An MP today denounced the "appalling" standard of football refereeing in England after Sunderland's defeat by Crystal Palace in the Division One play-off semi-final earlier this week.
Gerry Steinberg, a Sunderland supporter and Labour Member for the City of Durham, lashed out in a House of Commons motion which appeared on the Parliamentary Order Paper today.
In it, Mr Steinberg calls for the football authorities to introduce instant playback facilities so that incorrect decisions can be rectified, but claimed they were "too tight" to install it.
The motion says: "The House is appalled that one incompetent referee can deprive a football team of success as happened at the Stadium of Light in the Sunderland versus Crystal Palace Division One play-offs.
Inconsistent
"We believe that the standard of English refereeing is appalling as seen every week in football grounds and on television where inconsistent and wrong decisions are made by incompetent first-class referees.
"We further call upon the FA to introduce instant playback facilities so that incorrect decisions can be rectified thereby preventing one man running and determining a match based on incorrect decisions with the resulting financial consequences and disappointment of thousands of cheated fans."
The referee in question was David Pugh of Merseyside. Crystal Palace won 5-4 on penalties after drawing 4-4 on aggregate.
Mr Steinberg said that one particular "blatant wrong decision" by the referee could have cost Sunderland '20million by not reaching the play-off final and possible promotion to the Premiership next season.
That referred to an alleged foul on Sunderland's goalkeeper Mart Poom which went unpunished as Palace scored an injury-time goal to take the tie into extra-time.
Mr Steinberg added: "The standard of refereeing has declined over the years and it is getting worse and worse and worse.
"The technology is there for instant playback - it is already used in cricket and rugby - yet the football authorities are too tight to have it installed."
Do changes need to be made to prevent so many errors? have your say
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This needs to be sorted once and for all.There is,its sad to say,too much money at stake now for an (in general)over weight middle aged self important referee making a mess of a simple game of football.They seem to want to be some kind of star themselves when the rest of the world know that a good ref is one you hardly notice.The referee's assistants don't seem to have any weight in desicions either which was the whole piont of changing them from "just" linesmen.Bring on the video replays and stop the cheating/diving and above all else poor poor desicions by the referee.It may even clean the game up!
BUT the FA may not like this because it will probably show how incompitent the current crop of referee's are.
I live in hope for the beautiful game.
The MP is right to denounce the standard of refereering which is absolutley appalling at times. I didn't see the specific incident mentioned but having I have seen numerous incidents like it! Mssrs Styles, Wiley, Wilkes etc are at time a joke (Rob Styles has issued a red card every other game this season, that can't be jsut a coincidence!) They're are a few good refs dotted around (Mark Halsey for example) but their are just too many who gets things wrong too often! Video play back is problematic though as football doesn't have as many clear stoppages as cricket and rugby and can't ask players to pause midplay. Its something that could be considered for contentious goal decisions but personally I would much rather just see a stricter line taken with poor refs and greater encouragement to bring talented refs through. How about getting more money of the big clubs to pay for better training and bringing in top quality foreign referees who can pass on their experience as well as handle the big matches. Whatever happens though the first step has to be to get rid of Rob Styles, not just from the premiership but from football entirely!
I challenge Mr Steinberg to instead of whinging get up off his backside and try refereeing a few games. I'm sure his local county FA will be happy to enrol him on the necessary course. He will then find that its not such an easy job. Football is a fluid game and thats why we love it, technology will take that away. Referees are human and like the players they make mistakes. I don't think the standard is deteriorating, its just that more decisions are scrutinised. At the end of the day the ref is an easy target. Sunderland fans would much rather blame him than the numorous players that missed from 12 yards. If Sunderland were good enough for the Premiership then they would have finished in the top two.
I've been saying this since Maradonna's 'Hand of God'...
Appalling referees? you can say that again but I'll go one better,DUBIOUS! inconsistent as well but Man United still enjoyed the obscene favourtism again but they still couldn't win the title,lets hope Jeff Winter is fair with Millwall on Sat where most footy fans will be rooting for Dennis Wise and his team. good luck to them!!!
It is long overdue by a very wealthy sport. Playback facilities should be used. There's no reason not to.
Oh Pete of Chorlton
Your bitters is showing. Was the dubious refereeing the cause of the Blues to barely stay in the premier league? Or was it the poor management decisions by KK?
You Bitters are always BLUE, and I mean SAD.
I think that referees hold too much power. bringing video evidence in would stop the dishonest officials.
Instant video replays in football? NEVER.
Leave all that to the egg chasers.One of the things that elevates football from other sports is the many talking points we all have to debate after the match.I suspect that the M.P. in question has never refereed a footy match,so as a recently qualified ref i know just what a difficult job it is.If changes are to be made they should be for the good of the game and not to appease one set of disgruntled sunderland supporters.Turning our game into an exact science will destroy the after match banter.
I just love the way referees turn making mistakes into a virtue. Football throws up many other conversation points. It doesn't need mistakes from refs.
Refs do have a difficult job let's help them where we can. Perfection is impossible but we should still strive for it. So don't worry mistake junkies you'll still get your fix - just hopefully a lot less. Two off-sides against Monoco last night - not uncommon and not good I say.
The standard of refereeing is poor in England but it is little better abroad. The excellent Mr Collina has now retired. In the Champions League this season we have seen Mr Ivanov contribute to the elimination of A.C. Milan and Manchester United while Mr Neilsen confused all and sundry with his decisions.
The use of technology is long overdue, judgement calls by referees and linesmen are all prone to human error, for example, how can a linesman watch a ball being kicked, and exactly at the same time judge whether a man running at nearly 30 miles an hour past a static man was in front behind or level, when they are all 40 yards apart, and then at the other side of the field. Bad judgement calls ruin games.
What next - allow the players to stop the action everytime they make a mistake?? C'mon - all sport is based on margins of error. He needs to put his dummy back in and get on with life!