The European football governing body Uefa has informed competing nations at this summer’s Euros that only team captains will be allowed to approach referees to dispute decisions. It is hoped this will reduce the amount of pressure placed on referees and allow for smoother and more orderly officiating. So, two’s company but three or more will be deemed an unlawful assembly and could result in yellow or even red cards. It’s a bold move, but is it necessary and will it work?
The already crucifying difficulty of refereeing is not helped by having a throng of excitable prima donnas ready to encircle you at any moment
The idea comes from IFAB (the International Football Association Board) who describe themselves as the ‘guardians of football’s laws and regulations’. Their proposals appear to have been fast-tracked into a top-tier international tournament by an image-conscious governing body, leaving little time for objections. Roberto Rosetti Uefa’s managing director of refereeing described the rationale for the no-go zone around the officials as being so that ‘the decision can be relayed in a timely and respectful manner’.
Fair enough… perhaps. Refereeing high-profile football matches must be one of the most stressful occupations there is. The intense pressure of making instant ultra-high-stakes decisions while much of the planet is watching you work requires an almost preternatural coolness and resilience. The already crucifying difficulty of the job is not helped by having a throng of excitable prima donnas ready to encircle you at any moment to press their case.
Mobbing the referee, as it is known, is certainly a feature of the modern game and can be spontaneous or, some allege, a deliberate tactic – one thinks of Jose Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, where the notoriously aggressive squad would surround the referee to within almost touching distance whenever a decision went against them. This perhaps wasn’t an attempt to get a referee to change a specific decision, which almost never happens (though Jimmy Greaves used to tell a story of Spurs players moaning so much about one particular call that the poor man snapped ‘Oh all right then’ and changed his mind) but to intimidate, to menace, making the referee think twice the next time a crucial but marginal call has to be made.
In the UK, despite VAR, with the real decision-makers safely ensconced in a portacabin near Heathrow, it has endured and may even be getting worse. The body responsible for refereeing the Premier League reported last November that instances of player dissent had more than doubled from 165 to 347 compared to the same point in the previous season. And it’s certainly not just an English disease. The Champions League has seen much on-field ugliness in recent years and the sight of Ronaldo looking like he could hit a referee in a match in the Saudi Super League recently did the game no favours at all.
Players screaming at officials is an unedifying spectacle. Along with all the other abuse refs have to put up, from coaches – and a certain excitable and soon-to-depart premiership boss springs to mind here – journalists, pundits, and of course fans, it has led to many officials quitting the game, sometimes succumbing to mental health problems in the process. One thinks of Anders Frisk who was hounded out of his profession after vicious abuse that included threatening phone calls to his home. Any idea that may give the refs a bit more protection is to be welcomed.
Whether it will work is another matter. After all, strictly speaking, no players should be approaching the referee to dispute a decision, so allowing only the captain to do so might be read as an invitation that the more unscrupulous armband wearer may seek to exploit. And in an international tournament, there is a real danger of misunderstandings, a player could claim his comments or actions were misconstrued given the potential language issues. Suddenly empowered refs could also overreact and go card-happy when faced with a new offence. It’s happened before (think of Gazza having his name taken for playfully booking the ref with his own dropped yellow card).
But perhaps this is mainly about Uefa signalling intent, firing a warning shot across the bows of the competing teams and making plain that no abuse of officials will be tolerated so don’t even think about it – a deterrent in other words. If so, fair enough, and it may even work. Certainly, the FA thinks so; it claims that sin bins led to a 38 per cent reduction in abuse of officials in the testing phase of their project.
Others will take some convincing that this isn’t just more meddling from people who feel they need to justify their positions by making, or at least proposing, regular tweaks to the laws of the beautiful game, many of which either flop or are abandoned. As Jurgen Klopp once said: ‘I can’t remember if IFAB has ever had a fantastic idea. Nope, and I’m 56.’
Well, we’ll soon find out if this is the first time.
Will this stop players mobbing the referee?
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5
16.05.2024
The European football governing body Uefa has informed competing nations at this summer’s Euros that only team captains will be allowed to approach referees to dispute decisions. It is hoped this will reduce the amount of pressure placed on referees and allow for smoother and more orderly officiating. So, two’s company but three or more will be deemed an unlawful assembly and could result in yellow or even red cards. It’s a bold move, but is it necessary and will it work?
The already crucifying difficulty of refereeing is not helped by having a throng of excitable prima donnas ready to encircle you at any moment
The idea comes from IFAB (the International Football Association Board) who describe themselves as the ‘guardians of football’s laws and regulations’. Their proposals appear to have been fast-tracked into a top-tier international tournament by an image-conscious governing body, leaving little time for objections. Roberto Rosetti Uefa’s managing director of refereeing described the rationale for the no-go zone around the officials as being so that ‘the decision can be relayed in a timely and respectful manner’.
Fair enough… perhaps. Refereeing high-profile football matches must be one of the most stressful occupations there........
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