Football We need full-time refs in League One, says manager Barton
JOEY Barton is fed up of the officiating standards in the EFL and has called for referees to be made full-time.
League One’s officials are only employed on a part-time basis, and Bristol Rovers manager Barton believes that is contributing to poor standards throughout the pyramid.
He aired his frustrations after Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat at Burton Albion, which saw a Luke McCormick red card change the flow of the game. Barton admits he can have few complaints about McCormick’s second yellow card, for kicking the ball away, but he believes referee Charles Breakspear was guilty of inconsistency at the Pirelli Stadium.
Refereeing standards are the hot topic in English football, with the Premier League seeing high-profile errors week-in, week-out, and Barton believes professionalising refereeing further down the pyramid will benefit the game as a whole.
“I’ve got used to it now in League One,” said Barton. “We see in the Premier League with VAR that the officials aren’t the best, so what chance have these part-time lads got down here?
“You’ve got professional footballers refereed by part-time referees. I’ve never understood the logic of it. Is there not enough money in the game to make sure we’ve got proper officials that don’t have to work a job and can be officials fulltime? There’s a lot at stake for sides at our level, it’s not non-League.
“We’re in the Football League and there’s a lot of money washing around football, can we not help these referees and officials get better by making them full-time?
“That way, I think the cream
would rise to the top and we would have better officiating right the way through our pyramid.”
Breakspear, and his assistants, caused Barton frustration long before McCormick’s 52nd-minute red card. The Rovers boss, situated just a few yards from the press area, was regularly protesting to officials for what he perceived as leniency towards the Burton players when they tried to buy free-kicks.
Ultimately, though, Barton knows midfielder McCormick should never have put himself at risk of a red card by trying to delay a quick throw-in.
“They’re a set-piece, long-ball team,” said Barton. “They’ve got a 6ft 3ins centre forward, (Mike) Fondop, who got ragged off after 30 minutes. Every time there was a
contact he was throwing himself on the floor.
“I’m saying to the fourth official it’s diving. The reality of it is if you exaggerate contact, it’s diving.
“Eventually, Jimmy (Floyd Hasselbaink) took him off, because he’d had eight, nine or 10 of them and obviously wasn’t playing football. He might as well swap roles with Tom Daley, he was at it that much and the officials were just letting stuff go on and on and on.
“You need to protect the game and officiate the game correctly, but on the other side of that he’s keen to send people off for kicking a ball into the advertising hoarding. If he kicked it into the stand I can kind of get it.
“Do you need to decide the encounter on that? Can you not
just say ‘any more of that and your off ’?
“Luke’s made an error, there’s no malice in it. He’s kicked the ball into the advertising hoardings. If that’s a sending off in a key bottomof-the-table encounter then Kane Hemmings has kicked the ball away late in the game but he hasn’t booked him.
“You have to scratch your head sometimes. I had a chat with the referee after the game. He told me his explanation and I couldn’t really argue with him.
“It’s just disappointing that the contest is decided by officials rather than the players on the pitch, but we need to tighten up our discipline. If we can keep 11 players on the pitch, we can cause any team in this division problems.”
THE Toolstation Western League have officially abandoned their 2020-21 season - but hope to conclude the remaining part of the Les Phillips Cup campaign held over from the previous season.
The league did not stage the Les Phillips Cup this season, due to the potential for fixture congestion caused by the Covid crisis, but believe the easing of restrictions from the end of this month offers an opportunity to finish the 201920 competition. Bridgwater, Hallen and Bradford Town had moved into the semi-finals when the season was abandoned, while Tavistock and Warminster still had their quarter-final tie to play. On a national level, there is good news for Clevedon Town, with the Football Association announcing its intention to finish this season’s FA Vase competition, with Micky Bell’s side having made it through to the last 16.
The Toolstation League, however have decided against running a mini-cup competition during April and May, even though several other leagues around the country have opted to do so.
A statement on the Toolstation League website reads: “The board have considered a number of detailed options for organising a regionalised tournament in what would have been the remaining weeks of the 2020-21 season. Central to our decision-making process was the pre-condition that clubs should only be asked to play if they are able to admit paying spectators and able to access secondary income streams such as bar income.
“Government guidance concerning the hospitality industry has consistently guided supporter access to clubhouses. We understand the table service-only restriction will still apply, both outdoors from April 12 and indoors from May 17 and that managing this restriction represents a considerable challenge for some of our clubs.
“Given the current lack of Covid guidance concerning the return of spectators, as well as member clubs’ involvement in both the Les Phillips Cup and FA Vase competitions, the board do not believe it is feasible to organise an additional tournament at this time.
“As with pre-season preparation matches, clubs are welcome to arrange fixtures as they see fit. However, the board urge all Western League clubs that any footballing activity undertaken between now and the start on the 2021-22 season must be compliant with both Government and Football Association guidance.”