Break allows us chance to appreciate our referees

SOCCER news is thin on the ground in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 cessation of activity and it is an appropriate time to highlight the people who are part and parcel of game every week namely the referees.

Much is said and written about team managers and players, but the game could not be played at all without referees. Everyone has their own opinion of how referees fare at games and very often clubs point the finger of blame on the official in charge.

However, being the man in the middle is a very difficult task particularly defining offside operating on their own and they have to make a decision on the spur of a moment and, while they might get an odd one wrong now and then, in general, they get most of them right. If you watch games on the box wrong calls are part of the game, but in general referees do a decent job.

The new VAR system which was introduced in the Premier League this season has provoked a lot of debate among soccer pundits and spectators and the message coming back is mixed. Without a doubt it is the road FIFA need to stay on but they need to do a bit of tweaking with its implementation especially speeding up the decision making by the refs watching the screen and need to take a hard look at offside and be a bit kinder to goal scorers.

Even with the assistance of VAR incorrect decisions are being made on a regular basis and that clearly shows the magnitude of the task facing an official in his own. On any given day like everyone else a match official can have a bad day at the office and players themselves know all about that.

Everyone is only human and errors always arise from time to time and that is par for the course. It is a difficult task being the man in the middle and I have first-hand knowledge of it as I was a Kerry District League referee back in the late 1980s. Being candid I found it a very difficult task and I only stayed at it for one season.

For a long time in recent years it was difficult enough to recruit referees, but due to referees’ courses and the cash incentive there are now 24 referees in the

Kerry Referees Society. A small number of this group officiate at school boys and schoolgirls games only.

The pedigree of referees in the county has rose significantly in recent years with a number of Kerry refs being elevated to officiate at League of Ireland games. Derek O’Shea, Kevin O’Regan and Stuart Templeman spent a couple of years officiating at national level, but injuries forced them to retire sooner than they envisaged.

It is good to see former players taking up the whistle as they know the game well and a bit of experience of being involved in the game is a good trait when embarking on becoming a referee.

The only woman to take up the whistle in Kerry was Siobhan O’Mahony a few years ago after taking to the role like a duck to water she was forced to retire after incurring at injury while officiating at a game in Listowel.

Co-ordinator James Finnegan deserves credit for all the great work he is doing behind the scenes as well as his task of recruiting referees nationwide for the FAI.

KERRY PANEL OF REFEREES 2019/20

James Bailey, Michael Chapman, Martin Courtney, Kevin Cunningham, Guy Djamen, Brendan Kelly, Tom Kerrisk, Ray Matthews, Anthony Morrison, Owen Moynihan, Finbarr O’Connor, Willie O’Gorman, Seamus O’Mahony, Eddie O’Mahony, Denis O’Rourke, Paddy Osborne, Derek O’Shea, Adrian O’Shea, Tom O’Sullivan, Michael O’Sullivan, John Ross, Adrian Quirke, Thomas Sheehy, Daniel Quirke