Why The On-field Lectures?

The latest irritation caused by referees appears to be when a corner or free kick has been awarded. Just why is it that referees nowadays, especially on live television coverage matches, have this insatiable desire to be a schoolteacher before the ball is even kicked?

What I mean by this is, in the modern game, players still like to jostle and shove their opponents about, just like they did in my day. In my years as a referee we called it 'jostling for position'. Only when the ball is kicked were we instructed to decide who did what to whom and to award a free kick to the defending team or a penalty kick to the attacking team, depending on who committed the first foul. In clearer words, we as referees were expected to make a decision in open play, not hold the play up by delivering a sermon on the mount and treating two or three highly competitive players like children.

If a player is getting too close to a goalkeeper at a corner kick, for instance, surely it is the referee's job to keep an eye on the situation as the ball comes across, not before it is kicked. If then the goalie is fouled, the referee has an easy job to just give a free kick to the defending team. On the other hand, if the goalkeeper or a defender commits a foul on an attacking player then, a penalty kick is the obvious option. And, if it takes 10 or more penalties being awarded in one game because of it then, that's what must happen.

As far as I am aware, the Laws of the Game have not changed regarding this approach in the time I hung up my whistle until now, so what gives? If I had paused each game I officiated in every time there was a bit of pushing, shoving, shirt-tugging or bear-hugging going on under or near the crossbar, just to wag my finger at players before the ball is even launched towards goal, those games would never have finished much before midnight, if at all. An offence has not been committed until the ball is in play; what doesn't a referee remember about that from their training?

One of the first lessons I learnt when I began my referees' course in Bromley was, "never get noticed". And I stuck by that (until I had to send four players off in one game, and then everybody noticed me, but that's a story for another time). It was instilled into me that the game of football is about the players, not the referee (nor the linos), and we were advised to conduct ourselves accordingly. What is it that makes certain referees want to be the centre of attention all the time? Is it the TV cameras or just the thrill of "getting noticed"? I often wonder...

Former player, manager, TV football pundit and co-commentator Ron Atkinson had a phrase for the coming together of two or more players. He called it 'handbags'. But, perhaps, the modern-day referees have never heard of that saying, or maybe they have never heard of 'Big Ron'.

Much how it sounds like it here, I am not knocking referees in general. How can I, when I was one myself? I know how hard it can be for referees, both physically and mentally, to convince themselves to turn up each week for 'more of the same'. The abuse, the crappy weather, the cautions, the dismissals and the paperwork afterwards. The majority of the games I officiated in were on park pitches, miles from anywhere and, where I was very often on my Jack Jones; I was open to all manner of abuse, verbal and physical. Even the linos were supplied by each club, so I couldn't rely on them to come to my rescue. Stopping the game every time a tussle occurred in the goalmouth, to administer a 'ticking off', would have been tantamount to lighting a blue touch paper attached to a gunpowder keg, especially if the game involved two hung-over pub teams on a Sunday morning. 

So, I do wish referees would stop their namby-pambying every time players get more than just a bit 'touch tight' in the box. Their schoolmaster or schoolmistress approach doesn't project a particularly good image, it's not funny, it's not clever and it certainly doesn't make a good impression on live TV. Nor is it a good spectacle for the game. More time is wasted through such officialdom finger wagging than visiting players holding onto a slender lead could ever waste.

Referees need to just stick to administering the Laws of the Game, not get noticed and just get on with it.