Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
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By Walter Broeckx, the Untold ref wakes up
With the new season only a few days away from us, now is the time to act. And for possible new readers I will give you a short resume of what lead us to where we are now.
As a qualified ref myself I had a feeling that the standard of refereeing was not what it should be in the EPL. I also had a feeling, which started in the 2007-2008 season, that things didn’t even out at the end of the season for Arsenal. Which it should if we can believe the old idiom that is used when a team complains about a certain (number of) decision(s).
So I went on a long journey and started reviewing each Arsenal game from last season. Apart from the fact that if we count all the favourable decisions and count the unfavourable decisions things didn’t even out for Arsenal last season I also found something that was even more worrying than just the fact that the refs didn’t even things out over a season.
Because the more data I gathered the more it became obvious that the refs weren’t up to their task. In a few articles I showed (with the numbers in hand) that the level that is required in other countries to stay in the top league as a ref was nowhere near that number for most refs in the EPL. Just to summarize it these are the total correct decisions in the most important categories that a ref has to make:
- Cards 57.10 %
- Penalty 48.68 %
- Goals 87.54%
- Other 47.00%
Total average correct decisions 62.42%
And of the only 16 refs the PFMOL has in the EPL only 4 get the required 70% a ref should get in other countries. These are the numbers based on the games Arsenal had last season.
Very worrying numbers for anyone who wants football to be played on a level playing field and with respect for refs, players and supporters.
At the end of last season it became clear that we had to continue our reviewing the refs but also had to do more than just the Arsenal games. But to do more games we need more refs.
So here is the final call on all who wants to help us in reviewing as many games as possible.
If you are a ref (or a former ref but still have access and understanding of the current rules AND instructions) and want to see how the refs are doing, this is the time to act and react. Just send a mail to me (walterbroeckx@hotmail.com) or to Tony (who will send it on to me I hope) and say yes to this project.
I will then send you a questionnaire with a few questions and then we can see if you can join us and how you can make yourself useful in reviewing as many games as possible. For those who have already told me that you are interested I will send you an email shortly.
At first we were hoping to do the reviewing thing on a website but the new website isn’t available yet. So we will be working like I did last season with a spreadsheet that I have made and that you should fill in while reviewing the game.
A few important things you should know before you send your mail:
– Reviewing a game is time consuming. You must take around 2 hours (in an easy game) and it can take you up to 3 hours if you have a difficult game with lots of wrong decisions.
– We not only review the decisions the ref has made on the field. No, as our study has revealed last year the non-decisions a ref makes are sometimes of more importance than the decisions he has made.
– So you must review the games from start to finish and look at every duel and see if the ref should have made a decision or not. If no decision had to be made we don’t have to review it but if the ref should/could have given a foul we take it in to his account.
– We judge advantage when the ref gives the signal. But in the rule book advantage is not the same as keeping possession of the ball.
– We are not interested in keeping the game flowing. I think any ref who has some experience knows that if the ref is strict in the beginning of the game the players adapt rather quickly and don’t commit the little fouls any more.
Now if you can only do one game each week or every two weeks, this is still fine. Our main objective is to review the games from the top teams at least. The top 4 or the top 6 depending on the number of people we can get on board. If we can do all the games, even better.
If you are new on this site you can see a review of a game here (the last game of the season) and see how we have worked until now and hope to continue doing so. (or until we come up with the website).
We will be publishing the ref reviews on this site (or on another separate site in the future). And apart from us who is running the site nobody will know who you are. You will get a name and a number from us and your true identity will not made public. I know the ref world is sometimes a tricky one and we don’t want a ref actually suffer from doing the work he does for us.
Each week we will try to divide the work between the refs and see who does which game. We will try to avoid people doing the same teams all the time as much as possible. But this is something we will have to see how things work out during the next weeks.
But for now if you are a ref and are interesting to work with us to find out that the quality of the refs in the EPL is good enough please get in touch with us as soon as possible. After all, next week is the first week of the season and we have plenty of games coming up.
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