The premier league season isn’t even one game old and already those fuckwits on Sky Sports are sharpening the knives for referees.
There are a number of opinions on what happened between Evra and Ballack in yesterday’s Community Shield game. So it seems only fair that I throw mine into the mixer as well.
That it was a foul seems without doubt to me. However, my reading of the situation was that, since Man Utd still had possession of the ball, Chris Foy allowed them to play the advantage. They were then dispossessed leading to Chelsea going on and scoring.
And there is nothing wrong or controversial about any of that. The issue of whether the game should be stopped for a potential injury is totally in the hands of the referee. Andy Gray on the commentary called it a “grey area”. In fact, it is nothing of the sort. It couldn’t be anymore black and white. You play to the referee’s whistle. If he doesn’t blow, you keep playing. It’s as simple as that.
It’s interesting but not at all surprising that Man Utd, in fearing for the health and fitness of their player, didn’t take the opportunity to kick the ball out of play. Instead they waited until they had lost possession to moan at the referee to stop the game. He didn’t. Because he’s in charge of marshalling the game – not Ferdinand, not Rooney, not Ferguson.
Inevitably, Jamie Redknapp has got himself all upset like the exciteable little kitten he is. I’ve got loads of respect for Redknapp but he should shut up and have a bit of a think about his words. For every time a pundit makes a crass, hyperbolic comment, the confidence and authority of referees is damaged.
Not that referees help themselves. They need to maintain more distance from the players instead of trying to be all pally with them. They are the authority in the game and to be seen as such need a bit of cool distance to create the appropriate air.
And while we’re on the subject can we just torpedo all this talk of the problem with referees being that they’ve never played the game. Whilst it can sound like a sensible idea just take some time to think about it. Why would referees need to have been players to do their job properly? We don’t demand that high court judges should be former criminals. I mean how else would they know how to do their jobs???