I’ve been told that if Mr Massey got it wrong, he’ll be suspended. I hope he is and I hope it’s for a long time.”
Reading the above, you could be forgiven that the aforementioned Trevor Massey, linesman for the Crystal Palace v Aston Villa FA Cup 5th Round tie, had done something truly abhorrent during the game leading to Neil Warnock, the Palace manager, to say this. Did he officiate whilst drunk? Shout racist abuse at Gabby Agbonlahor? Or maybe, in a fit of rage, he turned around and beat a disabled child with his yellow and red flag?
In fact, he gave a corner when it should have been a goal kick. The corner ultimately led to Villa’s equaliser.
Warnock is no rookie when it comes to such barbarous and contemptuous attacks on officials. He referred to David Elleray as “some bald headed bloke standing 50 yards away”, hurled repeated verbal onslaughts towards a linesman in a game between his then team Sheffield United and Ipswich Town (see the video at: http://tinyurl.com/yjxr84a), accused David Beeby of celebrating an opposition goal and most recently, lamenting over Rob Shuebridge’s disallowing of a Palace shot which hit the stanchion, and should have therefore been a goal.
I sympathise with his latter complaint; it was a shocking decision and I could forgive anyone to be angry about it in the aftermath. But the continued nature of over the top reaction and borderline childish insults on pretty much anyone who crosses his path is embarrassing.
The Palace/Villa game was the tipping point. Ok, the decision was wrong. But signifying that as the reason the goal was conceded? Give me a break. Instead of looking for excuses beyond his control, maybe Warnock should consider questioning how his defenders allowed Stilian Petrov a free header on the edge of the six yard box. I heard that managers coached that kind of stuff once, instead of blaming everyone else.
This can be found at the highest level, too; since 2003, Sir Alex Ferguson has received £45,000 worth of fines and has served ten games in touchline bans (two suspended), all down to abuse of officials. Most notably and most recently, his comments about the fitness of Alan Wiley left him £20,000 poorer and with a four-game ban.
I’m not saying refs shouldn’t be criticised – in fact, they should, as a means of check and balance. But there is a line between constructive criticism and outright abuse. This is where many managers fail, and is to the detriment of the game as a whole.
You may think refereeing looks easy. I certainly did. Then I reffed a few IDFC games last semester. It isn’t, at all. Trying to keep a clear an objective mind when you are the recipient of continued inquisition by people, who quite fairly just want to play a decent game of football without you spoiling everything, is a bit of a pain.
Now, translate that to top-flight football. There, match officials are regularly subjected to questions about their parentage by tens of thousands of drunken fans, red-in-the-face abuse from players and coaching staff alike, and for the lucky few, have their every decision pored over by the ‘experts’ on whatever TV channel’s panel. One of those football know-it-alls, Jamie Redknapp, offered the enlightening insight recently that the reason Chelsea lost to Barcelona in last year’s Champions’ League semi-final was because the referee was Norwegian.
Anyway, let’s get to the point. Referees, subjected to the human form as the rest of us, are fallible. The pressure of top-flight football, the economic consequences, and the repeated persecution and micro-analysis of their decisions makes it an impossible job to perfect; no matter what you do right, you’ll always do something which upsets somebody. That’s why football fans, pundits and managers should lay off personally insulting referees and let them get on with it. It’s a hard enough job as it is.
Andy Robinson, the Scotland Rugby Union coach, kind of epitomised what I want to get at. After seeing his side lose a man after the controversial sin-binning of Phil Godman, he chose not to blame the ref, but the opposing player Lee Byrne for “taking a dive”, before admitting his team had “committed suicide” in the latter part of the game by letting Wales score ten points in the last minute.
Neil Warnock, take note.
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