Officially a Problem

Premiership football, indeed world football, has been rife with officiating mistakes ever since its inception. While it has to be accepted that there will always be an element of human error in sport and that, for all the technology that can assists referees, blunders will always exist.

Having said that, it seems as though too many elementary errors continue to occur and in today's climate, where all professional teams are businesses as much as they are sports teams, failures of judgement by an extraneous individual can cost a franchise millions, managers their jobs and fans and players the opportunity to watch or play in the biggest games. Early in the season, we had the phantom goal; a goal given for Reading against Watford that was in fact deflected wide. This was an unforgivable mistake that should have been avoidable.

Since then there have been numerous occasions in which blunders have been made; players sent off that should not have been, penalties awarded or not incorrectly, free-kicks that should have been penalties, goal kicks that should have been corners and countless other miss-calls. Watch any football magazine show and you are bound to encounter analysis of refereeing error, often errors that decide games. It's so readily accepted that no examples even need to be offered.

It appears fruitless to focus on the individual mistakes. Clearly, there are failings in the system and this is something the FA evidently appreciate as evidenced by the fact that Stuart Atwell, the Referee at the centre of the phantom goal debacle, was subsequently nominated to join the FIFA list for officials. However, in contrast, Mark Halsey (a long time Premiership and FIFA ref) who sent off John Terry for a foul on Man City forward Jo last year, was demoted to officiating in League 2 for this apparent mistake. Presumably the FA considered Halsey's mistake a refereeing error and Atwell's a technical error (in fairness to Atwell, his linesman made the original mistake and he simply failed to overrule it).

Now clearly Halsey did not become a bad referee overnight but the FA had to be seen to responding to the miscue (which is exactly what they deemed it as they rescinded Terry's red card and punished Halsey). Theoretically the error was so clear and obvious therefore that, upon review, Halsey himself would have overturned it had he seen it again. So why didn't he? Why can't a ref analyze a key decision in a game? The argument against has often been that it would slow down the game but surely any fan of the game would rather an official got the call right for the loss of what, maybe a minute? Veritably, nothing riles fans more so than a poor refereeing decision and, with so much at stake, surely there is a danger that post-match conflict between sets of supporters is greatly influenced by this?

The 2002 World Cup, the pinnacle of the game, was tarnished by what seemed to be an epidemic of poor refereeing to the extent that certain nations would almost be inclined to place an asterisk next to the final results. Things plainly havent altered completely as was noticable in the Chelsea v Barcelona Champions League Semi-Final and if mistakes can happen in the biggest games with what should be the best officials, it can clearly happen anywhere.

Here are five ways in which officiating could be improved:

1. Goal-line technology: How do we not have this already? It's quick, it's easy to introduce and it affects a vital part of the game.

2. More officials: Why not have linesmen on both sides of the field in each half? Or an official behind each goal? The referee can still be the man in charge but how often do we hear that the closest official may have had his eye-line blocked or wasn't up with play?

3. Challenge Flags: Each manager could have one or two challenges they could make during a game that would result in the referee reviewing their decision with the help of TV replays and extra discussion with their linesmen. A concept used to great effect in American Football and really doesn't take too long.

4. Referee Microphones: Give every referee a microphone so that they broadcast every conversation with a player. It would help explain any controversial decisions to players, managers and fans and keep refs accountable. Used in Rugby, Tennis and American Football with success.

5. Implement a No-tolerance policy: In theory this already exists but only to a superficial level. If referees were stricter, disciplining players for any dissent and forcing players and managers to accept decisions made on the field and move on with the game.

Certainly there are restrictions. Not all these measures could be embedded at every level of the game but that shouldn't be a limit upon changing, with the aim of improving, officiating at the highest grade of competition. Nor should we support the claim that calls, good and bad, equal out over the course of the season. The only way to presume that to be the case would be if their were no errors at all and while that will never be the case, the governing bodies should be doing everything in their power to reduce the mistakes.

No doubt we will hear Sepp Blatter announce that FIFA will be trialing a system that enables refs to update their twitter accounts during matches for the coming season in the Swedish third division...