Why the Clattenburg incident should finally force the FA to protect referees
Posted on October 29, 2012 10:21 pm
Chelsea have complained to the Premier League about the conduct of referee Mark Clattenburg following their 2-3 defeat to Manchester United yesterday. Chelsea have alleged that Clattenburg used ‘inappropriate language’ to two of their players, with Jon Obi Mikel believed to be one of them. Part of Chelsea’s complaint includes an allegation that Clattenburg used “racial language”.
One newspaper alleges that he used the phrase ‘Spanish t**t’ to one of Chelsea’s players (it’s unclear if it was aimed at Torres or Juan Mata). Clattenburg has been stood down as a referee by the governing body of referees, the Professional Game Match Officials, while an investigation into these allegations takes place.
The game was a stormy affair which saw Chelsea fall two goals behind, only to equalise before Branislav Ivanovic and Fernando Torres were sent off, before Javier Hernandez scored a winner.
Chelsea were incensed by Clattenburg’s decision to send off Torres, who was shown a second yellow card for diving following a challenge from Jonny Evans. Replays have shown that Clattenburg got his decision horribly wrong, with Evans making clear contact (and to be honest it should’ve been Evans who received a card for the challenge, and from the look on Evans’ face, he thought he was getting a card too) with Torres. Chelsea were further aggrieved with the officials when Hernandez’s goal was allowed to stand despite him being clearly offside; it wasn’t a close decision and it’s hard to see how the officials got it so wrong.
The performance capped a poor weekend for officiating in general with the results of the Arsenal-QPR game and the Merseyside derby being decided by two erroneous offside decisions.
Firstly let me make my position clear. If Clattenburg has said the things he is alleged to, then that’s completely unacceptable and totally deserving of the punishment that will follow. If he is guilty Clattenburg should never referee a game again.
The point that seems to have been buried beneath a sea of predictably sensationalist headlines is the one that Clattenburg, who is one of England’s best and most experienced referees, was evidently pushed to a point where his patience snapped. If things get to a point where a referee snaps and says something back then something should be done to stop things getting to that point. If the Chelsea players knew there would be consequences to surrounding a referee and arguing, they wouldn’t have done it and this incident wouldn’t have happened.
The only thing that surprises me about this incident is that it has taken so long before a referee has reached the end of his rope and said something back. For far too long players and managers have been allowed to surround the referee, argue and hurl abuse at players, and the authorities have done nothing to stop them.
Arguing with a referee is one of the most pointless things a footballer can do. Any referee with a spine will not change his decision and arguing with the referee only serves to annoy them and reduce the chances of a decision going in your favour later on in the game. Very few managers recognise this though and most do nothing to stop their players surrounding the referee and are happy to publicly complain about a referee’s performance after a match.
Many managers are only too happy to speak on TV about a refereeing mistake. Mostly this is done to cover their or their teams own mistakes and inadequacies. There are a few exceptions to this; Brian Clough famously wouldn’t stand for his players arguing with a referee, and in fact he once fined Viv Anderson for ‘staring at the referee in an arrogant manner’, and Reading manager Brian McDermott has ordered his players not to argue with referees this season.
Disgracefully here in England, the media are also only too happy to join in at having a go at a referee. I heard one moron on a national sports talk radio station recently leading a discussion on the topic ‘what sort of person would want to be a referee?’ at a time where local amateur leagues are closing down due to a lack of referees, and the FA are desperately trying to recruit people into refereeing.
Referees are human, and like you and I and everyone else, will get it wrong sometimes. Sometimes they’ll get it really wrong and will have a bearing on the result of a game. When that happens, players, fans and teams have every right to feel aggrieved about it. What they absolutely don’t have the right to do is to abuse the referee in any way, shape or form.
The abuse of referees has been a major issue facing football for many years now, and it’s an issue that everyone agrees something should be done about, but nobody ever does anything. It’s one of those subjects that the FA raises now and then, pays lip service too, and then does nothing about it.
The FA has a campaign called ‘Respect’, which amongst other things, aims to reduce the amount of abuse a referee takes. It’s not working. One of the reasons why it’s not working is that the FA don’t punish players for. Occasionally they’ll dish out a perfunctory fine to a player or a club, but that’s not sufficient.
The amount of times that players and managers are held accountable for abusing a referee is laughably low. Some managers openly question the competency, fitness levels and even the integrity of a referee and do so in the knowledge that at worst they face only a derisory fine and a ban that’s not really much of a ban at all, as a consequence.
