Referee

[Bobby b]

I personally don't care if there's a black, white, male, female, gay or transgender referee, a good ref is a good ref and a bad one is a bad one, I don't watch any football matches and look at the ref, unfortunately the last few weeks they've been making decisions that I'm forced to notice them

 

[LBA_Blade]

I personally don't care if there's a black, white, male, female, gay or transgender referee, a good ref is a good ref and a bad one is a bad one, I don't watch any football matches and look at the ref, unfortunately the last few weeks they've been making decisions that I'm forced to notice them

Agreed with the colour of skin shouldn't have any effect on how good a referee you are but also why does it matter if every referee is white or black or Asian or whatever. It should be on efficiency of the job at hand.

Personally (and sometimes I need to get my tin hat on for some reason) I disagree with female officials refereeing men's games and vice versa. The reason for me is that with female officials what ultimately you are saying is that the pinnacle of being a female referee is to referee in the men's game whether that be football league or Premiership. You are saying the women's game is not good enough for you as a referee you would be better in the men's game. it has the potential to restrict development of the women's game.

If you look at players it is estimated the average pay in the Women's Super League is £30,000 per year vs £2,800,000 for Men in the EPL

If you look at the referee salary is it estimated to be around £70,000 (including a "retainer" of circa £40,000) in the EPL (currently all men) something on the figures need to change as if you were bringing in regular women referees into the men's game they would be being paid more than double than the average player in the WSL. Rather than handpicking a 1 or 2 out and sticking the odd one into the men's game the FA in collaboration with other partners needs to develop the women's game with extra funding, pay the players more and use the good female referees to develop the female game.

When I have had a similar chat to the above before with friends, I was a referee, I was at both Leeds and Sheff United (twice) Academies refereeing U12-U16s age groups along with open age Saturday and Sunday football. You don't really do it for the money but it certainly helped when I was 17/18 - £15-£20+ mileage could easily get a ticket to BDTBL or most away games too but when you are on you have a game on your doorstep and you are happy to go to the local park on a Sunday do your bit, yeah you might get some stick from some bloke who is near on 40 and 20 stone and hoofs the ball but has a go at you etc, typical Sunday morning stuff but you could have some banter and usually a bit of a laugh. I then get told no you can't do that game (this actually happened to me) by the local county FA I was expected to travel a circa 80 mile around trip to run the line on a 10am kick off on a U12's girls game (30 mins each way). Meaning I would have to be there for 9am on a Sunday setting off at 8am not getting home till 12:30pm if lucky with Sunday morning traffic on the way back. For 60 minutes of girls football for just mileage at £0.25 per mile (£20) (no actual pay) when I said I wouldn't do it, I got suspended from refereeing as I did the fixture I wanted to do which was a 5 min drive from my house. Never done a game since.

 

[Bobby b]

Agreed with the colour of skin shouldn't have any effect on how good a referee you are but also why does it matter if every referee is white or black or Asian or whatever. It should be on efficiency of the job at hand.

Personally (and sometimes I need to get my tin hat on for some reason) I disagree with female officials refereeing men's games and vice versa. The reason for me is that with female officials what ultimately you are saying is that the pinnacle of being a female referee is to referee in the men's game whether that be football league or Premiership. You are saying the women's game is not good enough for you as a referee you would be better in the men's game. it has the potential to restrict development of the women's game.

If you look at players it is estimated the average pay in the Women's Super League is £30,000 per year vs £2,800,000 for Men in the EPL

If you look at the referee salary is it estimated to be around £70,000 (including a "retainer" of circa £40,000) in the EPL (currently all men) something on the figures need to change as if you were bringing in regular women referees into the men's game they would be being paid more than double than the average player in the WSL. Rather than handpicking a 1 or 2 out and sticking the odd one into the men's game the FA in collaboration with other partners needs to develop the women's game with extra funding, pay the players more and use the good female referees to develop the female game.

When I have had a similar chat to the above before with friends, I was a referee, I was at both Leeds and Sheff United (twice) Academies refereeing U12-U16s age groups along with open age Saturday and Sunday football. You don't really do it for the money but it certainly helped when I was 17/18 - £15-£20+ mileage could easily get a ticket to BDTBL or most away games too but when you are on you have a game on your doorstep and you are happy to go to the local park on a Sunday do your bit, yeah you might get some stick from some bloke who is near on 40 and 20 stone and hoofs the ball but has a go at you etc, typical Sunday morning stuff but you could have some banter and usually a bit of a laugh. I then get told no you can't do that game (this actually happened to me) by the local county FA I was expected to travel a circa 80 mile around trip to run the line on a 10am kick off on a U12's girls game (30 mins each way). Meaning I would have to be there for 9am on a Sunday setting off at 8am not getting home till 12:30pm if lucky with Sunday morning traffic on the way back. For 60 minutes of girls football for just mileage at £0.25 per mile (£20) (no actual pay) when I said I wouldn't do it, I got suspended from refereeing as I did the fixture I wanted to do which was a 5 min drive from my house. Never done a game since.

