Referees Are The Problem

Sure they're only games anyway. People who take trivial stuff seriously are the real Problem.

2 incidents spring directly to mind at underage games which directly contributed to my sons giving up playing.

One game where a very dubious penalty was awarded and my son was the keeper.

My son asked the ref , before the ball was even placed, could he tie his bootlace which was genuinley open.

Ref said 'OK'

As he was doing his lace the ref let the peno be taken then gave my son a yellow card for not being on his line.

Another game with my other son where even before a ball was kicked the ref had booked 2 players on my sons team.

10 mins in after a penalty , 2 sending offs and some seriously dangerous tackles that went unpunished the manager of my sons team withdrew the team form the game as it was only a matter of time before a leg got broken.

Violence against refs is unaccetable but refs need to have some sort of accountability and some sort of monitoring of their ability to be able to ref.

So it's the referees fault they are attacked, assaulted, abused or trundled into the boot of a car?

Having no referee is not an alternative

They started off as a bit of craic a few 100 or 1000 years ago. Now its hyper competitive and unless your sport is really obscure it's also a massive moneyspinner

Rugby, a game for thugs, played by gentlemen.

I'm waiting for the day a pro ref loses it and starts horsing out red cards to the pansy millionaires who have life changing injuries and miraculous recoveries, sometimes numerous times a match. Had the unfortunate time of having to sit through 2 soccer games recently, that Arsenal PSV one and one other one that I can't remember. Such man children. The abuse these pretty boys then give to the ref is crazy. If one touched me, I'd red card them. Keep shouting after I told you to pish off, red card. Start horsing them out, teams lose because they suddenly don't have enough players on the pitch, money lost by the real puppeteers behind the scenes, things will change.

I'd also be for VAR to be more involved and retroactively issue red cards for diving, abuse, etc. Every game is recorded from multiple angles, why not use these?! Don't stop the game, let it continue and when they've made a decision, do whatever they say at the next stoppage. The amount of money these pampered princes are on and how they act.... madness.

I don't go near club GAA anyway, it is too insular for a person like me, the parishioners would be gossiping all year if they saw me at the local pitch.

At the football match there was a row,

About that row I’ll tell you now.

The ref. was kicked by three or four,

Say nothing now ’till you hear more.

Chorus

Will you tell us will you tell us where the ref. was kicked

Say nothing now ’till you hear more

Tell us, tell us, tell us, ah tell us please tell us

Will you tell us please Johnny where the ref. was kicked.

The goalie was a horse of an ass of a man

In the goal mouth now he did stand

He wasn’t big nor he wasn’t small

He never ever let in the ball.

Chorus

Will you tell us, will you tell us, where the ref. was kicked.

Say nothing now ’till you hear more.

Tell us, tell us, tell us, ah tell us please tell us,

Will you tell us please Johnny where the ref. was kicked.

Teams were all togged out on style,

Played great football for a while.

Goalie got a quare lot boulder,

Kicked the forward in the shoulder.

Ref. ran up and blew his whistle,

He gave the goalie his dismissal.

The goalie started to curse and swear,

Next thing there were fists flying everywhere.

Chorus

Will you tell us, will you tell us, where the ref. was kicked.

Say nothing now ’till you hear more.

Tell us, tell us, tell us, ah tell us please tell us,

Will you tell us please Johnny where the ref. was kicked.

Players all started for to fight,

Who was wrong or who was right.

Supporters all jumped across the fence,

Have’nt seen the poor auld ref. since.

Chorus

Will you tell us, will you tell us, where the ref. was kicked.

Say nothing now ’till you hear more.

Ah tell us please Johnny where the ref. was kicked.

He was kicked between the whistle and the full time score.

He was kicked between the whistle and the full time score.

Be the holy man that must have been soar.

That says more about your father to be honest. And not good.

They’ll come up with some kind of robot referee, with cameras and AI. Built into a drone, so it can escape the furious fans that want to hoof it into the boot of a car.

Gotta love a good ol’ victim blaming thread

Those damn refs getting €40 a match in the GAA

Pure in it for the money so they are 😒

And you were ok with the lads giving up football just because of these two, admittedly stupid, incidents ?

There's a bit of a cart before the horse in this conversation really. It's hard review referees at every level.

There are different levels of referee in every sport and the standards expected of them should differ.

Referees don't go out to be controversial or do a poor job. But there are all types of pressures on them. Lots more people would want to ref if that pressure wasnt there. But right now certain people have zero respect for referees and it is these people that reduce the amount of people wanting to be referees.

Sports are already suffering in the country because of a lack of referees. Refs should be encouraged and and abuse towards them should be severely punished. Perceived bad decisions or not.

Does scutinizing of referee's happen? genuine question. Because near on 10 years of going to soccer matches and never once seen someone that was there to observe a ref. Maybe there is..I honestly dont know.

Violence against refs (or anyone for that matter) is abhorrent.

In my first post I mentioned a match where my sons manager withdrew the team after 10 mins because the lads were getting kicked up and down the pitch by the opposing team with no reaction form the ref.

The manager felt he had a duty of care to the kids so bit the bullet.

Do refs have a duty of care to some extent?

Good ,glad to hear that they have a duty of care.

When the lads manager reported the above incident the club was fined.

No mention of the referee's report nor was the manager asked wtf happened.

Referee's MUST be protected at all costs but must not be infallible.

Its all I am going to say on it and thankfully I dont have to go to games anymore.

So it's the referee's fault those people are animals and can't control themselves?

Where are they going to get double the number of referees from?

The only people responsible for what has happened to the referees are the people who attacked and most certainly NOT THE REFEREE. I can't believe there are people trying to offer excuses for this. Shame on all of ye.

There is no excuse for it and certainly not the decisions by A REFEREE DURING A GAME!!!!! Must we say predomitely GAA and underage games.

Now if we want to talk about the level of referring in games then certainly yes there is a conversation it but it is certainly should not to be tied do these acts of thuggery.

By games I hear from friends who have kids in other sports it I'd a problem too and it seems down to the pool of referees and training

When I watch a game I watch a referee's performance. I am not worried if he makes mistakes. What I look for is that he is consistent. If he makes mistakes as long as they are consistent to both sides I do not really care

Too many supporters only see the mistake against there own team be it in any field sport. I watched about twenty matches this year and in only one did I think the ref was not consistent.

Our team drew the match. I met a neutral after the match and his remark was ''the ref was not harsh on them'' as in the opposing team. However in his mitigation our team has a lot of young lads and we play at a fast pace and he was in his late fifties/early sixties and struggled to keep up.with the pace of our game.

The amazing thing was at the end of the game he gave us a free that drew the game. The opposing team players and management lost the rag. It was the only time he was consistent throughout the match. He gave the exact same free against us 5 minutes previously. In neither occasion was it a free as the player with the ball was not allowed to straighten up.

When you watch a game just see if the ref is consistent not if he is making mistakes. As a person who was involved in coaching I always made a point of thanking a ref after a game no matter his performance.

I asked the same question about is there any scrutinizing of refs on the other thread and it was constantly shut down.

I vaguely remember someone at a match once officially watching the refs performance but I haven't a clue what the actual process is. Does anyone know?