Referwheeze
Should have had a penalty? No way was that a red card? What about that stick-on hand ball? And your star striker missing a sitter in the 89th minute? Don’t blame the players, blame the..
EXCLUSIVE
ELITE referees are making blunders in football matches because they’re not fit enough.
Scientists put 13 top Scottish whistlers through simulations and found their judgment crumbled when they were out of puff.
Astonishingly, the majority of decisions they made when breathing very heavily were wrong.
The study experts have urged the Scottish Football Association to make training tougher.
But last night ex-international referee John Rowbotham told fans and bosses not to be judgmental.
The Fife-based public speaker said: “The bottom line is everyone makes mistakes but when your team gets beat it’s always thee ref ’s fault, never the strikerr who misses an open goal inn the 89th minute.
“The game has got far faster.er. I don’t know how thesese scientists reached theireir conclusions but I don’t think the public knows just howow demanding the training is for refs. I was part-time but I was five nights a week to make sureure I was in good physical condition.tion. “So I can honestly say thathat a 60 or 70-yard sprint didn’t affect my judgmentgment at all and I wasn’t’t left gasping for breath.”
Referees cover up to 7.5 miles every game and can hit 10mph. But although top-level officials are in good shape, fans have been frustrated at howlers.
Last week, the SFA revealed its referees chief Crawford Allan will leave his post after clubs gave him a vote of no-confidence.
For their experiment, University of the West of Scotland scientists picked whistlers who had of f iciated at Championship and
League One level.
They ran on a treadmill for two blocks of 16 minutes with changes of pace mimicking a match. During the session, they were shown 10 clips of challenges from real games, shot from an official’s perspective.
Each time, they were asked if they’d seen a foul and it deserved a free kick or a red or yellow card. Their choices were assessed by two ex-international referees.
Tests find officials’ judgment dips when they are out of puff
Overall, they gott 99 off 130 rightiht – or 76 per cent – but began to make mistakes when near their limit.
Accuracy dipped to 40 per cent when their heart rate was at its highest in the 10 seconds before making decisions. And it fell to 35 per cent when the referees reported breathing very hard. Running at 9.3 mph made them nearly four times more likely to drop a clanger.
The study – published in the
European Journal of Sport Science – said physical stress may cause officials to lose focus or that blood flow to the brain may slow, causing more errors late in games.
It urged governing bodies to consider “training sessions that help prepare officials for the periods of match play that prove most problematic to their decision-making”. Last night, the SFA refused to comment but a
source said extra training based on the lab tests is being introduced.
The insider said: “The fitness of these refs was found to be very high, comparable to top Fifa officials and international players.
“The stage at which the accuracy of their decisions began to drop was only under a duress they rarely experience during a game.”
The Sunday Mail approached one of Scotland’s most high profile referees, Douglas Ross – also leader of the Scottish Conservatives – but he declined to comment.
Many of Scotland’s top sides have moaned about controversial calls lately. Earlier this month, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers laid into the VAR system that saw Yang Hyun-jun sent off against Hearts and a penalty given for handball.
A week later, Hibs manager Nick Montgomery was furious after Jordan Obita and Nathan MoriahWelsh were dismissed during a Scottish Cup clash with Rangers.
Last month, Ibrox gaffer Philippe Clement was fizzing over handball calls at Kilmarnock.