What sort of car do you run then Adge, not trying to be funny but refs in general make me so angry because of their incompetence, I just don't understand the mentality of people wanting to be a referee knowing full well they will get abuse!! I just think they like the power trip, not trying to be funny to you or any referee because I know its a difficult thing to do I just cannot understand the reasoning.
My take on it is to referee at professional level you must have played at least a full season in league football as a minimum requirement, this way at least they should understand the 'goings' on around diving/cheating etc then give the less fortunate top players a chance to still be able to make a living from pro football, they should also be able to referee with common sense instead of some barmy old bastards like eufa or whoever controls the standards of refereeing making up so many grey area rules and with VAR coming in its gotten even more ridiculous too because some of those decisions is a fucking joke...rant over
The reason we do it is not about money at all which I think we have already established.
It’s about football/nothing more nothing less and being involved in the game that we all love. I have been doing it for about 12 years and started because of lack of Referees’s on a Saturday morning turning up for my sons team and me not playing anymore and it progressed from there.
We do hear things from the crowd and I was involved in a MFL game recently where the Referee (who had put himself forward where other will not) was a minor. Some clever person in the crowd (I was the assistant referee) was berating him all game and during a break in play I informed the said individual that his bile was aimed at a child. I guess this made him think about his actions. He was embarrassed by his actions and apologised to me to pass that on to the referee after the game.
I always use this story aswell in defence of the officials which may give a bit more balance.
We had a well known Birmingham City player who has since retired come to one of our meetings (some 4-5 years ago). He was asked what he thought of the officials in the Championship and the standard of refereeing.
“They are not very good at all and don’t know the game from a playing perspective”
One of my colleagues asked him does he read to which he replied that he does.
He then passed him the book of the laws of the game and asked has he ever read that. The player said he hadn’t read it or had never seen a copy before.
My colleague then asked him had he ever seen a copy around the training ground at the club etc and again the answer was no.
“So you are critical of the people who carry out and know the laws of the game and as a professional player at the top of your game you have never read or seen a copy of the laws of the game?”
Case closed.