I agree with everything you're saying, no tin hat required, I agree that with refereeing, and every other job, that it should be a meritocracy, where the best people get the best jobs, I agree that it would aggrieve female players that a female ref would get more pay than the top players, but that brings us back to the "why don't women players get paid as much male players" arguments, and that always ends with if tv don't pay as much and they don't have the crowds they can't be paid money they don't have, so i really don't have an answer for that.
Refereeing is a labour of love for the vast majority of referees, they get all the hassle from supporters whether it be at old Trafford or Maltby main, with the exception of Premier league and fifa refs they don't do it for the glamour, prestige or money, a page 3 glamour puss doesn't brag to her mates she's going Out with a ref, but the overwhelming majority do it because they love football and we wouldn't have a game without them, so I admire their efforts, though I must admit there are times when I curse the shit out of them.

 

[MadDad38]

The argument that women should not referee in the mens game because it in some way puts a lid on the womens game is nonsense.

it’s like saying we should not have foreign players in the English game because they should stay at home improving their own leagues.

if you’re good enough etc…

 

[mattbianco1]

Nothing shows how inclusive the Premier League is by giving the black guy and the female referee, the lowest ranking games

 

[MobileBlade]

Nothing shows how inclusive the Premier League is by giving the black guy and the female referee, the lowest ranking games

In fairness, its their first Premier League game and that is what normally happens. Sam Barrott got his first game earlier in the season (at 30 he became the youngest official) which was our game at Fulham.

 

[mattbianco1]

In fairness, its their first Premier League game and that is what normally happens. Sam Barrott got his first game earlier in the season (at 30 he became the youngest official) which was our game at Fulham.

Why though?

Whether it's a woman, a black guy, a white guy or an octopus. Why do they start them in the lowest ranked games.

It's the Premier League, it's all the same competition. Why should they have to start at the lowest ranked games? Are the top 6 too sacred to be burdened with an inexperienced ref?

 

[MobileBlade]

Why though?

Whether it's a woman, a black guy, a white guy or an octopus. Why do they start them in the lowest ranked games.

It's the Premier League, it's all the same competition. Why should they have to start at the lowest ranked games? Are the top 6 too sacred to be burdened with an inexperienced ref?

Simply because you are going up a level in quality. In the same way as you wouldn't pick player who looked good playing for Arbourthorne EA one week and put him in the Liverpool side the next week. You are not going to give someone who refereed Pigs v QPR this week, and then Liverpool v Arsenal next week if they have never done a Premier League game before.

 

[Chimpan-A]

Simply because you are going up a level in quality. In the same way as you wouldn't pick player who looked good playing for Arbourthorne EA one week and put him in the Liverpool side the next week. You are not going to give someone who refereed Pigs v QPR this week, and then Liverpool v Arsenal next week if they have never done a Premier League game before.

I get what you are saying, is it based on League position? If we and Luton were both top half of the table, and let’s say Villa v Chelsea was on the same day and they were both having freak bad seasons, would they get the nod for that game over ours?

 

[MobileBlade]

I get what you are saying, is it based on League position? If we and Luton were both top half of the table, and let’s say Villa v Chelsea was on the same day and they were both having freak bad seasons, would they get the nod for that game over ours?

Probably.

 

[mattbianco1]

Simply because you are going up a level in quality. In the same way as you wouldn't pick player who looked good playing for Arbourthorne EA one week and put him in the Liverpool side the next week. You are not going to give someone who refereed Pigs v QPR this week, and then Liverpool v Arsenal next week if they have never done a Premier League game before.

But they're going up into the Premier League. The 20 teams should be treated equally. We're not, clearly.

They've worked their way through the leagues, they've gaine the experience to be given a shot at the PL now... not the top part though.

 

[Selly]

But they're going up into the Premier League. The 20 teams should be treated equally. We're not, clearly.

They've worked their way through the leagues, they've gaine the experience to be given a shot at the PL now... not the top part though.

It doesn`t feel right when you think it through does it:

Its your first game

So we'll give you a game that is less in the spotlight

But why is this? they are good enough, so they should be able to ref any game.

But the reality is, that they will want to ease them in away from the spotlight. And you can`t help feeling that that is because the PGMOL are worried that they might make a mistake. Indeed as a less experienced ref maybe they are more likely to make a mistake.

But then you get to the rub. What this boils down to is that, if they are going to make a mistake, the PGMOL would far rather it was a mistake in the Blades Luton match than the Man C Arsenal match.

Forget that a mistake in our match could literally mean the difference between us, or Luton, staying up or not. Ultimately whilst we are one of 20 and all 20 are equal, some are far more equal than others*



*and the media play a part in this, "bad" decisions for the bigger teams are highlighted and replayed a million times. For the likes of us and Luton its once and move on....

 

[mattbianco1]

the PGMOL would far rather it was a mistake in the Blades Luton match than the Man C Arsenal match.