That is what has to change. The FA should be fining clubs and players, and fining them hard for abusing referees and anyone who questions the competency or integrity of a referee should face a ban. Not just a ban that means they can do pretty much anything except stand on the touchline, but a proper ban.
The failure by the FA to tackle the abuse on referees in the professional game has had a knock-on effect to the amateur game, where assaults on referees are increasing year on year and referees are leaving the game in droves as they just can’t take the abuse any longer. It’s a problem that’s been bad for years and shows signs of only getting worse.
I’ve previously argued that the only way to stop players abusing referees is to allow referees to wear a microphone so that TV audiences can hear them. This is done in both codes of Rugby, were the referees wear a mic, and TV audiences can hear what the referees are saying to the players, what the referees are saying to each other, and what the players are saying to the referee; and some Rugby grounds allow the spectators to rent earpieces so they can listen in too. This doesn’t mean that rugby referees get it right all the time, but it does at least mean that Rugby fans more often than not know why a decision has been made. Currently in football, all the officials wear mics, and can hear what each other is saying, but nothing is recorded and nobody else is privy to the referee’s conversations on the pitch.
Usually, the only thing that makes players and clubs change their behaviour is money. If a TV audience hears a player verbally abusing a referee, that’s the kind of thing that makes sponsors nervous, especially if that player or club are associated with a family brand. If a sponsor gets nervous and threatens to pull out of a deal, the player in question will either stop swearing at referees or their club will make them. That’s the only effective way I can see to stamp the abuse of referees out.
I believe that making referees wear mikes has several benefits. It takes away the ambiguity around decisions, which is often the biggest source of frustration for fans, so whether the decision is right or wrong, at least they know why it was made. It would make both referees and players more accountable for their actions, and I think it would change the perception of a referee from football fans. Currently there is an air of mystery surrounding referees and I think that if you could hear what they are saying, it would dispel that somewhat and show the world that referees are ordinary people too, and would make fans more sympathetic.
This is an idea that has been tried before. In 1989, as part of a TV show called ‘Out of Order’, referee David Elleray wore a microphone for a game between Millwall and Arsenal. The clubs had been informed beforehand, but Arsenal had forgotten to tell their players that Elleray was miked up. During the game Arsenal’s Tony Adams had a goal disallowed and viewers got to hear him protest the decision (in an amusingly squeaky voice) before calling Elleray ‘a f@cking cheat’. Adams only received a mild ticking off for doing so. Since then, nobody’s repeated that experiment, but I think it should be brought back.
Referees are by no means perfect, and by no means above criticism. There should be a better system of making referees accountable for their mistakes, which if done properly, should help a referee improve their performance. However, they are an essential part of the game and should be protected as such by the authorities, which means the FA have to act and get tough on clubs, players and managers who abuse referees.
Once they actually start to punish people for abusing a referee, then they can start to take measures to stop them doing it in the first place. If that happens then hopefully incidences of players surrounding the officials, haranguing them and hurling abuse can be consigned to the past. It has no place in our sport and should be stamped out as soon as possible.
Notice how it’s only the losing team who claimed the referee said inappropriate language. Just like how ManU Coach Ferguson only complains when his team loses. I doubt the referee said any such thing. No top level referee wants to make a bunch of spazzy, potty-mouthed players even worse.
Euro snobs often make comments about how MLS needs to change to be more like England (pro-rel, no playoffs, winter schedule etc.). In this case, England needs to learn from MLS. Seattle Coach Schmid called Mr. Salazar’s impartiality info question when being interviewed on the way to the halftime locker room. He was fined the next day and had to stay in the owners box the next game from the second he got off the bus until the second his team got back on the bus after the game. Portland Timbers owner Paulson accused the officials of bias on twitter after a 1-1 home tie with DC United where United’s goal was off a PK from a handball.
MLS has also been fining/suspending players for dives and violent challenges after the fact via video evidence. Every pro league should have a similar program. MLS is still a niche league and can’t afford to alienate U.S. fans who are so disgusted by diving and histrionics that they would stop buying tickets.
