In an attempt to level the playing field for his Stoke City side currently languishing in 17th position in the Premier League, Potters boss Tony Pulis has planted the seed to an idea that would see poorly performing referees relegated at the end of the season.
Stoke City’s Tony Pulis Calls For Referee Relegation After “Abysmal” Showing From Martin Atkinson
Similar to the bottom three Premier League clubs who face the drop and the Championship each year, refs who can’t sort themselves out would potentially be eliminated from England’s top flight if the errors continued to mount and Pulis gets his way.
In an interview given to BBC Radio 5 Live, Pulis waxes, “Every club should have one vote [annually] and mark referees after every game. Then they have a chance of being relegated to the Championship. It would be a great system”.
And while Manchester United and Chelsea look to create that gap at the top of the table that they're known for, Pulis adds, "People say you can't help certain officials being a little biased towards bigger clubs. They don't go out with it in their minds but they tend to do it".
Maybe Pulis wants refs to suffer with him because if Stoke City don’t get thier mojo working fast, they’ll find themselves further down the table after what’s already been a sluggish start to the Premier League season and could face relegation themselves.
As odd as Pulis’ idea does sound, does the baseball cap wearing boss have a point?
His Stoke side were robbed of an obvious penalty on Saturday during their eventual 0-2 defeat at the Stadium of Light against Sunderland. Already down 0-1 thanks to an early Asamoah Gyan tap in, a Kenwyne Jones header was clearly handled by Sunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole on the line while ref Martin Atkinson either didn't see the obvious infraction, or decided to turn a blind eye to the incident.
Pulis’ finger pointing at Premier League officials is again based on the theory that certain ‘bigger’ clubs receive preferential treatment while the small fellas of the league go without desert after dinner, or, in Stoke City’s case, a blatant penalty.
Harry Redknapp, another manager in the Premier League to lose on Saturday, backed Pulis by saying the ideas were ’worth looking at’. While referees across the country continue to fume after Pulis’ remarks, the Stoke boss may have just opened a can of worms the Premier League will be forced to smell.
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