Blue Lions Podcast: Premier League matches plagued by inconsistent referees
Inconsistent officiating is overshadowing results and performance in the Premier League, and is endangering player safety.
The Football Association must act quickly to protect players and the league’s reputation from suffering prolonged damage.
Marcos Rojo, Jamie Vardy and Ross Barkley have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons the last few Premier League match weeks. Each of these stars received bookings for aggressive, dangerous tackles. The color of the cards, though, ignited controversy among players, pundits and even managers.
After Vardy saw red for his tackle on Stoke City’s Mame Diouf, the normally placid Claudio Ranieri angrily confronted referee Craig Pawson at half-time. Most watchers – and possibly even Ranieri – do not dispute the severity of Vardy’s tackle.
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However, Pawson awarded Manchester United’s Marcos Rojo a yellow for a nearly identical tackle on Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha. Inconsistency between two referees is bad enough. Inconsistency between an individual referee’s calls from one match to the next points to deeper issues.
Part of the problem is the simple fact that referees are as familiar to fans and pundits as the players are. On The Blue Lions podcast, Travis Tyler noted how the officials’ new-found celebrity makes them averse to taking responsibility for a major call.
“Suddenly referees are well-known. They don’t have any anonymity. Every decision they make is scrutinized. As long as they’re known, they have to be accountable for their actions. That makes them afraid to make the call.”
The FA’s review board, rather than offering oversight, provides an easy way for match officials to pass the buck. “Everyone knows their name if they make a decision, so they don’t make a decision. It goes to the FA which is an anonymous board. That’s probably why the FA is getting so ridiculous with their punishments, because the refs aren’t doing anything.”
Because Premier League officials come up through the ranks of the Football Association, the shaky officiating extends throughout all tiers of football. Referees who are not well-known, working matches that are not watched by an international audience, may face even more hostility from fans.
“Being in the stands when you’re watching the games and seeing how fans react, to quite obvious decisions, is appalling,” Daniel Mcclue said “It’s quite scary. I genuinely don’t understand why anyone would want to be a referee.”
“The FA needs to take the onus on themselves and say ‘even if the referee makes that decision, we can overrule it.’ And then the referee knows what to do the next time.”
The Football Association and the Professional Game Match Officials Board need to address the recent spate of non-calls, under-calls and inconsistent calls. Player safety and basic competence are very much at risk.
The Premier League, its clubs and its sponsors invest a lot of money for Jamie Vardy, Ross Barkley and Marcos Rojo to be marquee players. If Craig Pawson, Jon Moss and Michael Oliver are in the headlines, something has gone wrong.
You can listen to the podcast here or download it on iTunes!
The referee conversation starts around 23 minutes in to the podcast.