wrong,’ we hear people occasionally cry. Ok let’s have a look at that for a second. The easiest thing in the world is to know that you’ve been fouled as you’ve felt the contact, to be the player trying to keep the ball in play and being able to see whether it’s in or out because you are RIGHT THERE. Referees get one look at it from where they are stood at that moment in time. They can’t be everywhere at once, they won’t always get it right, but just shake it off and get on with the game, we’re all meant to be grown ups around here.

Apparently these things even themselves out.

They don’t do it on purpose, and believe it or not they probably don’t have a hidden agenda against you and your team. The number of games I’ve seen where teams have suggested as much due to the decisions they can list that went against them, while somehow forgetting the ones that went in their favour, can be a little bit painful.

Referees don’t put on that famous black jacket and all of a sudden develop superhuman eyesight, so how anyone can expect them to see that the whole of the ball has gone an inch over the line on the far side of the pitch? I would personally challenge anyone who wants to have a go to stand on one one side of the pitch while we hold a ball two meters above the ground at the other side of the pitch, and you can try and tell us if it’s still in play or not. So play to the whistle and don’t be so keen to question every aspect of the referees life choices because he couldn’t see the little nick off your opponents boot laces from 30 feet away through a crowd of players.

We now live in an age where football supporters can see refereeing decisions being questioned almost constantly, from multiple camera angles at the top level of the game, being studied and analysed with a referees representative being absolutely grilled over a decision that was given, compared to another decision for a vaguely similar incident that happened 6 years ago. Regardless of what is said in these cases, people will still form their own opinion, and question the people who are questioning the referees. This is the referees circle of life at the top end of the football spectrum, but this has filtered it’s way down to every level of the game, and it’s getting a bit boring.

In our January blog we mentioned perspective, and this is what it comes down to. Just because you might get hurt in a challenge it doesn’t mean the player has tried to hurt you, and when a referee doesn’t give a decision in your favour it doesn’t mean they’ve done it personally to rile you. They are trying to call it as they see it, nothing more, nothing less. It’s a game of 6-a-side football, a way for people to let off a bit of steam and try and get themselves a bit fitter, it shouldn’t be THAT important that you feel the need to turn into a completely different person for an hour of your week.

While we are going to defend our referees where we can, mostly due to the thankless job they do, that doesn’t mean we will turn a blind eye to any complaints or issues teams want to raise. We talk to our referees at the start and end of every evening, and have an ability to raise issues with them if there becomes a common theme with what’s being brought up. Just make it helpful. They aren’t a cheat, so don’t bring that to our table, every referee will referee in their own way, so don’t expect every decision to be given exactly the same by every referee, and if we haven’t mentioned it already, they aren’t perfect.

Are you?