If Carlsberg Made Referees........Part 1

*
The New Voice Of Football column at Footballfancast.com

While wondering how Ref-Cam would reflect on certain referees in ascertaining the ones that were competent from the ones that, well leave you scratching your head as to exactly what they saw that the rest of the world didn’t. I happened upon two refs that show the good and the dire in refereeing today.

The one that Carlsberg probably wouldn’t make is Stuart Attwell, who seems to have been fast-tracked into the higher reaches of the game fairly quickly and already has a string of howlers, Graham Poll would be proud of to his credit in his fledgling career as a referee to date.

Now every ref gets it wrong on occasion after all they are human like you and I, but Ref-Cam would show this Attwell to be as one fansite put it a “buffoon”. What does he see that everyone else doesn’t?

Attwell is the youngest ref to officiate in the Premier League at 25-years-old after being promoted to referee in the Football League at the start of the 2007/2008, season. A few good performances in the lower leagues and he was promoted to ref in the Championship later in the season.

Within six minutes of his first Championship game Sheffield United v Blackpool he sends Ian Evatt off for Blackpool for a professional foul on Billy Sharp and awarded a penalty to United. Replays show a good view for Attwell and no contact made by Evatt. Blackpool manager Simon Grayson didn’t question Attwell, but the Football League for putting the relatively inexperienced referee in charge of the game.

So everyone makes mistakes and this was his first big one in his debut season in the Football League. He went through the rest of the season without much incident apart from Swansea manager Roberto Martinez accusing Attwell of failing to control the players in their FA Cup tie against Havant & Waterlooville and even refereed the League 2 play-off final at Wembley.

The Football League, I’ll come back to them later promote him to the roster for the Premier League in this current season, which to say the least has left me gasping in sheer astonishment as to why this relatively young ref has been thrust into the limelight.

Not one, but three big occasions, where you just want to see what he saw or even gain the slightest bit of insight into how he reached the decision he did and were not even at Christmas yet.

On the 20th September Attwell gave Reading their ‘Ghost goal’ against Watford. The ball went four-yards wide the assistant flagged, Attwell thought the assistant was flagging for a corner or something else, which everyone else could see it was and then called Attwell over and said it was a goal. Attwell then gives it, much to the astonishment of everyone on the pitch, but especially the Reading dugout, who could hardly control their amusement.

Now while the assistant thought it was a goal and gave it as such. Surely Attwell as a ref has to be able to tell if the ball is in the net or not? After all this is probably one of the easier things to do as a ref. Being able to put yourself in a position to see if the ball is in the net. Not a goal-line clearance, just in the net or not. So while this is happening, what exactly is he looking at during that short period of time to not see if the ball was in or not?

No punishment though for getting something so easy so wrong. You see the Football League have plans for the “Buffoon” and have even blocked the showing of the ‘Ghost goal’ on you-tube, but you can get a great Chris Kamara version of events.

Six-weeks later in a local derby between Nottingham Forest and Derby he disallows two late Derby goals. The second one incensed Rams boss Paul Jewell, who is no stranger to stalking a referee after the game to have it out. However, on this occasion Jewell was right, Attwell had seen what no other had seen and decided to disallow it. He also booked 8 players and gave a straight red in what was considered to be not a dirty game by both sets of fans.

Attwell was hauled in by referees chief Keith Hackett this time and dropped from the fixtures the following week, but this didn’t mean a week ban for he was fourth official at the Hull v Bolton Premiership game.

Then last week in the Stoke v Fulham Premier League clash a cross comes in from Fulham that Stoke defender Danny Higginbotham sticks his arm out to and handballs, while also lurching with his head. A clear handball and penalty, but not given. Maybe Attwell was unsighted? Not at all, while Fulham protested he simply pointed to his head and reiterated that Higginbotham headed it. Ok fine maybe it was hard to tell after all his head was near the ball too. So why did the ball go backwards then? Arsenal legend Paul Merson summed this up best on Sky Sports, when he suggested that maybe Attwell thought that Higginbotham had his “head on back-to-front” to head in a totally unnatural direction. So what is Attwell seeing that no one else sees and how does he come to these bizarre decisions?

