billyireland
08 Feb 2009, 06:40 AM
Billy - you have mentioned your dislike of the Respect campaign numerous times. You mentioned Riley's incompetence as evidence of why it is a bad campaign. You are missing the point of the campaign entirely.
The Respect campaign is designed to protect and aid the referees at grass roots level. The plan was to minimize criticism of the refs by Top flight club managers, players, media pundits who all stick the knife in whenever a ref makes a c@ck up. The purpose of this was to provide an example that Refs might get things wrong but they were not getting slaughtered for this. The top flight good behaviour would hopefully be used as a template and would trickle-down the divisions to grass-roots level. At grass-roots level there is a real problem with good refs being hard to find because they are harangued out of it whenever they make a mistake. In other words the climate of blame and recrimination is forcing many decent grass-roots level refs out of the game. It is from the grass-roots level that the next lot of Premiership refs will come from. By publicly disrespecting the Refs in the top-flight now, the chances of getting better Refs for the top-flight in the future is diminished.
I know what you are getting and and I do agree to a fair extent, but my disdain is not directed towards the campaign nor it's goals - both are very legit worries and certainly necessary trends to act upon. The campaigns aims and goals are spot on imo, and it is good to see how they are being addressed. My point though is that it is less a case of where they are going, and more to do with how they are going to get there.
Respect is a give-and-get process in any walk of life, and needs to be earned. Don't respect somebody and they won't respect you in return. This is one of those things that goes beyond the intensity of sports, professionalism, and whatnot down to a basic human instinct. I am not asking the referees to bend over backwards, but it is just ridiculous at this stage... the likes of Bennett, Riley, etc (not all, mind) seem to view themselves less as independent judges and more along the lines of a totalitarian dictator for 90 minutes. Now that is the power they should have, but it is not one that they should take for granted, which is exactly how the situation is right now.
By all means if referees want to take that approach to players who try to intimidate them and get in their faces too often (a younger Rooney being a prime example) they need to put the foot down - and I would have no problems with them being quicker to reach for cards in those situations. If Rooney tells the ref to 'F off' in a few hours and is given an immediate red... yes I will cry foul, yes I will feel hard done by, yes I will bitch & moan (as is part of fan culture) but in the scheme of things I will, once the heat has died off a bit, also admit it was a good thing to happen - so long as it is done with some consistency.
Likewise though, some players who while not captains, are seen as 'ambassador' figures of sorts, who are known for their better manner, respect, etc amongst referees (Giggs, for example) also deserve to be given a degree of respect in return, and not to be immediately fobbed off and treated in the same manner as the previously discussed group of players. Punishment rarely, rarely works as great incentive unless there is a motivational benefit on the flipside. This is a pretty poor analogy, but in my defense I am recovering from last night with a cup of coffee right now (:o)... but it's similar in a sense to what has happened in the Middle East: the War on Terror and post-911 'all Muslims are terrorists' mindset is/was the greatest thing that ever happened to al-Qaeda's recruitment ranks (just as the treatment of the British towards the Irish several decades back was the greatest things to happen to IRA recruitment). Everything begats itself amongst humans, and (dis)respect is no exception.
Today the News of the World ran an article. With it being NOTW it was done in typical scumbag fashion and I will admit that this is unfair on Bennett to some extent - it seems as if they make an agreement early in the video that this is off-the-record, and by doing what he is, the journalist is interestingly enough just strengthening the cycle of public figures being ambiguous/'economical' (e.g. lying) about the truth to the media because the trust between each has been broken down so badly over recent decades by sensationalist arseholes looking for something to fill the pages today and - just like the FA in the respect campaign, imo - failing to see the forest for the trees.
In this article though, Bennett makes comments about how players try to get themselves booked in certain games in order to get themselves a holiday via suspension, and how it is something you see especially in foreigners. Now given that fact that by the time training sessions are finished at clubs across the country tomorrow, almost every player will have heard of this story (I reckon it will be one of those 'topics of conversation' in the training grounds tomorrow at a hunch)... what extent of damage do you think this will do to what little is left of the Respect campaign? While I am fairly sure there are some players who do try these types of things, I would reckon that most got to this level by being ultra-competitive and wanting to play in every single game they can. So how do you think those players will feel about Bennett's comments? What do you think will be going through their minds when he refs a match of theirs next? Certainly nothing along the lines of respect for/towards him, anyway... he just publically disrespected them!
