Building on this idea, there is also the in-depth analysis following games. Why so much emphasis is put on drawing out this endless series of “what could have been” is beyond me, and does piss every football fan across the land off. But knowing that it was based around whether you blew your whistle or not is something that sounds just horrific. Having this drama post-match is something that helps no one, especially the referee, and I guess in a way is why they do this – because it’s a self-fulfilling strategy. Build up the drama, increases likelihood of mistake, which increases drama likelihood, which gives them something to analyse, and so on and so forth. Moreover, knowing that people like Graham Poll have “gone to the dark side” as it were by giving their opinion on the weekend’s controversial decisions I find absolutely perplexing. If I was a ref, I certainly wouldn’t shell out for Sky every month.
Not only this, but there’s the one thing which arguably makes the biggest difference – the players. The numbers going into refereeing haven’t been great for a long time, and it’s hardly surprising when you look at it. Even at base level the abuse from those on the pitch is just disgusting, no matter what levels of “passion” get involved with the players during the game. These people are worldwide celebrities at the top level, so when someone so well known and so well admired is hurling abuse at you it can’t be easy, and when there’s 11 of these people surrounding you it gets even worse.
From this respect, it seems like football is almost a victim from its own success. Of course, its worldwide appeal has many-a-benefit, but in terms of the standard of refereeing it can’t do any good. When so much focus is put on one man from every person involved with the game across the globe the pressure is bound to get to him or her. And when you consider the relative context of the referee as well – far less well paid compared to the primadonnas that he’s trying to marshall, and the fact he spends most of his week inconspicuously as a PE teacher or a policeman or something it must be a bit of a step-up to be suddenly in the viewpoint of everyone.
Refereeing is not based on what the referee sees a large amount of the time, its what those far less qualified and far more bias are able to see, but the bullying mechanism fits into place and which way he points is arm is based upon this. I guess there’s always goal line technology of course, but we’ll save that for another day.
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