I hate to start a blog by saying “I told you so”, but I did warn of the importance of having a cool referee in the Arsenal vs Liverpool fixture. I foresaw the risk of him becoming the focus of attention rather than the game itself. And that he – in this case Howard Webb – certainly was. The sending off of Arsenal’s Adebayor was plain wrong. A horrendous decision! The home fans rightfully gave him a lot of stick for that call. It killed the game for sure. After the incident the ref looked increasingly wary of the fact he had made a mistake and so continued to make many more. It was a dreadful way to kill off such a much anticipated and talked about game. Not to mention its importance in the Premier League standings. And it wasn’t the first high profile sending off by Howard Webb either. Several such unconvincing red cards in important games have been extracted by Webb (remember Ronaldo’s red against Man City?). The FA must seriously take a closer look at his coming games and perhaps take him off the high profile fixtures all together unless he gets his act together. Handling pressure doesn’t seem to be his forte.
Of course not all referees are bad. Take the example of Andre Mariner in the Newcastle vs Tottenham fixture. He was forced to make controversial decisions too, but he and his linesmen got them right. It makes all the difference in the world. First he got the call right when Newcastle scored, rather than whistling for a penalty or giving the defender more protection than he needs, Mariner gave N’Zogbia the chance to score the opener in open play. Which he also did - fair play to him and the ref. Modric’s equalizing goal for Tottenham looked like a suspicious offside as play unfolded live, but in replay it could beyond any doubt be seen he was onside when the ball was played. Team mate Pavlyuchenko was offside on the other hand, but he clearly indicated he was not going to get involved in the play, hence negating the offside according to the current rules. One can always discuss the validity of such rules, but the ref’s job is to enforce current rules and not make up his own (a note some other referee’s might want to take… hrrrum, coff coff… Howard Webb…ahum)
There will always be good decisions, bad decisions, even good referees and bad referees. It’s part of the game. Overall I think they do a good job considering the circumstances; the difficulty and pressure of the job, the uncertain rules and so on. Referees should be given more respect, especially from the players. But, and this is an important but, they also need to earn it. And they do that by making many more good decisions than bad over the course of 90 minutes. It also helps if they don’t have a burning desire to always be in the limelight. The less you see of the ref, if the game flows well and fair play rules, the better.
As for the title of this blog; apart from its obvious reference to a classic Clint Eastwood western, I have here talked about good and the bad refereeing in recent games. I’ll let the ugly category be up to your own imagination or private discussions. Let’s just say not all refs worked as models before taking on the whistle, boo boys and Hollywood wannabes. There seems however to be a distinct bald fashion going on among refs. I guess they think it makes them look more affirmative in action. Either that or it’s an indication of the pressure getting to their heads, resulting in refs everywhere tearing the very hair from their scalp. Not all too different in that case from the many fans in stands as the Premier League continues to be a nail biter at the dawn of a new year in football.
Maybe we should bestow upon the refs some Christmas clemency and realize they are just human - after all…
