PGMOL Statement - Lee Mason

[daveduvet]

I was a ref for over 30 years. In my last game I sent off a mouthy young man for calling me a dickhead. The following Tuesday at our ref’s meeting I was criticised because the word used wasn’t considered “sweary” enough. My kit bag - whistle, boots, flags, uniform etc - is still in the bottom of my wardrobe, unopened since that evening.

Never forget a panorama - I think - from years ago where the ref was ‘miked-up with body cam’. Arsenal were playing someone… the amount of abuse the ref got was amazing - bullying techniques from players; questioning every decision etc; in the refs face etc. I don’t watch rugby - but from snippets I’ve seen the referees seem to command respect. Is it the game? The calibre of players? the philosophy of rugby ? I don’t know. But there does need to be some weight of a change required. Maybe pay the refs 10% of the players income ? Raise the status of being a ref?

 

[The Doc]

Technology will make the referee and assistants redundant soon. Maybe just have an avatar ghosting around the pitch for appearance sake, but shift all the decisions online. Could be like a Sat-nav thing where you can choose the voice of the official. Imagine that. The voice of Elvis announcing a penalty kick over the stadium PA. I would go with Kermit the frog but different strokes etc.

 

['O Zio]

The PL in particular can do much more to protect Refs. As an example if more than one player from a club challenges a ref after some disputed decision points should be docked from that club. Arsenal would have no points and be bottom of the PL this season (I hope).

I've said numerous times over the years the simplest thing they could do is pinch the idea from rugby where only the captains are allowed to approach he referee. You could cut out all the crowding around/bullying tactics virtually overnight by simply booking anyone who goes against this.

We'd inevitably have one or two weekends with lots of bookings, but as soon as the players/clubs realized the refs were serious, it would stop.

Just seems like an absolute no brainer to me.

 

[Tucker]

I've said numerous times over the years the simplest thing they could do is pinch the idea from rugby where only the captains are allowed to approach he referee. You could cut out all the crowding around/bullying tactics virtually overnight by simply booking anyone who goes against this.

We'd inevitably have one or two weekends with lots of bookings, but as soon as the players/clubs realized the refs were serious, it would stop.

Just seems like an absolute no brainer to me.

It’s kind of baffling that something like this isn’t already in place. There are so many things in football that could be cut out immediately if the authorities wanted it to be.

 

['O Zio]

It’s kind of baffling that something like this isn’t already in place. There are so many things in football that could be cut out immediately if the authorities wanted it to be.

Agree. Unfortunately the so-called authorities just seem to be scared of players and managers and let them dictate things. The balance of power is all back-to-front, very much a case of the tail wagging the dog, it's baffling to me.

 

[Graham Minshall]

Never forget a panorama - I think - from years ago where the ref was ‘miked-up with body cam’. Arsenal were playing someone… the amount of abuse the ref got was amazing - bullying techniques from players; questioning every decision etc; in the refs face etc. I don’t watch rugby - but from snippets I’ve seen the referees seem to command respect. Is it the game? The calibre of players? the philosophy of rugby ? I don’t know. But there does need to be some weight of a change required. Maybe pay the refs 10% of the players income ? Raise the status of being a ref?

The was a program in the late 60s or early 70s where the miked Jack Taylor up, it was Leeds playing and Taylor gave a foul against Leeds Billy Bremner came up to Taylor and said, fucking hell Jack you’re having a shocker tonight, Taylor turns round and said, you’re not playing so well your self Bill now fuck off and get on with the game.
They both laughed and carried on, they bleeped the swear words out, but there was a mutual respect you could see that, there isn’t that now!

 

[Japhet]

I've said numerous times over the years the simplest thing they could do is pinch the idea from rugby where only the captains are allowed to approach he referee. You could cut out all the crowding around/bullying tactics virtually overnight by simply booking anyone who goes against this.

We'd inevitably have one or two weekends with lots of bookings, but as soon as the players/clubs realized the refs were serious, it would stop.

Just seems like an absolute no brainer to me.

They could adopt quite a few initiatives from Rugby. Any back chat and a penalty can be advanced 10 metres up the pitch (repeatedly if needed). Automatic head injury assessments is another one. As to VAR, there are specific questions a rugby Ref can ask the VAR equivalent which indicate which way the Ref is leaning on a decision. Sometimes he will be pretty sure a try has been scored and will ask if there's any clear and obvious reason not to award it. Other times it will 100% down to the video officials to work out what has gone on, but the process is led by the on-field Ref. They also use video officials much more on instances of foul play.

 

[glacierSpurs]

Fucking lego head and the scum should just suck it up. Other teams will probably make less of this fuss than them and the repercussion could be lesser. This was not the first time a VAR decision had gone wrong FFS. All along the refs were just demoted to the lower league temporarily. For Mason to leave over this decision sounded like he could have received some terrible threats - those fans, I am really not surprised. And with such a 'precedent' set, I also won't be shocked to see more decisions ruled in favouring of the scum now, when this season has already been quite bad in their biasness towards them..

 

[easley91]

I've said numerous times over the years the simplest thing they could do is pinch the idea from rugby where only the captains are allowed to approach he referee. You could cut out all the crowding around/bullying tactics virtually overnight by simply booking anyone who goes against this.

We'd inevitably have one or two weekends with lots of bookings, but as soon as the players/clubs realized the refs were serious, it would stop.

Just seems like an absolute no brainer to me.

I genuinely thought that was a rule that was introduced a while back but has never been adhered to? I swear at one point only captains could talk to the ref or something. Unless I'm misremembering?