by Hoop Blah »
01 Mar 2016 09:11
sandman Hoop Blah I have to agree with Paul that ref standards are no worse than they've ever been, there's probably a decent argument to say they're at the best they've ever been.
The problem isn't with the refs, it's with the players, managers, media and supporters who all have unrealistic expectations, a lack of understanding of the rules and, on top of that, the ability to scrutinise and debate every decision in a way never seen before.
Refs are on to a hiding to nothing.
Expecting them to do their job competently is not an "unrealistic expectation".
But they do do it competently. They're humans, who will make mistakes, and can't cover enough ground to get the same view of an incident that 30 TV cameras can so they're never going to be 100% perfect.
Furthermore, most of the time they're making
mistakes there isn't a consensus of opinion in the Sky studio after review it half a dozen times from each angle so how people expect a referee to make the
correct decision live and from his sometimes limited view I don't know.