All the talk of this Ref X is really bad and Ref Y is just as bad, just leads me to the belief that most English officials aren't that good. I rate lots of European referee's and very few English ones.
I think, before anyone can accept the technology debate, the F.A. need to get better referee's in, who work in regular teams (linesmen / fourth) and raise the standard across the board. Sky and other media outlets promote this as the best league in the World (Lets not start that debate) but why should such a good league settle for such poor standards of referee'ing?
I watch a lot of lower league football (Sheffield Wednesday season ticket holder) and **** me. It's bad. You get throw ins wrong, corners given wrong and often fouls given to keep the crowd happy. It's horrific and bad. I also watch a lot of football from over Europe (and a bit of South America) and listen to a lot, and the referee's there, just often seem better.
Meh, even good ref's have stinkers of games, just like players, Euro refs we simply see less often.
Its not really that ref's make a mistake, its the long list of mistakes you remember from specific refs, and the little irritating stupid ones that aren't a big deal. For EPL ref's, we basically remember every stupid thing they've done for 5 years, and realise how bad they are.
Ref's can't ever, ever be perfect, they can't see anything, from one angle a tackle can look awful, from another you realise theres no contact at all and it was a dive.
Ref's don't get it right even 70% of the time, the Utd game today was wrong decision after wrong decision, little ones, big ones, every game is like that, throw in's going the wrong way, everything. Camera's aren't worth it for most little decisions, but frankly bringing in camera's for the big decisions with red flags and a few challenges per game like american footie, it will bring honesty into the game. Pulling shirt at corner, red flag, penalty, within weeks, diving will be almost completely gone, pulling shirts at corners(badly) gone, and being honest in those situations will frankly just lead to players being more honest around the pitch in general.
One thing I hate is the attitudes of some ref's, Dowd is awful, he stands back, makes a massive "show" of every decision, you seem him mouth off to players and mock players when they ask why a decision is gone wrong, you plainly see him ignore players asking for the wall to be moved back. His type of attitude should see him removed from refereeing. But camera's would "fix" most of the rest of the reffing problems in the league.
