Referee Abuse

[splutcho]

Whenever I go to games I always end up rolling my eyes at some of the people around me frothing at the mouth when the referee gives a decision against us (even if he's CLEARLY made the correct decision), but it got me thinking, do they genuinely believe he's made the wrong call or are they more clever than I give them credit for and trying to influence the ref/give us home advantage?

Do you do it? If so for what reasons? Do you ever get home and feel a right *bleep* when seeing the incident again and realising the ref was spot on?

 

[Safri15]

Like you say yourself Splutcho, its the 'home' atmosphere, part of the advantage of playing in front of your own fans. So 99% of the time the ref isn't going to even register what is being said but eventually, after 10 penalty claims that never were, maybe you'll get the 11th just from the pressure of the crowd.

I think it works better for the top clubs in the premier league, but that may just be the refs are more biased to the big international superstars anyway.

But yes, I definitely give them abuse (maybe not the right word, but you know what I mean) regardless of whether its deserved or not!

 

[eatonparkboy]

We were told that as soon as officials became full time, fully professional, the standard would improve and make the game better. In fact, the officiating has got worse as far as I can see. In fact, some games have 5 officials and still cannot get it right. Admittedly the game has got faster and it isn't always easy to pick up offsides. And the players attitude of falling down as soon as contact is made has made their decisions harder, especially with pundits saying it is OK to fall over if touched. But some of the decisions are awful and inexcusable. And when corners and free kicks are taken, the melees are simply a joke with no-one ever penalised.

I don't think it is right to abuse these people, but I definitely feel it is essential to let them know it when they get it wrong. They can be influenced of course as SAF proved, and they generally react to the greater noise which ought to be from the home crowd.

 

[Din]

I personally am not one to abuse the referee. I'm also not one to try and appeal for every single decision. If the ball goes into the box and it clearly hits the hand of the opposition player (for example when it hit Bikey's arm when we played Charlton), then I'll shout "Penalty!" like pretty much every other person in the ground. However if it hits the shoulder of the player, or I simply can't quite see what happened, then unlike most people I won't appeal. Same applies with a tackle, if the opposition player clearly gets the ball then I won't appeal. 

My dad is awful for just appealing for any decision. Even if it's up the other end of the pitch and there's no way he can see it then he'll appeal. I think that a lot of people tend to appeal for something simply because other people do. Unless I know for certain that we should've had a decision, I just sit there quietly. And even if we don't get given a certain penalty then I won't abuse the ref.

 

[Suffolk Canary]

I always make a noise (not abuse) whenever a norwich player goes down,  even when I'm fully aware it's not a free kick.  I know its not great sportsmanship,  but I'd rather win from a dodgy free kick/penalty than lose like gentlemen.

 

[Keckers]

I give bad refs the benefit of my views. We are dogged by poor refereeing. It may be true that all teams suffer to a similar degree but I am only concerned when we are on the rough end of things. We've all been to games this season where the ref has been awful, giving everything to the opposition and hardly anything to us. How many penalty shouts have ee been denied this year? I can think of at least four solid shouts.

I also think that standards have dropped in refereeing since professionalisation. The problem now is that they are almost celebrities in their notoriety whereas it used to be that you rarely even knew who the red was. What a sad state of affairs when you look at the official and know you're going to be playing 14 men, not 11. I'm sure we all know that feeling.

So yes, I do give the ref some stick if it's warranted. I am not blind to our failings and will be the first to say if we're at fault or if I make a mistake but even if I occasionally call one decision wrong and it was sound, I usually have been worked up into a state where I will say something to the ref as a result of a series of poor decisions that we can all see.

I am not in the least sorry for doing so. They get paid a damned good wage to come and officiate and the least they could do is remain impartial, something a lot of them seem to struggle with.

 

[The Ghost of Michael Theo]

I always make a noise (not abuse) whenever a norwich player goes down,  even when I'm fully aware it's not a free kick.  I know its not great sportsmanship,  but I'd rather win from a dodgy free kick/penalty than lose like gentlemen.

This.

I think it's the responsibility of the home crowd to try and intimidate the ref into making decisions for us. It's supposed to be what home advantage is all about.

However I also think it's the responsibility of the home crowd not to get on the players backs, and try and get behind them. However, I was in the minority there - especially at the end of last season.

Maybe I'm old school.

 

[It's Character Forming]

I think it has been noticeable that the refs are less good this season than they were in the Prem.  Not that Prem ones are perfect, IMO they do have a general bias in favour of the big teams (like the Premier League itself) but they are better.

A big difference is that lower league refs will often duck out of making decisions.  Just look at how much coverage a failure to give a penalty gets, compared to giving one incorrectly ?  When a ref gives a pen it gets looked at a lot more.  Whereas Prem refs do quite like being in the limelight so sometimes its noticeable they are more likely to make a call even when it's unjustified.

And when I'm in the stands I admit that sometimes my instinctive reaction is to call for a foul when a City player goes down, sometimes I realise a second or two later that it wasn't a foul (probably) and sometimes when I see the highlights I realise i was wrong.  Although this season I do think the refs miss loads of clear fouls....

One thing that amuses me is when we're behind the goal and people call out that something was or was not offside - there's just no way you can tell from behind the goal !

 

[eatonparkboy]

Problem is, once referees became full time and particularly in the Prem, acquiring a new status and income to match, they did not want to jeopardy all that by becoming contentious. So they take the safe route and give decisions that in the main, neutralise managers. Never mind the fans who witness it game after game, they are unlikely to get referees the sack or demotion.