West Ham v Chelsea 24 Apr 5.30pm

BubblesNeverDies

When referees are getting verbal and often physical abuse even at schoolboy matches from parents I don't see things improving.
Blame it on the steady decline of the standard of behaviour in society as a whole, for which, in my opinion, social media should carry a lot of the blame.

claretandbluesky

What is embarrassing is that they are getting basic decisions wrong when having the luxury of reviewing them. We all may have moaned about a ref before but we also knew how difficult the job was having to make instant decisions in real time. Not in this case he reviewed it about six times on a TV screen and still got it wrong.

I think recruit young ref's employ them on contracts and train them up. Pay them well enough and there won't be a shortage. The money in Football should be able to produce better referees if the structure for doing so is in place.

BubblesNeverDies

IronHerb said:

Wasn't Kavanagh only shown the slow motion impact after the ball had gone? I'm sure I heard that on Monday morning from Dermot Gallagher on SKY. If correct then he was hung out to dry by the VAR ref Peter Banks.

Exactly, context is everything.

BubblesNeverDies

BubblesNeverDies said:

When referees are getting verbal and often physical abuse even at schoolboy matches from parents I don't see things improving.
Blame it on the steady decline of the standard of behaviour in society as a whole, for which, in my opinion, social media should carry a lot of the blame.

I forgot to add reality television to that.

claretandbluesky

Referee academy. Recruiting ideally from ex players and those that didn't quite make it, but that have played at a decent level. Pay them a training wage whilst you train them in all aspects from referee, VAR, linesperson and fourth official. let them get mentored as they come through lower leagues, with lots of games watched back. Incentivise them with good pay once qualified.

This could be a good well paid career for the right people. I don't see there being a shortage of applicants.

Existing referees. to be sent a video of all the contentious incidents during the weekend matches and told what the correct decision should be and why, this would help consistency, especially with things such as hand ball.

thornburyiron

Currently experienced PL refs are on a retainer of £42k and then £1150 per match plus expenses.

IronHerb

https://www.sportbible.com/football/news-202021-premier-league-referees-salaries-revealed-20200913

ASLEFshrugged

Balbuena's red card has been rescinded

thornburyiron said:

Currently experienced PL refs are on a retainer of £42k and then £1150 per match plus expenses.

How much we pay them doesn't seem to matter, fewer people want to suffer the abuse they get at lower level matches so the quality of refs progressing to the higher levels is declining.

There just aren't enough people out there prepared to take the abuse some people feel they have a right to inflict upon officials.

Frankly I wouldn't want to be a ref and get hounded on Twitter, have my phone number or address shared on Facebook, etc. for making a mistake

claretandbluesky

Offer them 150k plus 2k per match and I bet a queue would form quite quickly.

On that subject however I am always surprised that the starting salary for the police is under 25k as I couldn't imagine the rubbish they deal with day to day for that. You must go home after a long week dealing with drunks, violence etc and think all this for that much!

ASLEFshrugged

I'm sure you would have plenty of people willing to be referees if you offered them £140k to take charge of Level 7 Junior (Amateur) or Level 6 County matches. At the moment Level 4 Supply League and Level 5 Senior County get £50 a match maximum.

Level 2 is National League (Conference), Level 3 is National League North and South.

claretandbluesky

I think what I envisage is a group of people showing potential from those non league ranks and ex players who go to an academy. I think whilst at the academy the salary would be much smaller as they continue to gain experience, but that the £150k plus figure is what an elite Premiership and championship level referee should be earning. This would attract the best people and have them treat it as a full time occupation and be rewarded for the level of expertise and capability they would demonstrate. This referee at the weekend and the VAR man clearly fell way below the level of expertise and judgment expected in a multi billion pound industry.