You would have thought that three howlers in as many months would see Attwell having to ref in the Blue Square Conference for a lengthy spell, but no. As I say the Football League have plans for what they perceive as the future of refereeing and have got him on to the FIFA roster. So its Champions League here I come for Attwell.

There have been other incidents involving Attwell in his short, but clanger-prone career. Now if there was, a way to see what he saw then we would all come to the conclusion that he is just not up to it. Perhaps promoted by the Football League too fast, but still not up to it nonetheless.

So the Premier League and now the Champions League and probably the World Cup at some point in the future, have ended up with a ref, who is a perfect example of how Ref-Cam would expose them for what they truly are, awful.

A Matter Of Respect In The Premier League – The Simple, But Really Obvious Solution

*
The New Voice Of Football column at FootballFancast.com

Well last week I brought you the unorthodox, but genius idea of Ref-Cam, which there will be an update on in a few days after my minions have finished their painstaking research into the technical side of the matter. The subject in question this week regarding the refereeing of our beautiful game is the one of respect and how simple it would be to bring it back, without really having to do that much.

At the start of this season the Premier League thought it would change attitudes of the modern footballer towards referees by simply going around the different clubs in the Premiership and asking them to be ‘more polite’ to the man in the middle in the form of the ‘Respect Campaign’, while also making a video showing what would happen without the man in the middle to officiate proceedings.

This campaign originated from a grass roots survey in 2007, which identified the abuse and lack of respect towards referees at the top-level as a cause of recruitment and retention problems at grass roots for referees. In addition to helping the recruitment issue and that of holding on to referees it was also hoped that it would filter down to improve coaching and player development along with participation in youth football and the safeguarding of children from abuse, while playing football. These were the key points the ‘Respect Campaign’ was introduced to tackle.

So has there been any noticeable change in the Premier League this season?

Of course not, players are still swearing and abusing refs, they are still crowding around the referee when they feel he has made a bad decision. In fact not a lot has changed at all. Because while it is all very well to ask them nicely there will only be change when real pressure is put on them to stop abusing the referee and action not only taken against the player, but also the club and the powers that run the game.

So how can real pressure be put on them, when a fine is hardly going to have a modern Premiership footballer, having to eat beans on toast?

Well you see the answer is staring the FA, Premier League, UEFA and FIFA right in the face. In fact the referees are already wearing the equipment that could stop this lack of respect almost immediately. It’s the microphone that the refs are already wearing to communicate or not as the case may seem with their assistants on each touchline. Why don’t they just turn them on so everyone can hear what is being said? Exactly what they do in rugby, where there is almost total respect of the ref and absolutely zero abuse or swearing.

If they turned them on do you think the television companies that spend fortunes for the rights to televise games live would put up with these overpaid footballers swearing live on TV every five minutes? Absolutely no chance, they would have every budding Mary Whitehouse on the phone complaining and calling for football to be banned.

The TV companies would then put huge pressure on the FA and Premier League to stop players effing and blinding immediately or face losing huge chunks of revenue if it continues, because they simply would not be allowed to air it on TV. So even the dimmest of professional footballers would be able to work out that the threat of less TV money or no football on TV is going to make him considerably poorer if he cant perform the simple task of buttoning it.

There might be a couple of weeks where there is a slight time delay, while they bleep all the swearing out, but surely even a modern day footballer can learn to stop abusing and swearing at the ref. Especially if it is going to be heard by the young fans that idolise them and have posters of them on their bedroom walls. For suddenly the parents wont want their children having footballers as role models.

Now the modern day footballer may argue that they didn’t come into the game to be a role model, but I would say tough luck you are and that’s that. After all they are all getting paid handsomely for a job that most people would give their right arm to do unless they wanted to be a goalkeeper of course.

So Lord Triesman, Michel Platini, Sepp Blatter and anyone else that is really interested in properly addressing the points the ‘Respect Campaign’ was launched for. Turn on the referees mic’s and just sit back while the respect is brought back for the man in the middle. Yes they might have a bit of a bumpy ride from the TV companies while it’s brought in, but I’m sure they could handle that for the good of the game. After all that’s why they have these jobs in the first place.

For if they think by simply asking them nicely to stop being abusive has worked? Well it might be time to move on and find a job more suited to their intelligence level. For if they cant grasp this simple solution then they have no right to be running the game we the fans all love.