Why don't we have ref interviews?

clean-sheet-culkin

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With a lot of press recently about refs at grassroots level getting insane levels of abuse (which I hope we all agree is disgusting), I can't help but wonder why we have zero post game interviews with refs at big games.

It's easy to dehumanise people into 'ref' and forget they are fallible people like all of us when there's no human face, voice or reaction to empathize with. I don't think anybody here could ref numerous games without making mistakes and being slated.

I want to hear the ref explain his decision on Marcus last night. Maybe he says 'I made a mistake'. Maybe he says 'heres why I 100% don't believe that was a foul'. Maybe he's honest, maybe he's terrible. Who knows?

Along side the manager and player interviews, I would love to see a ref interview. It's interesting, gives us more to talk about, can only be good for the broadcaster and would generate revenue to improve the quality and consistency of refereeing at all levels of the game. Plus, maybe if we understand the difficulties of a ref, grassroots calms down just a little?

So why no interviews? Am I alone and people don't care? Do the refs not want to do it? Is it the broadcasters and networks?

What do you think?
 
Because it would further highlight how completely incompetent they are and that the refereeing setup is nothing more than a cartel that protects their own. It’s pretty eye-opening when sports channels get a former ref on to analyse controversial decisions, and you can see them performing real-time mental gymnastics to avoid every outcome other than admitting one of their own is crap.

But yes they should talk, I’d find bad decison more palatable if they’d explain what they saw and why they made the decision they did.
 
I think they are partially scared that a referee will say something they shouldn't and they are partially scared that it will just be a hiding to nothing with people trying to get them to admit bias, wrongdoing etc.

I can kind of see why you wouldn't want to do that with the nature of so many football fans.
 
It did used to happen. I remember a referee being interviewed on Sky after a game once trying to justify a dodgy Liverpool penalty. This was probably about 15 years ago. Around that time it used to happen.
 
I remember someone talking about this, and the problem they highlighted - and I think it's fair - is that the refs will only ever be asked about mistakes.

Also, what happens to the VAR? They're probably the worst ones at the moment, because they have all the tools at their disposal, but their inconsistency is what's causing the most problems.
 
Because it would set a precedent where a referee would have to defend his decisions. Also I remember when SKY used to interview refs after the game and Harry Redknapp said "If he's going to come out and speak to the cameras like he's some sort of star then I'm allowed to criticise him for his performance"
 
You weren’t looking for this after Fernandes’ equaliser in the derby. I would be happy with an overall report from the referees body after the weekend explaining decisions, both good and bad.

Refs aren’t paid enough to have to go in front of the Sky cameras and be bashed by pundits, millions online and become memes based on something they may say. It is hard enough to get refs starting out at grassroots.

The ref made a poor call last night, (I am sure there is someone starting a thread on a Barca forum castigating the ref over Fred’s “handball”) get over it.
 
When players / coaches get interviewed after a game, a lot of the questions are "great result / game, how do you feel". "You've settled in well at the new club and a MOTM performance, are you getting to know your new teammates well?" "You were perhaps unlucky with some of the calls against your team, any thoughts on this?"

If a ref were to be questioned...all they'd be asked is to justify and explain calls that they either did wrong or were controversial. I don't see any point in hammering someone's performance live after a match for the world to see. I get what the OP is trying to say, but interviewing refs isn't right in my opinion.

If they were, you could argue the questions asked to players should be similar in nature and more like, "So you played the ball back to your keeper and didn't look up to see the striker in the way. You cost your team 3 points, please explain to the fans what the feck you were thinking" See how quickly players and coaches would stop doing interviews if players and coaches were asked to justify there decisions on specific instances that cost their team points, similar to what in reality the ref's would be asked to justify in-match decisions
 
Accountability is the only way officiating improves. Make refs explain their decisions either in a press conference or in writing after the match. Mic them up in game so we can hear what's going on with VAR and other things. The critisicim won't be any worse than it already is and if it weeds out the awful ones, that's great.

On the flip side, start enforcing dissent rules. Stop teams from surrounding a ref because they don't lke a call. If you must, retroactively discipline players and clubs. Provide a little more protection for the refs.

Also, need to open up to officials from around the world. Premier league should be employing the best refs that exist. Stop the closed club.
 
renatosanches85 said:
You weren’t looking for this after Fernandes’ equaliser in the derby. I would be happy with an overall report from the referees body after the weekend explaining decisions, both good and bad.

