The Referee Conundrum (And the Solution)

by Neil Chhabda



Man Utd's Man of the Match (left)
(source: timesunion.com)



Last weekend, a blockbuster Sunday of entertainment in the Premier League was marred by a few controversial decisions by referees.  The first decision was to rule Luis Suarez offside after he had scored the winning goal in the Merseyside Derby in the 94^th minute. Every replay showed he was on-side and that the decision was made after he had started to celebrate and after Sylvain Dystin had influenced the linesman. The second decision was to send off Fernando Torres after he had allegedly dived, reducing Chelsea to 9 men. Replays showed that the defender had gotten none of the ball and had indeed made contact. While Chelsea were down to 10 men before the second red-card, they had good momentum, were simply dominating a lacklustre Manchester United side and were playing at home. This game could have gone either way and it is more likely than not that Chelsea would win.

These poor judgments come during an interesting debate about diving and referee decisions. A year or two ago, the idea of having goal-line technology was completely rejected by FIFA. Now, however, the system is being tested and will eventually be implemented. Many are also claiming that diving is a big issue. This debate is particularly centred around Luis Suarez who has often been criticized for diving unnecessarily to win free-kicks or penalties. Despite one or two dives this season, Suarez has generally been treated unfairly by referees. Every time he goes down inside or near the box, the referees don’t give fouls, even though replays show that they are as clear as day. In the modern game, things happen too quickly for the referees to judge or see, despite their experience. Howard Webb, who refereed the World Cup 2010 final, has made some appalling judgements. And, more recently, Mark Clattenburg has been on people who “dive” and has gotten his cards out too quickly. Even the linesmen are struggling. Luis Suarez was evidently on-side and Javier Hernandez’ winning goal in the Chelsea-Manchester United game was offside --- although it could be argued that the latter was too hard to see. Therefore I’m forced to ask the question: What is the point of referees when they can’t make crucial decisions and simply can’t see some events?

Okay. Perhaps I’m being a bit silly by suggesting that referees should be taken out of the game, but the fact of the matter is the referees are no longer always right and get the majority of important or challenging decisions wrong. This cannot go one and a change is desperately needed. I believe that this change could come in the form of one or two very straightforward rules. These would be very similar to, if the not the same as, the Hawkeye rules in tennis. They would simply state that, if a team wishes, they can appeal a decision and a ‘third-umpire’, similar to the one in cricket can make a decision based on several slow-motion replays. Like tennis, each team would have a set number of ‘challenges’. These would be limited to 3-5 so that every single decision isn’t challenged.

In my opinion, this would be a practical and simple solution. Most stadiums wouldn’t need to invest in any new cameras as the ones they already have cover all angles (especially in the Premier League), and the referees and linesman can keep doing their jobs. Some may argue that this would kill the flow of the game and destroy the momentum that a team might have, but this is the exact same reason that FIFA used against goal-line technology.  They were forced to implement that because it is better for the sport and because it prevents referees from getting abuse when they get a decision wrong. This solution would be perfect.

Conclusively, the pace and ferocity of modern-day, top-flight football has made it almost impossible for officials to correctly make vital and decisive calls. In my opinion, the only solution to this problem is to integrate cameras into the game so that decisions can be challenged and corrected if they are proven wrong. This would be better for the sport as it would ensure that games make the headlines for the right reasons and would take pressure off referees.

Read George Kimber-Sweatman's article, Football Refereeing: A Thankless Task?