Friday 2 September 2011

A Game Free of Refereeing Error? Wenger and Holloway Would Agree!

“Sh*t refs!, we always get sh*t refs!”. I’ve sat in the Holte singing that on many occasions over the last two seasons, furiously lambasting the referee for missing something I could plainly see from a hundred yards away. However, as some recent research has shown, we weren’t on the wrong end of many refereeing errors last season.
A piece of research commissioned by Tim Long, a broadcaster and journalist, for a radio documentary entitled Beyond the Goalline:Football’s Technology Debate shows that we weren’t too adversely affected poor decisions.
The research analysed 713 “significant” incidents over the 2010-2011 season, from the 380 Premiership games. The research looked at penalties, goal-line incidents and off-side goals. An adjusted Premiership table was produced showing the finishing positions if there had been no refereeing errors.  Villa would have actually finished 12th but with only one point less than we actually achieved last season.
Interestingly, two of the teams most affected were Arsenal and Blackpool. In the adjusted table Arsenal would have finished 2nd to Manchester United on 72 points instead of 4th with 68 points. That would have at least given them automatic Champions League qualification and several millions pounds more in prize money (for Wenger not to spend on players!)
Blackpool and Blues would have stayed up and Wigan and Wolves would have been relegated with West Ham. Stoke would have earned two more points, which would have seen them finish four places higher and receive £3 million more in prize money.
The point of the report wasn’t to be critical of referees. It is accepted that they do their best and make each decision in good faith. The point was to highlight that even a simple television replay can highlight most of the erroneous decisions and strengthens the argument for some sort of in-play evidence based referral system which could cut down on the errors.


The opposing argument that such as system would hold up play and slow down the game is also addressed. The number of incidents reviewed averages out at about 2 per game. Similar systems are already in place in rugby union, rugby league, tennis and cricket (and yes I appreciate the latter is slow anyway).
It looks like Villa didn’t do too badly out of referees last season, but it does open the debate. I know human error is part and parcel of the game. Over to you guys for your thoughts. Do we need further technology in football? Ask Wenger and Holloway, I wonder what they would tell you.