Flops of England Referees

In the last 50 years, the men 100m world record has quickened by 0.5 seconds. Improved medical treatment and physiology helps athletes to be stronger and faster. Officials are expected to catch-up with the increased pace of the games. When the limit of human beings is being pushed to the boundary, technology is being called upon.

Various sports have already sought the assistance of technology. American sports have reasonable tolerance for in-game delays to allow for review systems. Even fast-flowing sports like tennis adapts Eagle-eye system and grant players opportunities to challenge questionable calls by umpire. Meanwhile, football has only begun to bring in goal-line technology to reduce controversy in close calls for goals, or even "ghost" goals.

Mr Mariner has been having a tough week

After all, as Mr Blatter insists, officiating is driven by human beings. Video replays still have to be reviewed by the referees. Also, there is certain scope of judgement still determined by referees rather than computers.

Officials in Premier League have been under the limelight lately. Unarguably one of the toughest leagues to officiate, the standard of the referees, though, are dipping worryingly. You can see referees giving out penalty although being 50 yards from the action, but also not giving one being obviously within eyesight distance. You can witness a red card being issued after two minutes of self-thinking. There seems to be no standard code of practice for officials, leading to inconsistency in judging level of punishment for cynical fouls and handling chaotic situation in games. Ultimately, players take advantage by trying to make the most out of the varying personal characters of referees.

When you look at Italy and Spain, the consistency of the standard of referees is outstanding. They may still make the wrong calls, remembering that they are not robots. However, the communication and understanding among the officials are excellent. They excel in establishing authority and controlling players' temper. They have clear criteria for physical contacts and more importantly, stone-hearted that they are not moved by the crowds or tempered players easily.

Chris Foy denied a conversation with Mourinho

It is understandable that referees make mistakes. With more cameras in the field, matches being broadcasted all over the world and local media also imposing pressure , modern officials are having tough time. Take Alberto Mallenco, or better known as the referee for El Clasico, as an example. Having got most of the calls right and done a relatively decent job to keep the intense derby flowing, he was widely criticised by Real Madrid for not having the fear-looking face as Pierlugi Collina and more importantly, wrongly sent off Sergio Ramos and awarding the penalty.

Fairly speaking, Neymar was sneaky to earn the foul. Mallenco could have granted Ramos the benefit of doubt. At least, he was logically correct to give the marching order after his determined penalty decision. Madrid had also benefited from Mallenco's excellence in spotting Dani Alves' clipping Ronaldo and earned a penalty, though the foul was marginally outside the box. Majority of the referees may not award the unobvious foul. Ancelotti's side should also count themselves lucky not down to ten men before half time, if Pepe's head-butting was appropriately penalised.

Howard Webb --- most respectable referee in England now

Premier League adopted a system to conduct post-match officiating correction. The effectiveness of it is in doubt. If Andre Marriner failed to identify Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to be the ball-handler, should Chamberlain be banned while Kieran Gibbs' suspension is lifted? While Alan Pardew was given a seven match-ban for head-butting David Meyler, Joe Hart was only being booked for the same vigorous reaction towards Chris Boyd, with the latter being banned for three matches, having been seen spitting towards Joe Hart in the post-match review. Although the logic that incidents being dealt with within the match will not be overruled in order to maintain the creditability of referees is valid, to some extent it is contradicting, unless red card appeals are also forbidden.

Mr. Blatter is not wrong after all. Officiating is a human being's job. We have already seen how crucial one single referee's decision can impact the outcome of a match, ultimately the title of a league. While FIFA has little intention to introduce more technology into football in the near future, England needs to improve the standard of referees, as well as reviewing the system to prevent it from faltering. Officials should drive the standard of the league forward, but not dragging it from developing further.