Helpful Hints For The Premier League’s ‘Respect’ Campaign

In an attempt to help out the Premier League with their Respect campaign, I’ve collated a series of ideas which could form a platform for a real change in the way players and managers interact with referees. Some of the ‘rules’ outlined may seem draconian (and probably are draconian. Oh well), but considering the frankly awful culture that surrounds referees it seems impossible for them to do their jobs anything like effectively. However, the referees themselves must do more to be seen as reasonable, unbiased and unbiasable arbiters. The ‘Respect’ campaign, then should really be two-fold:

Ready? Here goes!

Language

Abusive behaviour is not to be tolerated. Referees should not be answerable to the players (or, indeed, the fans)m and although some dissatisfaction should be expected from every player abusive language or behaviour should not be tolerated. In every bookable case of dissent, also book the team captain for failing to control his player.

Communication

No player on the field should be allowed to speak to the referee unless asked a direct question unless they are wearing the captain’s armband. Every single communication between player and referee is intended to give the player’s team an unfair advantage and undermine the referee’s impartiality. If a player should speak out of turn, both that player and the team’s captain should be booked for dissent.

Intentional Handball

We see this scenario all too often. A player tackled unfairly goes to ground and grabs the ball in an attempt to show that they were fouled, forcing a stoppage of play. This is clearly an attempt to influence the referee’s decision, and the player should receive a yellow card for intentional handball even if the referee decides to award the free kick for the original foul.

Card-Mimery

Touchline Bans

Touchline bans seems to me to be rather pointless things, since in the age of mobile telephones tactical information and instructions can be relayed from the stands to the bench without much of a problem. So, instead of merely banishing a manager to the stands, how about taking his mobile phone away as well? Make those punishments hurt.

Paying For Misdeeds

The manager is in charge of the dressing room and therefore the culture of his team. In that light, he is responsible for their attitude towards referees, and should be held accountable for any abusive or unfair behaviour. For every two bookings for dissent by any player on his team, the manager shall be fined by the league, with said fine escalating on the frequency of the bookings. In addition, for every ten dissent-related bookings, the manager shall face a one-match touchline ban.

The Rules

Fitness

Premier League matches are played at such high pace that the fitness standards of referees must be very strict. Every referee must be able to keep up with the flow of the match, and as such must be subject to routine fitness examinations in order to continue in their position.

Forget Context

It is understood that mistakes happen no matter how competent the refereeing might be, and that different situations in the game might impact a referee’s willingness to make certain calls. However, referees cannot allow themselves to be unduly influenced by their desire to rectify a past mistake or give a losing side a break. The game must be refereed impartially.

Respond Appropriately

Too often we hear that the only good referee is the one we don’t notice. This is absurd and leads to weak refereeing - and gives players all the incentives they need to start intimidating the match officials. A good referee does his job without fear of drawing attention to himself. If the match needs officiating, bloody well officiate it!

Support Technology

Referees have a very hard job - I don’t think anybody would deny that. However, they’re too often seen as resistant to things such as goal-line technology when in reality such advancements could only serve to make them better at their work. Instead of working against technology, referees should be both publicly supporting it and helping to develop discrete tools to make them more effective judges of the match.

Be Reasonable

Have the power to rectify mistakes. Rescind red cards. Issue retroactive bookings. Goals are off-limits, but there’s no reason not to dole out or withdraw suspensions just because the match referee made a mistake at the time. Mistakes happen - but if you ignore a chance to fix it that’s only compounding the error.

Assess Referees

The league should be monitoring the performance of its referees. I don’t just mean on a superficial ‘we disagree with you on x, y, and z’ level or even the above competency tests. Instead, the results of every game each referee oversees should be analysed (and I mean properly analysed by people actually capable of maths) for bias. If bias is suspected, it should be investigated and then corrected by either educating the referee in question further (rules bias) or expelling him entirely (team bias).

Now, I don’t think anyone’s likely to adopt these rules anytime soon, making the above rather a pointless exercise, but I think that the goals themselves should be foremost in peoples’ minds as they attempt to change the way players and referees interact. There’ll be no respect without competent officiating - and let’s be honest we don’t really have competent officiating - but at the same time being a referee in an environment like the Premier League is almost impossible.

If these rules are implemented we’d stop seeing players forming scrums around the referee within a week. Talking back would be abolished, card-waving would stop, and those obnoxious handballs would go away. We’d have, if you will, false respect. Then, as the refereeing reforms came to maturity, we’d have match officials who can do their jobs properly. And doing one’s job well is how real respect is earned.

Isn’t dreaming fun?