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Chris - your comment is spot on regarding the SFL and the SPL (who have generally caused this mess) are able to get on with their games while clubs who struggle to pay the bills are left in the cold again (though it would be likely that a number of games would have been off anyway!).

Do you feel that the SFA are somewhat soft in terms of how they punish individuals who continually make defamatory and/or incorrect statements about referees and their performances after a game?

Obviously you will have had issues with the performance of referees given you will likely have referees who are new to the League or working their way up the ladder rather than those who have been about for years but is this something that you can honestly say stops at 5pm after the game is finished at your level rather than the continual bleating that comes from the SPL sides?

Couldn't agree with you more Chris. Surely it's the SPL's problem.
Can't believe that all SPL games are on and most of the League matches are off.

Compensation !

Um - I'm confused - I thought folk from outside the EU were not allowed to come into the UK and work without appropriate visas? Do all referees at a certain level have them?
I know I'm only a girl, (even though I DO understand the offside rule), but surely it makes sense for the referees to declare who they support - after all, if they didn't LIKE football in the first place, WHY would they be referees? I don't support any particular team, but I do have a few favourites, that are not based on strip colours (although pink is very fetching!:>) If I was being asked to make decisions at matches, I would happily declare that I was a fan of x, y and z, and then hope that my professionalism would shine through in the way I dealt with the decisions fairly, no matter which side they are for/against.
I do agree that referees should be graded on performance (how else do they get better) and that they should be asked to explain decisions instantly. I also think that as in America, instant replay from multiple angles is beneficial, and would assist in punishing some of the downright awful behaviour of many of the players. But complaints should be taken to the referees board in private and dealt with there - sticking it out in the media means no matter what you say afterwards, you can't fix it, and it just gets everyone's back up.

Play by the rules boys, on and off the pitch!
RT

All referees have allegiences, it is well known amongst many fans who supports whom or whom has allegiences to which team. Everyone works with a ref in some capacity or knows a friend of a ref. I could reveal here the names of two SPL refs and the teams they support in the SPL.

Making public such 'allegience' or 'support' for a specific team would be the death knell to any refereeing career but they should make reference to this in any application to become a referee to an association. The SFA should know whom supports whom amongst the referees as there are conflicts of interest whether subconsiously or deliberate in decision making.

You would not allow Martin Atkinson to referee an England World Cup qualification match so why for example use an Edinburgh referee to officiate a Hearts v Hibs game?

Hi Chris, With the recent developments with the referee strike how do you feel about the SFL ballot to see who gets referees for this weekend? And do you agree that the SPL should get priority with refs?

Personally i dont see why the SPL gets priority where Clubs in the SFL are just as much in need for referees and revenue.

At least you will have a game tomorrow pending the weather is ok :)

I agree that in an ideal world the SPL matches are the ones which should be most affected ..... but how do we achieve an ideal world?

small clubs being unjustly hit in the pocket by the strike is not a priority. it's all about celtic getting the favourable treatment they have come to expect. deep down, you know that don't you chris? ;)

i shudder to imagine how many bad decisions go in favour of the auld firm over the course of a season but one would think it would be well in the hundreds, yet not a single one of those decisions led to such consequences.

Maybe the solution is to stop post-match interviews and get all the managers together on TV on a Sunday night instead. That way it'll still be exciting as (hopefully) they'll moan at each other instead of blaming the refs for their poor results :)

My money is on Neil Lennon being involved in the first live rammy!

You are 100% correct it's the small clubs will be effected by this whole drama! However I don't think the big clubs should be blamed for the strike. I feel referee's should be able to view their views on decisions at the end of the day it's these decision that define games, careers and history.

Have a read of 'Scotland Yard: Is there too much pressure on referees?' it really delves in to the subject!

So many people to blame here but the buck has to stop with the relevant authorities, being the SFA, SPL, SFL, UEFA and FIFA and the relevant refereeing body that allowed the referees the vote to strike. there is a simple solution to all of this and that is to allow TV evidence. I cannot see any reason for not embracing it. They call on fairness over the game of football but how can you compare a game between say Dundee Utd and Motherwell that is shown live on TV to a Scottish cup replay between Elgin City and Annan Athletic? If an incorrect decision is called by a referee in the Elgin game, maybe a few supporters can see the injustice but if a similar incorrect decision is called in the game shown live on TV, then the whole viewing population can see the injustice. Now, where should the priority lie? Ask a 4th or 5th official to over-rule the initial and give the correct decision that the whole world has seen or ignore it, let the SFA, SPL or SFL stick their head in the sand and let the ref cop the blame? The paying supporters are paying good money to see games being won or lost, aided by incorrect refereeing decisions, that the whole audience has seen, except the man in power to correct it. The supporters are getting conned. This is not the referee's fault but the authorities that do not allow the use of TV evidence. The referee's are wrong to strike as it only causes the supporter's to lose out. The SFA are wrong because they should reign in their employees or sack them for breach of contract. The SPL and SFL are wrong because they refuse to use TV evidence in games. It takes a few seconds to relay an incident back to a recording device to get a correct result. Let the game flow and only be stopped when an offence is proved to have been confirmed. The players are wrong because they take advantage of the lack of TV eviden ce and get away with blatant cheating. If they get caught, ban them for 3 games automatically, add points to their disciplinary record and fine them a month's wages, this action will stop the nonsense very quickly. The managers and club owners for continually badgering officials. Give them the same punishment as the players. If nobody respects the referee and their decisions, there is no point in having a referee! If the referee is aided by the use of TV evidence that he can call upon at any time in a game or an instant replay can be used to alter a referee's decision within a minute of the offense taking place, surely the problems are gone? Players and managers get angry because they see incorrect decisions, end of! Referee's try their best to give correct decisions, end of! TV evidence can eradicate most of the incorrect decisions, end of! Players who try to con the referee or cheat will get rightly punished and stop re-offending, end of! Football will be better off, end of! Change your ways or lose your supporters, then your sponsors, then your income, then your football clubs, end of!

