10 Nov 2019 22:43:32
Back in the good old days the ref or lino made a bad decision but we often said they got it wrong as it was a decision that had to be made in a split second! Now we have some twit taking several minutes and still getting it wrong! Certainly not progress It’s not fun anymore let’s get rid COYG.
11 Nov 2019 07:33:06
As you correctly stated, it is the same poor refs that are monitoring VAR. The problem with VAR is that it tends to cancel goals, often for extremely marginal offside decisions. The first thing that should be done is to fast track retiring professional footballers to high level refereeing and to entice them increase the salary of top level refs to, say £500,000 per annum raised by a levy on PL clubs, paid as a small percentage of their bloated wage bills. The same would go for VAR.
11 Nov 2019 08:02:09
100% agree mate, people moaned about refs making mistakes but it worked all over the world for over 100 years and helped make football the greatest game on earth, it's sterilisation in the pursuit of perfect perfection.
If you rid the game of all human errors every game has to end 0 0.
11 Nov 2019 08:35:30
It doesn't matter how much you pay someone RG they will always be human and make mistakes, in fact my worry would be if you made a refs wage super attractive it might encourage the wrong people for the wrong reasons to become Refs.
Career politicians from Oxford and Cambridge haven't exactly been a brilliant advert for money attracting the right people for the right reasons have they.
No one wants to see people who are there simply because of the financial rewards because that opens up the game to all kinds of potential problems which would most definitely see the games declines.
11 Nov 2019 09:00:47
The idea behind the wage increase is firstly to attract retiring professionals to do the job and secondly, when average PL players are earning in a week, what refs earn in a year, it can’t be right.
11 Nov 2019 10:25:44
I see your point RG but I really don't think money is the answer and niether are ex pros especially, just because someone was a good player i don't think it would necessarily make them a good ref, look at managers many of the best managers never played at a high level and I think it would be the same with refs.
I think they should be paid well for once fully qualified say the same rate as a tradesman but be able to retire on a full salary at 45 say.
This would be an attractive career option but not a gravy boat occupation that attracted the wrong people for the wrong reasons.
We don't want people doing the job soley for their love of money because as we know money can become extremely addictive for some people and the more they have the more they want which can leave them open to not being to fussy about how they earn it, we certainly don't want people who can be bought easily doing the job mate.
11 Nov 2019 12:04:45
Former players going on to be refs is an awful idea. Imagine an ex-Man U, liverpool or any other team’s former player (nevermind spurs which I’d assume wouldn’t be allowed) making a bad call against us. The claims of bias would be unavoidable.
11 Nov 2019 13:39:27
Absolutely PG, imagine Tony Adams refereeing a Spurs game or any game that could possibly effect Arsenal's fortunes in some way! Would he be biased? Could he stop himself?
I think offering apprenticeships in becoming a ref might be a brilliant place to start, offering youngsters who aren't the greatest scholars in the world an opportunity to have a career doing something that would give them a good standard of living learning, a chance of early retirement with a nice pension rather than have to work into their 70s for a state pension might be a big attraction for those who simply aren't ever going to be doctors or lawyers but have different set of skills to offer.
11 Nov 2019 18:40:45
It’s clear that the current refs are poor. The idea behind hiring ex-pros as refs is that they have played and understand the game.
As for managers, management is clearly very different to refereeing.
What would your solution to the poor level of PL refs?
11 Nov 2019 18:43:46
I doubt any PL players would be tempted into refereeing even for the salary I have suggested. It is far more likely to be players from Leagues 1 and 2. The salary refs receive is way too low for the job, particularly in an industry that pays so well.