MARTIN SAMUEL ON WHY FOREIGN REFS WON’T COME HERE:
There really should not be any cause to panic. The biggest game in english football has already been handled by foreign referees on two occasions, without controversy.
On March 10, 2016, Carlos Velasco Carballo of Spain took charge of Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Manchester United in the europa League. he booked Jordan henderson for a foul after two minutes, when most english referees would still be in their chummy warning phase, but, that aside, did nothing unusual.
Milorad Mazic of Serbia refereed the return leg, seven days later. If anything, that passed with even less controversy. So it can be done.
If Mark Clattenburg is merely the first english official to decamp abroad, a competition as wealthy as the Premier League should have no worries finding adequate replacements.
Carballo will be well rewarded in La Liga, where the top officials can make in excess of the £125,000 Clattenburg earned here. German, Italian and French referees are also paid enough to ensure loyalty — but, beyond that, there is a market.
Imagine the earnings of Viktor Kassai of hungary, referee of the 2011 Champions League final, or Damir Skomina of Slovenia, in charge when Iceland beat england at the 2016 european Championship finals.
Mazic, who handled Manchester United versus Liverpool calmly enough, could surely be prised away from Serbia’s league.
It does not automatically follow that with Clattenburg going to Saudi Arabia and others, such as Michael Oliver, perhaps to join him, the only option is to promote inferiors from the junior ranks.
Yet that is what will happen and, deep down, we know it. We couldn’t have leading foreign referees here because we do not play football’s rules. We play our rules, our version — and the clash of cultures would lead to confusion and carnage.
Take the feelgood hit of this season: Burnley 0 Lincoln City 1. Magnificent occasion, magnificent story. The gentle folk of east Lancashire aside, who didn’t let out a cheer when that winning goal went in? And yet, in the first half, a series of incidents, ignored.
Matt rhead, Lincoln’s striker, is one of those big lads who likes to put it about. There are not so many of them on the continent, because they get sent off. But not here. We love them.
rhead won several balls, arms up. And on one occasion he hit Joey Barton, side of the head, with an elbow, as recklessly as anything you’ll see all season. Graham Scott, a Premier League referee, did nothing.
Barton, in the second half, made a fool of himself. he threw an elbow back at Alan Power, struck Terry hawkridge, stamped on rhead and then tried to get him sent off with a ridiculous tumble. But all of this stemmed from Scott’s first- half inertia, which was not mentioned anywhere in the euphoria of Lincoln’s win.
We can’t have it all ways. Newspapers that devote pages to concern about head trauma in football, were either oblivious or indifferent. Match
of the Day did not even show the earlier incidents in their highlights.
At one stage a commentator referred to a referee playing ‘FA Cup rules’ as if the regulations permit some additional liveliness if it’s to the benefit of the underdog and the drama.
The Premier League could not employ foreign referees without first explaining how it works here. The same talk someone at Manchester City had to give Pep Guardiola last month.
The serious point Guardiola made after beating Burnley got lost amid a surly performance in front of the cameras. It was a pity, because on one aspect of the english game, he was right.
‘All around the world, it’s a fault on the goalkeeper in the box,’ he said, complaining about Burnley’s goal which included a foul on Claudio Bravo. ‘ Not here. I have to understand that. I have to adapt and understand there are special rules in england.’
AND, yes, Bravo should have dealt with Burnley’s aerial danger better in the first place, but in the chaos that led to the goal, there was a foul. In any other country, a foul. But not in the Premier League.
No system is perfect. Gareth Bale had an excellent header disallowed against Barcelona last year, simply because he was taller and a better jumper than Jordi Alba. Sometimes protection goes too far.
Yet a sudden exodus of Premier League referees would leave english football vulnerable when it has no need to be, simply because we play by different rules.
And it doesn’t have to be that way. Do you remember Carballo and Mazic’s handling of Manchester United v Liverpool? If the answer is no, it rather proves the point.