An articulate post, livethedream, but I have to disagree. I think the the referees are absolutely correct to strike. As a southern softie I've been watching this sage play out from afar, and have frankly been disgusted. Unfortunately, the domination of a certain club who play in green and white of the Scottish football system has forced this issue. I think the only referees that are wrong in this instance are the foreigners who have come over to cover the games. Really shows great support for their refereeing colleagues eh? The fact that the SPL was able to run a full programme this weekend totally devalues the whole thing, its similar to the high profile ´óÏó´«Ã½ presenters crossing the picket line earlier this month.

As for technology and as a referee, I think we should bring in technology - but only for goal line decisions. I am not party to the reasons you are interested in football, but I'd be pretty confident in saying that the fast nature of the game has something to do with it, and if we have TV available for all decisions we'd never get the game going and our beautiful game would become more and more like that awful egg-chasing phenomenon. Refereeing is all about opinions - the vast majority of the Laws state 'if, in the opinion of the referee a foul is committed' for example. Truth is, the three that are out doing the game probably dont agree on all decisions, but teamwork is key. Football is a game of human error, and if we have technology to prevent referees making mistakes does that mean we have to bring in magic balls or robots to prevent centre backs from skewing clearances, or strikers missing open goals? It's the same thing really.

Good evening all,

Am I the only one who thinks that football in Scotland is a joke? The latest Celtic vs the referees farce just compounds this. We are the laughing stock of the football world. A club chairman who was a politician accusing someone of lying!! what?? No wonder good people do not want anything to do with football in this country.

In my opinion, canceling the Morton v Falkirk game this weekend was the biggest sign of how wrong things are. Shuffling the foreign refs (not going to touch this topic!) so as to ensure a full SPL lineup of games at the clear and deliberate expense of the lower leagues speaks volumes. I don't care about the allegiances of the referees: its those of the bureaucrats of Scottish football that concern me. This is a clear indication of their willingness to place the SPL above the SFL or, more concerning, a complete lack of understanding of the financial situations being placed on SFL teams.

12. At 7:46pm on 26 Nov 2010, livethedream wrote:

If nobody respects the referee and their decisions, there is no point in having a referee!
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Exactly.

As I posted on Jim Spence's last blog, I completely sympathise with the referee's in this situation as some of the criticism and abuse they have to deal with is totally unjustified or acceptable - and this is coming from an amateur footballer!!

Being a referee in the modern game is exceptionally difficult. The combination of the speed in which the game is played and the number of replays which the pundits (and therefore, the TV viewing public) have at their disposal make it too hard for the referee to make the correct decision, or make a mistake & get away with it. these guys need assistance to be better at their jobs, not criticism for not doing them well enough.

FIFA, UEFA, the SFA & the SPL should be doing more to support their referee's in order that the right decisions are being made, no matter how they are reached. I'm not swayed to either side on the use of video evidence during the game, but there is absolutely no excuse to not use it retrospectively. If there was a video panel viewing the weekend's games on a Wednesday, for instance, you would be able to clamp down on diving & other forms of cheating. These could also be used to train the referee's to position themselves better, how to interpret the rules better or even pick out a ref that really wasn't good enough for that level.

A win-win situation.

And I totally disagree with Sepp Blatter's claims that you can't introduce goal line (or any other kind of) technology because it can't be implemented in all forms of football.

Really?

I watch Junior football regularly, I can't recall ever having seen a fourth official. Or a digital subs-board. Or even linesmen, for that matter. It's just a fact of life that not everybody can afford the same standards - not really a big problem, is it?

I don't really think this level of football is where the problem lies anyway, as Chris has already commented.

the thing that gets to me is it is the lower clubs that suffer, while 4 spl games were on, 2 got postponed only because of the weather. the lower sides did nothing wrong but are the one's punished by the strike. it was a very good blog by chris i have to say. i know the weather would of wiped out most games anyway but the lower fixtures should of had the foreign refs 1st and the spl sides should of been the ones punished by not being given refs.