Football / Soccer / Calcio / Futebol / Fußball

If we want to see improvements in refereeing standards, we need to improve the culture and working environment.

Firstly the principles of a no blame culture are a decent place to start. We need to acknowledge the possibility of error and support those who commit them to learn and grow from them.

Issue we’ve got his most football fans are thick as shit. They are the exact reason refereeing is so awful.

It’s very rare a team lose a game and the ref isn’t flagged as a key issue. Yet, it’s very rare at the end of the season the league table doesn’t feel meritocratic.

I’d love to see a shift in acknowledging a few things:

1. Human error is a part of the game and that includes referees. The standard they are held to is insane. Yes clear and obvious errors are a problem, but there is so much grey area that just doesn’t matter too much.

2. There isn’t corruption in the referees in England. There isn’t a conspiracy theory against your team. There is no wider plot. Just errors.

3. A culture of respect and appreciation for refs that’s extends to the managers and the players. The game can’t happen without them. Yes they sometimes have poor games, like a player does. It’s not deliberate.

4. Acknowledgment the game is rarely decided by the ref. You see it with things like a yellow card. Yes, maybe the yellow is harsh. It’s still the players fault if he then gets sent off. You rarely lose a game because your side didn’t get the one corner or whatever.

Basically, football fans, most of you on here fucking love to piss and moan about the referees. You love it. It means you don’t have to blame your shit team, or acknowledge the opposition was better than you.

If you want better, if you want improvement, maybe, just maybe move away from a culture than if a ref makes an error people threaten to kill him and accuse him of match fixing.

As, like in every other walk of life, abusing someone for an error doesn’t reduce errors.