Here is the article, btw: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/168650/Top-ref-Steve-Bennett-reveals-Premier-League-stars-cheat-fans-by-getting-booked-deliberately-to-skive-off-games.html
I will admit though that the above story does give me a feeling of vindication, as I have stated before on numerous occasions that Bennett seemed to be the most power-mad ref, and the one who seems to genuinely enjoy winding them up and getting under their skin. IMO, he is the single most responsible person on the referee/FA side of the fence when it comes to the current standoff-ish climate between players and officials, and really just seems to hate footballers on the whole.
---
Again, just look at sports like rugby or American football. Those sports are far more intense than football for those involved and the athletes involved are far more easily able to tower over and physically intimidate the referees... but they don't. And whenever they do, they face the consequences. Similarly, we hear the occasional cry of players 'having the refs in their pocket'. Let's take Hines Ward (who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL for anybody left wondering): he plays very physically and does bend the rules on occasions, but he always plays with a smile on his face, never shows any disrespect (from what I have seen) towards officials, knows his boundaries, and is treated as such. There are similar examples in rugby, although that sport is a lot stricter on - only - the captains speaking to the refs, which I have no issues with, as it also works and the captains often get leeway to 'negotiate' with the ref rather than argue with him. This also forces the captain to be harsh on his own players sometimes, as if they are acting out of order, it hurts his bargaining position with the ref. It is a good system from the base up, and it works incredibly well in a sport that by it's nature is very, very combustible, so things don't need to be changed. This is not the case in football.
My point is basically that while those two sports both have the legal infrastructure (laws of the game btw, not the land obviously! :p) in which to build upon and promote/enforce a system of respectful and respected officiating, football does not. This all boils down to poor upper-level management (e.g. the FA) in setting up such infrastructures and holding individuals (be they players or referees) accountable for their actions when they step outside said set guidelines. In truth, the accountability of the referees and players towards this whole mess is secondary to FIFA/the FA (whomever should be responsible for setting up the infrastructure), and both are as much to blame as each other on this level.
To see the entire blame fall on the shoulders of the players, managers and club officials is grossly unfair and is never going to solve anything; I am certain of it.
The Respect campaign is designed to protect and aid the referees at grass roots level. The plan was to minimize criticism of the refs by Top flight club managers, players, media pundits who all stick the knife in whenever a ref makes a c@ck up. The purpose of this was to provide an example that Refs might get things wrong but they were not getting slaughtered for this. The top flight good behaviour would hopefully be used as a template and would trickle-down the divisions to grass-roots level. At grass-roots level there is a real problem with good refs being hard to find because they are harangued out of it whenever they make a mistake. In other words the climate of blame and recrimination is forcing many decent grass-roots level refs out of the game. It is from the grass-roots level that the next lot of Premiership refs will come from. By publicly disrespecting the Refs in the top-flight now, the chances of getting better Refs for the top-flight in the future is diminished.
I know what you are getting and and I do agree to a fair extent, but my disdain is not directed towards the campaign nor it's goals - both are very legit worries and certainly necessary trends to act upon. The campaigns aims and goals are spot on imo, and it is good to see how they are being addressed. My point though is that it is less a case of where they are going, and more to do with how they are going to get there.
Respect is a give-and-get process in any walk of life, and needs to be earned. Don't respect somebody and they won't respect you in return. This is one of those things that goes beyond the intensity of sports, professionalism, and whatnot down to a basic human instinct. I am not asking the referees to bend over backwards, but it is just ridiculous at this stage... the likes of Bennett, Riley, etc (not all, mind) seem to view themselves less as independent judges and more along the lines of a totalitarian dictator for 90 minutes. Now that is the power they should have, but it is not one that they should take for granted, which is exactly how the situation is right now.
By all means if referees want to take that approach to players who try to intimidate them and get in their faces too often (a younger Rooney being a prime example) they need to put the foot down - and I would have no problems with them being quicker to reach for cards in those situations. If Rooney tells the ref to 'F off' in a few hours and is given an immediate red... yes I will cry foul, yes I will feel hard done by, yes I will bitch & moan (as is part of fan culture) but in the scheme of things I will, once the heat has died off a bit, also admit it was a good thing to happen - so long as it is done with some consistency.