Refs aren’t paid enough to have to go in front of the Sky cameras and be bashed by pundits, millions online and become memes based on something they may say. It is hard enough to get refs starting out at grassroots.

The ref made a poor call last night, (I am sure there is someone starting a thread on a Barca forum castigating the ref over Fred’s “handball”) get over it.
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Still moaning about Brunos perfectly legit goal? :lol:
 
Who would want to be a referee then? How much are they paid really? Get hate mail, death threats. On top of that, after every single game where you have tried to make the best decisions you have to appear in the court of public opinion? No, bad idea.
 
We need an rvn said:
When players / coaches get interviewed after a game, a lot of the questions are "great result / game, how do you feel". "You've settled in well at the new club and a MOTM performance, are you getting to know your new teammates well?" "You were perhaps unlucky with some of the calls against your team, any thoughts on this?"

If a ref were to be questioned...all they'd be asked is to justify and explain calls that they either did wrong or were controversial. I don't see any point in hammering someone's performance live after a match for the world to see. I get what the OP is trying to say, but interviewing refs isn't right in my opinion.

If they were, you could argue the questions asked to players should be similar in nature and more like, "So you played the ball back to your keeper and didn't look up to see the striker in the way. You cost your team 3 points, please explain to the fans what the feck you were thinking" See how quickly players and coaches would stop doing interviews if players and coaches were asked to justify there decisions on specific instances that cost their team points, similar to what in reality the ref's would be asked to justify in-match decisions
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Absolutely, although it would be way more interesting if the interview asked ETH why the feck did you start McTominay or Pep why he left KdB on the bench?

The last thing we want is refs seeing themselves as celebrities and stars in their own right.
 
I think they should publish a written report on every game in terms of key decisions that were made per game. I understand, putting Refs in the public eye isn't ideal and it's tough for them as it is, but there needs to be more accountability. On Field, Refs aren't worried about improving their ability because they think that VAR will correct it anyway. VAR can only intervene in explicitly determined scenarios and even then, there is quite a bit of subjectivity.

One word highlighting all this by managers/players and they face fines/suspensions. It's not balanced at all.
 
If refs have to come out and face questions about their decisions then we also have to have the players come out and face questions about their decisions to dive and cheat - only fair IMO
 
We do in Norway. Reffing is still bad, but at least they're accountable
 
Can't help but feel that would lead to more controversy and maybe even 'celebrity' referees who see themselves as stars or the key influencers of games.
 
They'd get destroyed by the media. "Why didn't you notice that clear offside?" "Wasn't that a very obvious red card that you didn't give?" "The standards of refereeing have dropped quite a bit, will your bosses address this?" "You've made so many mistakes today, have you cost team x the game?" "Did Stevie Me slip because of you?" "Why is VAR constantly getting stuff wrong?" "Are you worried about your job?"
 
Irwin99 said:
Can't help but feel that would lead to more controversy and maybe even 'celebrity' referees who see themselves as stars or the key influencers of games.
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Clattenburg likes this
 
Himannv said:
They'd get destroyed by the media. "Why didn't you notice that clear offside?" "Wasn't that a very obvious red card that you didn't give?" "The standards of refereeing have dropped quite a bit, will your bosses address this?" "You've made so many mistakes today, have you cost team x the game?" "Did Stevie Me slip because of you?" "Why is VAR constantly getting stuff wrong?" "Are you worried about your job?"
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This is exactly why, in a couple of years there'd be no referees left because no one in their right mind would want to put up with the crap they'd get for what in PL terms is a pittance of a pay packet

Given most fans don't actually understand the actual rules, only what they think they are or should be a written explanation, IMO, would be a good idea, not just the referee either, the assistants should do the same
 
We should minimise them and their inputs to that of corner flags. feck making them the centre of attention. They will make mistakes and no amount of statements or reports will stop that.

Clubs should be able to dispute afterwards and the disputes should be kept and if it looks anything like a pattern them comee down on them with an investigation
 
Their bias and incompetence will be out in the open

On the flip side, they will have insane pressure and won't be able to handle it and make more mistakes.
 
Interviewing them would just cause more problems, the English press are the gutter so it would be 5 minutes of trying to back the referee into a corner they couldn't get out of...just resulting in more hate online.
 
Refereeing, at least in this country, is a clear demonstration of what happens when you give people power with very little accountability: institutional incompetence and ever worsening standards.

It’s crazy that every other aspect of football is now hyper-professional, where absolutely nothing is left to chance, and yet officiating is still trapped in the amateurism of the 19th century.