As a referee, you’re often in an intractable position since you’re now supposed to call fouls AND dives. It’s simple enough to see fouls. It’s much harder to always judge player intent. Sometimes you can see it but sometimes you inflame a player/team if you card for a dive when a player simply lost possession and then their balance. Also, if you book a player for a dive when they didn’t quite deserve it, you no longer have a tool for when they do something that should be cautioned but not necessarily sent off. The team that suffered the yellow-card offense then feels that they didn’t get fairness so they retaliate on the guy who did the offense, thus forcing you to give a card that you wouldn’t have otherwise had to give and also forcing you to put out fires.
The referee is in charge of fouls, not simulation of fouls. That should be the league’s responsibility. Backing your officials is also the league’s responsibility. They need to make the fines equal to one paycheck of that specific player. The MLS fines of $2,500+ are usually in the ballpark of one paycheck. Same for coaches. The coaches also need to be barred from the locker room or anywhere but a secluded box from the second their team gets off the bus until they get back on.
Chelsea is one of many EPL teams with problems abusing referees. It won’t get better until the league learns a few lessons from this side of the Atlantic (at least).
Plus MLS does simple things to help the refs like let them use the vanishing lines to mark 10 yards. The ref can now worry much more about fouls et al on the kick and not if the wall is encroaching on the shot taker.
Why other leagues and FIFA don’t use this is beyond me.
They will soon. IFAB approved the use of the spray in the summer after successful trials in a couple of leagues, including the MLS
A ton of managers in England have been fined and/or given touchline bans. Pardew just recently, for example. You can certainly argue that the sanctions aren’t strong enough, but to say they don’t exist is incorrect.
I argue that they’re not strong enough. Notice how I emphasized that a fine should be approximately one paycheck.
This article is just a roundabout way of saying, even if Clattenburg did say something terrible, he was probably provoked by some uncivilized disrespectful foreigner. Oh poor English referee.
Never mind that Clattenburg’s track record speaks for itself. You know how the FA can protect their referees? By not having a referee of questionable character and reputation as their highest profile referee.
I think you missed the point.
I wonder how rugby deals with bad language? Surely players arguing with officials – something bad comes out?
Probably the same way EPL refs deal with it. You don’t have to be a professional lip reader to understand how many times a game a ref is told to “F off”. In fact, it’s Wayne Rooney’s way of saying “good morning”.
Only the captains are allowed to speak to the refs, I believe and they are very civil when speaking to them.
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At the international level, all the comments made by referees and between officials are recorded. Seems like a good idea to me.
They only way out of these things is more transparency:
1. They don’t even record the refs in the EPL right now, let alone publish. All leagues and competitions should mic refs and record the conversations.
2. Refs need to have the pressure to perform just as players and coaches do. Right now, to protect refs, leagues essentially pretend they are perfect and any review is done behind closed doors. Officials need to recieve public feedback. Interview them in the press, release league review notes, etc.
3. And they need to have consequences for repeated poor performance. If a ref is repeatedly missing calls (however that bar is set), they should be fined, suspended, fired, etc. Does it have to happen often? no, but it does need to be an option.
Rather being fined, they are simply not assigned more games. That’s how things work for referees.
If you put a fine system in place then nobody will referee anymore. Fining for a “mistake” would mean that someone has to decided that a mistake has been made, and who is that person? Also, if you’re going to take away a person’s income, then it needs to be done fairly. That means who ever reviews the “mistake” is given the same on field view of the referee, in the same speed that is happened and no replays to boot. Then it’s fair.
This is just another case of where football authorities have failed the fans again miserably. The issue of diving and simulation has been festering for years now and has become progressively more high profile since South Africa in 2010. In particular, it seems to have become more of a hot potato in England, to the point where we now have “serial” divers.
Torres belongs in that group of the “serial” variety and Clattenburg was definitely affected by some of Torres’s previous tactics. Now, referees are faced not only with calling fouls, they have to make a decision on whether they are being deceived. To me, that is not their job because it’s impossible for the human eye to catch that stuff. That is why retrospective panels have to be introduced
I agree with the writer here. If Clattenburg has used inappropriate (racial) language to players, then he should be fired. What is interesting to me is that I’m absolutely sure that if Chelsea would have won this game, we would not have heard a peep from anyone.
Soccer can learn from the NFL when it comes to transparency of referee decisions. In the NFL, the referee is miked and he has to explain every foul call clearly to the spectators in the stadium and watching on TV. It seems like a pretty simple fix to require soccer referees to do the same. There’s no downside to more openness.
That works fine in a stop-start game of discrete plays. I don’t see how it would work at all for a game of relatively continuous play. I do agree, though, that there’s no reason why the comments and communications of officials can’t be recorded as is the case in international rugby.
