Protect the Referees?
The year was 2023. Hundreds of years have passed since the earliest football regulations were made. Even longer are the days when some people decided to kick around a spherical object and enjoy their time with it.
However, the modern era doesn’t always produce modern people. Just look at what happened in Turkey, weeks before we moved into 2024. A supposed-to-be-honorable club president committed a series of barbaric actions against a referee after his team conceded a late goal. Many versions rose from this story, but one question remains: why does this still happen?
I don’t support any kind of violence towards anybody, especially in football. However, sometimes I understand why people are angry towards the referees. I have encountered some dodgy, even shit, calls that costed my (favoured) team(s) points. Even trophies. But still, that doesn’t make hitting those people in black (or other colours) a legitimate action to do. It’s just wrong.
People make mistakes, including referees. Just see the statistics. A regular Premier League referee makes about 245 decisions in every match. That’s almost a hundred more actions compared to a player. From that number, either the referees or their assistants made about five errors per game. That’s almost 98% of accurate decisions made. Figures in other leagues may differ, but they won’t be too far from the one above.
Now, let’s compare to a player. Not just a random player in a random match, but a Kylian Mbappe-type of thing. Here are some numbers from the Frenchman’s universally accepted ‘perfect’ game in the Final. In that game, Mbappe recorded a 68% passing accuracy, 44% successful take-ons, and just achieved 0.2 non-penalty expected goals. Some of them are even significantly lower than his regular statistics (namely 80.1% passing accuracy & 0.68 non-penalty xG; all per 90s).
I know there may be some flaws in the comparison, but my point stands. How can we be angry towards an actual almost-perfect performance by a referee, but on the other hand we praised a statistically below-average display by a football player? Maybe we have a confession to make. That being we all have this biased idea that ‘if a referee makes an error, it means he/she was getting bribed by the other team’. (Well, I also realised that there are unlawful practices surrounding the referees, but let’s put that issue aside for now).
Last year, former PL referee Howard Webb said that ‘there is a decline in behaviours towards referees around the world’. Sadly, this phenomenon may have an alarming effect for the future. If we allow more unacceptable conduct against match officials, there may be fewer and fewer people aspiring to take the whistle. And if the numbers of future referees are declining, the top echelon will be filled with poorer quality. And if this happens, the quality of refereeing will decline, and so on.
So, let’s protect the referees, shall we?
