Why do referees make mistakes?

TWO football fans asked me why the referee at their team’s game make so many mistakes last week? Two different games, two different referees.

So, what leads to so many apparent mistakes?

The first thing I must say is that not everything that looks like a mistake is one.

The view from 60 yards in the stands can be very different from the referee’s view of 15 yards.

Then, of course, there is the bias.

As one ardent sports fan once said, ‘it is scientifically proven that all awful decisions only affect the team that I support’.

We must also take into consideration that fans and even pundits, have seldom read the Laws of the Game.

I wrote in my column one week that

Gary Lineker was wrong to criticise a referee for penalising a player who raised his foot to stop a goalkeeper clearing the ball from his hands.

I included the Law which is quite specific and proved the referee had made the correct decision.

I received a card from Lineker saying simply ‘I still think I’m right’.

It must be admitted of course that referees do make mistakes, but Katja Koroleva, an American FIFA and professional referee said in an interview, ‘We make hundreds of decisions in every match and the next decision is only seconds away, so we have to confront the discomfort of making mistakes.’

So how do they come about?

Sometimes the referee doesn’t see the incident.

Remember how in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final, Howard Webb did not send off Nigel de Jong despite him kicking an opponent in the chest.

Webb admitted afterwards that his view was blocked at the vital moment. Referees, like players, can also have ‘off’ days even extending to off periods.

Think of a free scoring centre forward who suddenly can’t hit a barn door.

There is also a fairly recent influence, following the UEFA Cup Finals that has continued. Roberto Rosetti, head of UEFA referees, felt that there were too many players going down too easily and he instructed the referees not to blow for trivial fouls.

The next main reason is positioning.

Angles are as important for referees as keeping up with play.

Keith Hackett sent me a copy of the Prozone videos which he used to train the Premier League referees.

It not only showed how fast the referees ran and how much ground they covered but also their positioning at important times. It showed how just a few yards either way could make an improvement.

However, probably the real reason that we make mistakes is that we are all human.