Works pretty well in Rugby, which features “relatively continuous play” (though not perhaps quite to the level of soccer)
In soccer, it would make the swarming of the referee even worse. The calls are much more straighforward in soccer than in football. Fouls almost always involve play on the ball. In football, fouls occur yards away from the ball. They also stop all the time, unlike in soccer.
If you made the referee explain every call, you’d have the bad actors arguing with them not just about the call itself but also the explaination.
At the end of the day, the governing boards need to step in. It is very reasonable to ask referees to call fouls and keep games going in real time. It’s unreasonable to ask referees to judge a player’s intent every time he falls down. That is especially true when punishing a player for diving isn’t obvious to everyone on the field and it would therefore inflame the player and the team who suffered the card. It’s either a foul or it isn’t. The foul deserves a card or it doesn’t. Diving needs to be dealt with through suspensions and fines that are comparable to one paycheck.
Anything else is just the English FA passing the buck and not supporting their officials.
Great thought process but totally impractical. What I will say is that no-one anywhere in sports concerns themselves more about the correct outcome of games than the NFL. If football could just take a little bit of that attitude, the game would be so much better off.
I think rugby has shown the way forward. Pick certain plays where you know there are issues and have them video replayed with a referee in the booth. I would do it for offsides that directly lead to a goal, and goal line decisions. Also, each team gets one protest per game which they would use to question penalty calls.
I would also create a retrospective panel made up of ex-players only and officials to rule on diving and simulation.
The problem is getting FIFA involved and persuading the authorities to behave like tennis does where video replay is only used in the big matches and big tournaments.
I suppose I can agree that referring to a person as a twat is abusive, but I can’t agree that referring to a Spaniard as “Spanish” is racial abuse.
There is a cultural issue to consider when it comes to diving. Certain cultures consider attempting to deceive the official as a legitimate part of the game, while others consider it cheating. If an official considers a player’s country of origin to be relevant information when considering whether simulation has occurred, he might be accused of acting on a bias, but to call that racism is silly.
Give me a break. More “woe is refs” self-justifying bullshit about the most performance-impaired and unaccountable people in the game… other than FIFA officials.
The problem with refs is that they are OVERprotected. They are coddled like widdle babies who are mum’s perfect angels and mustn’t be scolded or their precious feelings will be hurt. They make multimillion dollar mistakes– that other people have to pay for– constantly, and yet they are never subjected to the discipline of the marketplace.
The only thing that can be said in their defense is that their bosses, while ludicrously indulging their folly, also refuse to grant them the technological and logistical tools necessary for greater success. In the sense that referees work for some of the most vain and incompetent people in the entire world, the fucking idiots who run the FA and other national associations, I do feel sorry for them. However, working for a shit boss is not, in the end, an excuse for doing so utterly shit at your own job.
I don’t get why people seem to be under the impression that refs are unaccountable. They are accountable. At every game there is an assessor in the stands who judges the performance of the officials. If he/she thinks a referee has made a mistake, they note the incident and it is then assessed by a panel. If a referees performance is below the standard, they get demoted to a lower league for a few games. Should they keep getting it wrong, they get taken off the ‘select group’ list of referees, and as a result, can’t referee in the EPL. This happened to Stuart Attwell at the end of last season.
As for technology, well goal-line technology is coming, and I’m totally against the use of video replays. Football’s advantage over other sports is that it is a game that flows, rather than the stop-start nature of most other team sports. Allowing replays would destroy that.
As for your point about them being overprotected, are you saying it’s okay that they get constantly harangued, sworn at and abused? It’s fine that at amatuer level referees, who are needed to rise up the levels of refereeing and replace outgoing referees at professional level, are leaving the game in huge numbers because of the abuse, both verbal and in some cases physical, that they are taking?
You are aware that you need a referee to have a game, right?
“LAW 12 – FOULS AND MISCONDUCT
Sending-off offences
A player, substitute or substituted player is sent off if he commits any of the following seven offences:…
•using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures”
If referees ignore this law they have only themselves to blame if the abuse becomes too great.
If the referee gave a red card for every colorful comment about his/her calls, both teams would be down to seven players by halftime. When you’re out there in a competitive game, you have to sift through the chatter and decided what is worth punishing.
It’s a balance between protecting the integrity of your position and keeping a soccer game going. It’s not as easy as it sounds.
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