Likewise though, some players who while not captains, are seen as 'ambassador' figures of sorts, who are known for their better manner, respect, etc amongst referees (Giggs, for example) also deserve to be given a degree of respect in return, and not to be immediately fobbed off and treated in the same manner as the previously discussed group of players. Punishment rarely, rarely works as great incentive unless there is a motivational benefit on the flipside. This is a pretty poor analogy, but in my defense I am recovering from last night with a cup of coffee right now (:o)... but it's similar in a sense to what has happened in the Middle East: the War on Terror and post-911 'all Muslims are terrorists' mindset is/was the greatest thing that ever happened to al-Qaeda's recruitment ranks (just as the treatment of the British towards the Irish several decades back was the greatest things to happen to IRA recruitment). Everything begats itself amongst humans, and (dis)respect is no exception.
Today the News of the World ran an article. With it being NOTW it was done in typical scumbag fashion and I will admit that this is unfair on Bennett to some extent - it seems as if they make an agreement early in the video that this is off-the-record, and by doing what he is, the journalist is interestingly enough just strengthening the cycle of public figures being ambiguous/'economical' (e.g. lying) about the truth to the media because the trust between each has been broken down so badly over recent decades by sensationalist arseholes looking for something to fill the pages today and - just like the FA in the respect campaign, imo - failing to see the forest for the trees.
In this article though, Bennett makes comments about how players try to get themselves booked in certain games in order to get themselves a holiday via suspension, and how it is something you see especially in foreigners. Now given that fact that by the time training sessions are finished at clubs across the country tomorrow, almost every player will have heard of this story (I reckon it will be one of those 'topics of conversation' in the training grounds tomorrow at a hunch)... what extent of damage do you think this will do to what little is left of the Respect campaign? While I am fairly sure there are some players who do try these types of things, I would reckon that most got to this level by being ultra-competitive and wanting to play in every single game they can. So how do you think those players will feel about Bennett's comments? What do you think will be going through their minds when he refs a match of theirs next? Certainly nothing along the lines of respect for/towards him, anyway... he just publically disrespected them!
Here is the article, btw: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/168650/Top-ref-Steve-Bennett-reveals-Premier-League-stars-cheat-fans-by-getting-booked-deliberately-to-skive-off-games.html
I will admit though that the above story does give me a feeling of vindication, as I have stated before on numerous occasions that Bennett seemed to be the most power-mad ref, and the one who seems to genuinely enjoy winding them up and getting under their skin. IMO, he is the single most responsible person on the referee/FA side of the fence when it comes to the current standoff-ish climate between players and officials, and really just seems to hate footballers on the whole.
---
Again, just look at sports like rugby or American football. Those sports are far more intense than football for those involved and the athletes involved are far more easily able to tower over and physically intimidate the referees... but they don't. And whenever they do, they face the consequences. Similarly, we hear the occasional cry of players 'having the refs in their pocket'. Let's take Hines Ward (who plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL for anybody left wondering): he plays very physically and does bend the rules on occasions, but he always plays with a smile on his face, never shows any disrespect (from what I have seen) towards officials, knows his boundaries, and is treated as such. There are similar examples in rugby, although that sport is a lot stricter on - only - the captains speaking to the refs, which I have no issues with, as it also works and the captains often get leeway to 'negotiate' with the ref rather than argue with him. This also forces the captain to be harsh on his own players sometimes, as if they are acting out of order, it hurts his bargaining position with the ref. It is a good system from the base up, and it works incredibly well in a sport that by it's nature is very, very combustible, so things don't need to be changed. This is not the case in football.
My point is basically that while those two sports both have the legal infrastructure (laws of the game btw, not the land obviously! :p) in which to build upon and promote/enforce a system of respectful and respected officiating, football does not. This all boils down to poor upper-level management (e.g. the FA) in setting up such infrastructures and holding individuals (be they players or referees) accountable for their actions when they step outside said set guidelines. In truth, the accountability of the referees and players towards this whole mess is secondary to FIFA/the FA (whomever should be responsible for setting up the infrastructure), and both are as much to blame as each other on this level.
To see the entire blame fall on the shoulders of the players, managers and club officials is grossly unfair and is never going to solve anything; I am certain of it.