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RlVISTA DELLA COMUNITA'rrALIANA
Sportlig,ht
Richard Evans
As anyone who has read this
column by now will know, my football
watching is done at Highbwy
which means that my perspective
undoubtedly does have a red and
white hue.
You will appreciate, therefore, that
with Arsenal's disciplinruy record, I
am entering dangerous territory when
commenting upon the performance of
referees.
'
It is trite but true thiit if there is
not proper respect for the decisions
made by officials then anarchy Will
u1tiinalllly iUle. COntrast tennis in the
McEnroc era with Rugby Union -
although will the referee be able to
retain his revered position now that
the latter sPort has gone professional?
U1tiniately there can only be respect,
if it is earned.
In cricket,.it is encouraging to see .
how many cX"players don the umpire's
whites at the end of their
playing careers - 10hnHainpshiie and
Peter Willey being two recent examples.
They underStand the pressures of
playing at the most senior level and in
turn that, knowledge is respected by
the current crop of players. The same
cannot be.said of football.
Is it just an imruJy, overpaid bunch
of prima donnas who need to be
taught a lesson as seems to be the
view of our footballing authorities? If
so, the situation can only deteriorate
and not improve.
I have attended far too many
games and seen too many examples
on television of inconsistent and. poor
refereeing to believe that the fault
rests solely with the players.
First, I am in no doubt that UEFA
must take its share of the blame. The
slightest mistimed tackle now requires
a yellow card. You do not create
discipline by introducing a penalty
which becomes commonplace. The
yellow card should be reserved not for
the technical incident but for genuine
malice and a professional foul. The
red card should be used sparingly for
extreme examples of those offences.
I watched football throughout the
'60s (undoubtedly' an admission of.my
age) and can only recall two sending
off incidents. The first was when big
Ron Yeats and loe Baker' exchanged
30
blows in' a fifth round Arsenal -v­
Liveipool Cup tie and the second was
when Messrs Gould and Sprake had a
bout of fisticuffs during one of the
traditionally notorious Arsenal -v­
Leeds clashes of that era. In other
words, there·was a recognition that
fans came'to see the players play and
not the referees refereeing.
Has football 'really benefited by
having, as the norm matehes in which
teams regularly end up With only nine
or ten players on the field?
But matters are likely to get
worse. There is talk from Sepp -Blatter
of UEFA that he wants to eliminate
the sliding tackle and possibly tackles
a1togetherl We really Will be having
handbags at five 'paces and whilst no
one wants skill to be destroyed by
brute force - there must be a happy
medium.
'
One of the great joys for me in my
considerably younger days was' to
employ the sliding tackle and come
off the field covered in mud after
playing on a traditional mid-winter
pitch. The essence of skill is to
overcome reasonable force and not
eliminate that force altogether ..
If I can put on my red and white
glasses for a moment - where is the
protection of skill when the first
Arsenal player to receive. five bookings
is the notorioUsly quiet and eventempered
Dennis Bergkamp? Having
seen one or two of his bookings, they
have been innocuous, mistimed tackles
i!1 the opposition half of the field.
What evil does the referee really think
he is pnnishing .in' those circumstances?
Yet the Feyenoord tackle on
Dennis loon went completely unpunished.
'
What· we really need is referees
who understand the problems of playing
the game at the highest level and
who are respected by the players.
Referees who are prepared to blend
into the background and .let. the players
get on with the game and' only
interfere to ensure extreme examplesof
misbehaviour are curbed. That way
control will be retained. The quickest
way of losing control is to have a
series of petty inconsistent decisions
which .~imply
stoke. up frustration to
boiling point I will not name, names
or particular matches which I have in
mindl ..
So yes, I am advocating the professional
referee but reCognise that
money is a' problem. The difference) in
salary between . a top player and. a
referee is such that-it is going to (be
difficult to persuade the lan Wrights
of this world to put on an all black (or
green) outfit when they retire in the
same way as some cricketers have
done. Nevertheless, I cannot help but
think thitt highly respected professionals
from the Nationwide League could
be encOuraged in' such a career with a
fast track to make sure that they do
not languish forever.in the Diadora
League until they arC too old to keep
up with the pace 'of play.
Our footballing authoritieS really
do need to look at' the' heart of the
problem 'and not simply regurgitate
that the referee is always right unless
he admits a mistake when the videO
evidence is shoWn to him.
Yes, the referee's job is a hard one
and so he should be properly remunerated,
so that his worth is recognised
and the proper people are
attracted to fu1fi1 the role who will
earn the respect of the players. This
problem needs to be urgently addressed.
Here endetb the sermon for the
final time. Thank you for reading me
for the last 21 years - I wi~1 miss you.
December 97/January 98