What is Arsenal up to?

RECENTLY, I read two articles on refereeing that surprised and in some way worried me. Let me concentrate on the first one about Arsenal. Apparently, the club has developed a series of videos showing how each referee works.

They have discovered where each referee position himself, and when doing so, whether he can look behind himself, which side of the pitch each prefer to be etc.

This reminded me of a system called Prozone, which was introduced to the Premier League by Keith Hackett, when manager of the PGMO.

I am fortunate enough to have a copy of one Prozone, which not only shows the referee’s movement, but the speed of his movement, in other words how quickly he got into position, and also what was his vision from his positions.

This Keith showed to his referees, and what a tremendous training aide this must have been.

I know we talk about these sort of things at lower levels but imagine how much more powerful seeing how you performed must be.

It wasn’t all criticism of course, as Keith says, it is important to recognise good practice.

Keith also used Prozone when paying regular visits to club managers, where he was able to show the accuracy of decision making and the speed profile for referees etc.

This brings two questions to mind.

First, why did Mike Riley dump this valuable tool when he took over from Keith?

Second, what is Arsenal’s reason for such a scheme?

It is thought to be an extension of a programme to improve tackling by its players, so reducing cards being shown.

This is a very worthy aim, but highlighting each referee’s movements, it sounds as if they plan to play to the weaknesses of individual referees.

The same article also alleged that Arsenal has agreed with the PGMO, which employs the Premier League referees, that they can choose the referee for their matches.

Not for each individual game but a shortlist of referees for the PGMO to choose from.

This is based on only six referees being appointed to 23 games at the Emirates Stadium, all referring four games or more.

Arsenal has not confirmed any of this, but if true, means that the players can adjust their play according to the individual traits of each referee and the club has fewer videos to make.