I am not going to even go into the individual decisions made by Mr Ward when we played Middlesbrough or Mr Woolmer when we took on Brighton. I will leave that for drunken discussions down the pub over the next few months. I am sure the club will fill in reports as required and the FA referee adjudicator (or whatever he is called) will fill in his and the said officials will do theirs and the FA will get together behind closed doors and take whatever action they deem to be required.
In fairness that is probably for the best as if I get disciplined at work (not that I ever do of course) I would prefer it to be in the bosses office between him and me. We do know that some (not all) refs do get demoted a league or even ‘rested’ for a few weeks if they are deemed to have a bad game. It’s just the FA not washing their dirty laundry in public and OK I can go with that I guess.
But there’s my point. In my job, as I am sure in all of yours as well, if we make a decision we have to justify it.
I am a manager and if one of my staff asks why I made a particular decision, it is with good manners that I take the time to explain to them why. It won’t change my mind but I hope it earns me a bit of respect from my staff..
Football managers do, as part of the TV companies contract with the respective Leagues, have to face the camera’s within minutes of a game finishing. Often when feelings are still running high. And woe betide them if they dare to say anything controversial as they will more than likely get fined for doing what they have been asked to do: comment on the game they have just seen.
So why can’t match officials, and referee’s in particular be made to do the same?
I am not asking them to change decisions, If they gave a free kick or penalty because they genuinely believed it was one the clock cannot be turned back. But at least explain to us why you made that decision. Why did you give that, but not give that?
Cards can be rescinded , and all we ask is that if a red or yellow card is mistakenly given that they say “hands up, I may have got that wrong I will look at it”. Also if you missed a blatant elbow or bad tackle you could do the same.
It wouldn’t change the outcome of the game, it would be wrong if it did. But it would, in my humble opinion, go a long way towards making match officials understood.
The FA are big on the ‘respect’ campaign. Well Mr FA, respect is something you have to earn. Putting on that black shirt for 90 minutes does not give you a god given right to be respected. Doing your best and explaining to us fans why you did what you did would be a good way to start EARNING that respect you seem to think your officials deserve.
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