Interviewing refs would help improve the transparency, but it won’t be enough. The whole profession needs overhauling. (And that must include giving grassroots refs more protection from thuggish players and parents)
 
There needs to be a massive social media campaign demanding more transparency. Maybe a change.org petition?

A written report detailing refereeing and VAR decisions.
VAR need to be mic’d up and the full exchange fully broadcast.

If they need a reason that satisfies their egos, they would be educating us stoopid armchair fans.
 
It would be a disaster. They'd be brought on to be slated and they'd close ranks even more.

What they need is to be accountable - one thing I have always wondered is why we see so few refs in the PL, there are 21 this season but about half of them have ref 10 games or less. Tierney, Oliver, Hooper, Taylor, Attwell, Jones, Madley, Pawson, Banks and Coote are the ones with over 10 games with Tierney leading on 18.

Given a PL season has 380 matches, this seems super low. They should double that number and then rate the refs on an ongoing basis with the best performers taking more and more games with a maximum of 38 games a season (so the best refs will ref every week). Think of it as a league table for referees with relegation and young, hungry refs waiting to come up and prove themselves. Any culture where there's a real meritocracy is going to produce much better standards, not the stagnant old boys club we have now.
 
renatosanches85 said:
You weren’t looking for this after Fernandes’ equaliser in the derby. I would be happy with an overall report from the referees body after the weekend explaining decisions, both good and bad.

Refs aren’t paid enough to have to go in front of the Sky cameras and be bashed by pundits, millions online and become memes based on something they may say. It is hard enough to get refs starting out at grassroots.

The ref made a poor call last night, (I am sure there is someone starting a thread on a Barca forum castigating the ref over Fred’s “handball”) get over it.
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:lol:
 
renatosanches85 said:
Refs aren’t paid enough to have to go in front of the Sky cameras and be bashed by pundits, millions online and become memes based on something they may say. It is hard enough to get refs starting out at grassroots.
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I'm with you. People don't want referees to 'explain' things. They want to try them on live TV. I don't want to see the moment a referee realises post match he made a mistake.

Explanations are warranted, but not like that.
 
I don’t think refs should have to justify their decisions, but I do like the idea of the VAR chief explaining their decisions after the game.
 
They won't even let the viewers listen to the referee's conversations in the VAR room for fear of being exposed for their incompetency, so there's no way they'll allow refs to be interviewed post-match.
 
Ottawa MLS Fan said:
I don’t think refs should have to justify their decisions, but I do like the idea of the VAR chief explaining their decisions after the game.
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This is what I was just about to write. The ref has a difficult job - needing 360 vision and making decisions in a split second. The VAR on the other hand has all the camera angles and the luxury of time to make the right decision. He should be able to justify his decision and advice to the on-field ref
 
There'd be absolutely no win at all from refs doing this.
 
Refereeing is too difficult for humans. The only way you improve it is by slowing the decision making down and making it more checklist like but people aren’t prepare to sacrifice other aspects of the game.

Decisions pre-VAR were filtered by the referees inability to spot every thing. VAR was brought it in and seeing everything meant that there could easily be two or three penalties a game. We stripped it back to fit the way it was pre-VAR and now we’re just ignoring things to fit the old game flow.

Basically we want to improve refereeing but arent prepared to sacrifice anything. Why is that referees are universally shit across all leagues? And you can probably extend that to other team ball sports.
 
NICanRed said:
This is what I was just about to write. The ref has a difficult job - needing 360 vision and making decisions in a split second. The VAR on the other hand has all the camera angles and the luxury of time to make the right decision. He should be able to justify his decision and advice to the on-field ref
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'He has a linesman on either side to assist and a fourth official. It worked well for over a century and, in my opinion, would work just fine absent the incessant tinkering with the rules just to please the television audience that allows for VAR. Goal-line technology is a boon and should certainly remain.
 
It isn't like there is any real value in the interviews conducted with players, managers etc.... the sports journalists asking the questions are inept at best, and the players/mangers answering even are either too dumb to have anything interesting to say, or too smart/media trained to say anything but the rote answer.

If they were to interview the refs it would just be more of the same shite, absolute zero actual content, with the occasional sly question designed to generate a sound bite.

It would also more than likely just increase animosity towards refs which is not something I want, I would like them to be better, but giving them more agro is not likely to achieve this.

I would rather see referees have to spend the following day reviewing the match they just ref'd, including the commentary and gain some understanding, potentially have the power to give or rescind cards retrospectively.
 
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