Biased Refereeing Or Sheer Bad Luck?

There have been an awful lot of weird refereeing decisions in the S League Cup. Comical ones, outrageous ones, bizarre ones, decisions that were just plain wrong. 

A good game was ruined by a bad refereeing decision.  During last night's game, it was bitterly frustrating for the players who had made so much effort and for their fans who had made so much noise, yet for so little reward.  The home fans kept chanting, kept hoping. A great occasion for a penalty was spoiled for the home fans.  Either we're witnessing a referee prodigy, or this call is so obviously bad, even a child could spot it.

If a player has a bad game he loses his place and I’d like to see more referees demoted when they have done their job badly.  One way to go about things would be to have someone in the stands watching the referee live, marking his performance, his decision making and his positional awareness. Then, when it comes to reading his match report he will have someone there to either agree or disagree with his reasons behind what he claims he did and did not see.

We all make mistakes, but we also tend to learn from them. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case with referees at the moment. One mistake in a game can be acceptable, especially when you consider the speed at which the game is played as well as the fact officials don’t have the luxury of replays.  But, if a referee makes more than one mistake and subsequently costs a side a result, then they should be made to face the consequences. When a player makes a mistake and mis-times a tackle he is punished, so why shouldn’t referees receive the same treatment?  After all, it is their mistakes that can prove just as costly to the outcome of a match as a player making a mistake and being sent off.

So unless some drastic changes are made to the way referee’s performances are analysed and even the introduction of some extra help from the stands, teams, players, managers and fans will continue to feel hard done by each and every week.

"If there is a thing our referees do best, is to spoil a beautiful  game." ~ Referees, prove to us this remark is wrong!  You can flash a red card to send a player off the pitch, can we do the same to you if you performed below par?

**P.S. The views and opinions expressed are mine alone  and do not represent the Black Sheep.