In the not-too-distant future, when youth and amateur football has virtually disappeared due to a total absence of referees, those at the top of the game might stop briefly to wonder if they played a part in its demise. The chances are, though, that they will instead blame the officials.
In Britain referees are deserting the amateur game in droves, sick of the violence, abuse and basic lack of respect that has taken all the fun out of the job for which a match fee of 22 pounds is hardly the reason they get out of bed.
As always, the school and park players take their lead from the top, and who can blame them? When they see players who abuse and undermine officials on a regular basis playing for their country and handed multi-million pound contracts, why would they behave any differently?
And when the managers wade in to say it is all perfectly reasonable, the game is in real trouble.
Chelsea have been charged, again, with failing to control their players after a group of them, led by captain John Terry, surrounded referee Andre Marriner on Saturday after he sent off Michael Essien for elbowing Derby County’s Kenny Miller in a Premier League game.
Essien appealed and, in a rare piece of quick action by the FA, had that appeal dismissed.
Did Chelsea manager Avram Grant condemn Essien for his attack? Did he apologise for his players surrounding the ref? He did not.
“I don’t blame the players for questioning the referee on Saturday as the decision was unfair,” Grant said. ”They did it in the right way, going to the referee. For 30 seconds they said something and then the game continued. What is wrong with this? They didn’t do anything wrong.”
It was only a few weeks ago that the great and the good of football were talking about the lessons to be learned from the rugby World Cup, where players under just as much pressure but suffering infinitely more physical punishment, retained a respect for officials that utterly shames football by comparison.
Mitch Phillips is head of Reuters UK sports reporting
PHOTO: Chelsea’s John Terry (2nd L) reacts as team mate Michael Essien (unseen) is shown the red card during their English Premier League match against Derby County at Pride Park, November 24, 2007. REUTERS/Darren Staples
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5 comments so far
Sorry for sounding like a retired colonel with a G+T in both hands but here goes: When I played school team football if we so much as appealed for a throw-in, never mind argued with the referee, we weren’t picked for the next game. It should be a bookable offence for anyone other than the captian to even talk to the ref and it must be up to FIFA to make that happen.
- Posted by kevExcellent post. Ultimately it’s both the teams and organising bodies who have to eradicate these ridiculous scenes. Referees in the Premier League are some of the best in the world but they are continually mistreated and abused, and that goes right down to Sunday league level. If the FA/FIFA cannot clamp down on the problems, then there will be a true refereeing crisis and even the top officals will say, “That’s enough”. 20 years ago, referees received far more respect, but that has disintegrated, and the worst abusers are Chelsea; Terry, Cole, etc.
Excellent piece on F365: http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033 ,13320_2926799,00.html
And one more here: http://www.footballingworld.com/2007/11/ 25/chelsea-must-be-punished-as-their-unr elenting-harassment-of-referees-continue s/
- Posted by MattYr blog is very nice, I have gone through it for the first time and nice writings also. Well I should also refer to another soccer blog that has very good content,
http://www.soccerfairy.com
- Posted by SaraGood point about it being the amateur game that suffers. It won’t be a problem finding refs for Mega League games at the Liverpool Enormo Dome (they’ll be well paid) but lower down who will want the aggravation.
- Posted by London[…] colleague Mitch Phillips wrote this on our blog towards the end of last year: It was only a few weeks ago that the great and the good of football […]
- Posted by Football following rugby over refs - Reuters Soccer Blog