That

It's almost virtue signalling TBH.

PL meeting - "we'll get Rebecca Welch in. That will be good and show how inclusive we are"...

"Yeah but not a proper game, give her one of the promoted clubs!"

"Good idea! Don't wanna piss Jurgen or Pep off"

 

[MobileBlade]

But they're going up into the Premier League. The 20 teams should be treated equally. We're not, clearly.

They've worked their way through the leagues, they've gaine the experience to be given a shot at the PL now... not the top part though.

So when someone who is in the national list (League 1 and 2) has their first games in SG2 (and there are some doing that now) they will give them pigs v QPR or QPR v Plymouth or something, not Leicester v Leeds. Rebecca Welch's first game in the EFL was Harrogate Town v Port Vale in 2019 - who were both in lower League 2 at the time not Lincoln v Bury who were top 2 at the time.

 

[Nah den]

Isn't it about time for some AI cyborg type thing refereeing games? Humans and VAR can't be relied upon to get things right/be unbiased.

 

[Belvedere Blade]

Anthony Taylor ref for Fridays trip to Villa Park

 

[Silent Blade]

Anthony Taylor ref for Fridays trip to Villa Park
View attachment 176303

Oh no!

 

[Harrisblade]

Why though?

Whether it's a woman, a black guy, a white guy or an octopus. Why do they start them in the lowest ranked games.

It's the Premier League, it's all the same competition. Why should they have to start at the lowest ranked games? Are the top 6 too sacred to be burdened with an inexperienced ref?

Because referes are graded via observers as they step up the leagues.
Newbies to the PL will probably debut at games with less at stake, partly so the can be relieved of the pressure there may be in a Manchester or Liverpool derby.
In fact of course, in the PL, there are no low-pressure games but it's probably better to give newbies a bit of a 'quieter' start, then build up their PL experience for probably harder games to come

 

[Snowflake]

Because referes are graded via observers as they step up the leagues.
Newbies to the PL will probably debut at games with less at stake, partly so the can be relieved of the pressure there may be in a Manchester or Liverpool derby.
In fact of course, in the PL, there are no low-pressure games but it's probably better to give newbies a bit of a 'quieter' start, then build up their PL experience for probably harder games to come

Less at stake ? Relegation would cost millions

 

[Greenwich Blade]

Anthony Taylor ref for Fridays trip to Villa Park
View attachment 176303

Fuckity!

 

[munksyb]

It doesn’t make any difference for us
Whether it’s the ref / assistant ref / VAR ,
We as the lowest ranked team in the league will get the shity end of the stick in all decisions made, as they all see us as being inferior & therefore the vast majority of calls will go against us

 

[Harrisblade]

Less at stake ? Relegation would cost millions

Well, if you're headed for relegation from the first game of the season referees probably make much difference.
Otherwise by the time the real end of season battle comes round, they will have enough experience to cope with any PL game

 

[mattbianco1]

Because referes are graded via observers as they step up the leagues.
Newbies to the PL will probably debut at games with less at stake, partly so the can be relieved of the pressure there may be in a Manchester or Liverpool derby.
In fact of course, in the PL, there are no low-pressure games but it's probably better to give newbies a bit of a 'quieter' start, then build up their PL experience for probably harder games to come

Look, i know it happens and i know the reasons they do it, but it's the bit i've bolded above that pisses me off.

Why should Sheff Utd v Luton for example, be viewed to have "less at stake" than Man Utd vs. Aston Villa ?

 

[jt64]

The same people complaining about "why is this new ref getting our game" are probably the same people that don't want to play any of the kids ever until they've wasted three years on loan at Barnsley lest them being thrown into a higher stakes game earlier "destroys their confidence"

 

[Selly]

Look, i know it happens and i know the reasons they do it, but it's the bit i've bolded above that pisses me off.

Why should Sheff Utd v Luton for example, be viewed to have "less at stake" than Man Utd vs. Aston Villa ?

It isn`t because there is "less at stake" its because there is less likelihood of the media turning an incorrect decision into a witch hunt in Blades v Luton than in Man U v Liverpool.

And I suspect that that would be the case even if Blades and Luton were in the Top 6 of the table and Man U and Liverpool were in a relegation scrap. Certain teams have the media in their thrall and can kick up a fuss about a 10 a penny decision in any other game.

 

[FMBlade1]

Deary me.

 

[RWE]

Another one trying to make a name for himself. Standards piss poor

 

[FMBlade1]

Another one trying to make a name for himself. Standards piss poor

It's stage fright.

Didn't want to give us a penalty and hid behind VAR, fortunately we scored to save him.

Then was so far behind the game he guessed it was a corner as afraid to give a goal kick or a foul from Baldock.

On the basis of this, not ready for the PL.

 

[Zlatan]

This is what you get when you're more bothered about ticking boxes than actual competence.

 

[JustLookin]

This is what you get when you're more bothered about ticking boxes than actual competence.

Absolutely this. I have NEVER seen a white referee make a mistake.