Yes, referees make mistakes... but not as many as the managers and players who criticise them

By Steve Stammers

Published 08:00 07/12/11

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Referees were in the spotlight again over the weekend. Decisions were analysed ad infinitum and accusations of incompetence leveled at the officials. And once again the argument for video technology – and the fragmented effect it will bring - was put forward.

Here is another idea. How about managers biting the bullet after an incident has not gone in their favour.

The growth of the personality cult among referees is a cause for unease, certainly. Their use of players’ Christian names and – even worse – their nicknames is a hugely annoying trend.

But the simple fact is that without a referee, there is no game. And, yes, he will make mistakes. But it would be interesting to count up the errors he makes compared to those of the players. The odds are that the numbers will be in the favour of officials.

It started Saturday lunch time when David Luiz of Chelsea clearly pulled back Demba Ba of Newcastle. Should have been a red card, Luiz was given a yellow and referee Mike Dean would have seen he got it wrong with one glimpse of the replay.

That did not cost Newcastle the game. Their downfall came with inept defending that allowed Chelsea to score three times allied to the wasteful approach to finishing.

Cue Neil Warnock of QPR. “We work all week to get it right and we want the officials to do the same,” he said after Shaun Wright-Phillips had a good goal ruled out for offside. Another team, apparently, that needs to work on finishing because Joey Barton shot wide with just Ben Foster to beat and Wright-Phillips failed to make any kind of connection to a cross that provided him with a gilt-edged chance. If they had gone in, it would not have been an issue.

The most glaring miscarriage of justice was at White Hart Lane when Stuart Atwell sent of Bolton’s Gary Cahill. Sheer mis-judgement by the referee... Nothing more and nothing less. You can be certain he did not do it to spoil the game or deepen Bolton’s relegation gloom. He made a mistake, pure and simple.

Then came the Jay Spearing red card while he was playing for Liverpool at Fulham. “He won the ball and it is not his fault if someone is standing there,” said manager Kenny Dalglish.

Dalglish was one of the most gifted strikers to play in this country  - or any other come to that. But he would have been better to have kept quiet on that tackle. Two feet off the ground in a launch rather than a tackle and someone could have been badly hurt. If it had been a Liverpool player on the receiving end, his observations would have been interesting.

And go back a few weeks when Rio Ferdinand’s challenge – later to seen to be legitimate – was punished with a penalty against Newcastle at Old Trafford. Sir Alex Ferguson called it “an absolute travesty". Probably the same words that went through the head of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger when Sol Campbell was adjudged to have brought down Wayne Rooney and gave away the penalty that helped bring The Invincibles unbeaten run to an end back in 2004. Same penalty area, same injustice. Maybe what goes around and all that is true.

The bottom line is that referees make mistakes. As do managers. As do players. And the officials make far fewer of them.

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