Jump to content
TLW

By TLW

TLW

By TLW •

Halsey: Referee standards have dropped to alarming levels  

Former referee Mark Halsey has spoken about the diminishing levels of referee standards in English football.

 

The 59 year-old who retired in 2013 after 14 seasons as a Premier League referee is now a close observer of the whistle blowers and does not like what he sees.

 

The Daily Star reported Halsey as saying:

 

“I hate to criticise fellow colleagues but over the last six to seven years the standard is dropping alarmingly, at all levels.

 

“We have some great referees out there at the top, and I think Michael Oliver is by far our best referee; Martin Atkinson, Mike Dean, they are experienced guys and they are good referees.

 

"Top coaches turn average players into good players, good players into excellent players - it is no different with referees.

 

"We have a failing with a number of top coaches who can take our referees forward."

 

Halsey also took aim at the decision makers for the extraordinary decision to put David Coote in charge of the VAR for the Reds clash with Leicester on Sunday evening.

 

 

 coote.jpg

 

Coote will forever by remembered by Liverpool fans for his failing to punish Everton keeper Jordan Pickford for his truly reckless challenge on Virgil Van Dijk, which saw the imperious central defender ruled out for the season with a ACL injury.

 

The Nottinghamshire official then produced another crucial error when he ruled out a Jordan Henderson last minute goal for offside which left Jurgen Klopp rightly bewildered.

 

The decision to remove Coote from this fixture was described by Referee chiefs as “Operational Reasons.” but Halsey said it was a choice which should not been made in the first place.

 

“It's poor appointing. There was a massive furore about the incident and we had two or three different reasons why it wasn't picked up; the offside nullified the challenge which was nonsense.

 

"Why put him in that pressure cooker? There was no need to put him on that fixture list as VAR with Liverpool."

 

Thankfully common sense was applied in the end and Andre Marriner will be the man in the VAR hot seat tomorrow evening.

Go to articles

User Feedback

Recommended Comments



Carvalho Diablo
32 minutes ago, Jennings said:

Quick question for the older mob on here....Were the refs this shit in the 80's. I remember that people like Roger Milford were great refs. There was the odd overly strict knob head...but on the whole they weren't fuckwits ruining the game and trying to hog the limelight. 

Totally agree.

 

Roger Milford is probably the best ref I've ever seen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jennings
6 minutes ago, an tha said:

I see Forest have filed a complaint about the officials from their game at the toilet at the weekend.

 

Good on them.

 

More clubs need to be all over this - create a relentless pressure against these useless cunts.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66631302


I just said that four, posts back. 
 

Maybe we need to meet at Otterspool prom?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
an tha
34 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

Totally agree.

 

Roger Milford is probably the best ref I've ever seen.

Keith Hackett, Peter Willis, Trelford Mills, George Courtney, Neil Midgley, Joe Worrall all a cut above the pricks of today.

 

I honestly believe that and think that it is a last 20 years or so thing where the refs have slid to the low standards we see now and what they have become as a group.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Barrington Womble
20 minutes ago, an tha said:

Keith Hackett, Peter Willis, Trelford Mills, George Courtney, Neil Midgley, Joe Worrall all a cut above the pricks of today.

 

I honestly believe that and think that it is a last 20 years or so thing where the refs have slid to the low standards we see now and what they have become as a group.

 I think things have got worse since they've made careers out of it and think they're TV stars and part of the show. They should be invisible. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Carvalho Diablo

When refs became fully professional I thought great, for 2 reasons:

 

1. They can dedicate their time to getting as fit as possible

 

2. You can sack the bastards if they're consistently shit

 

It seems like only half the memo got through.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Barrington Womble
2 minutes ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

When refs became fully professional I thought great, for 2 reasons:

 

1. They can dedicate their time to getting as fit as possible

 

2. You can sack the bastards if they're consistently shit

 

It seems like only half the memo got through.

Which half? 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Megadrive Man
1 hour ago, Jennings said:

Quick question for the older mob on here....Were the refs this shit in the 80's. I remember that people like Roger Milford were great refs. There was the odd overly strict knob head...but on the whole they weren't fuckwits ruining the game and trying to hog the limelight. 

 

I'm guessing that the Sky era has highlighted referee mistakes a lot more with the multiple camera angles and extra coverage and analysis of games. 

 

I've only been watching football for about 30 years but it seems like the standard of refereeing now is the lowest its ever been.

 

Historically there's always been contentious decisions, the 1966 world cup did the ball cross the line and the 86 Maradona hand of god goal, but it feels like it's every week now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Barrington Womble
15 minutes ago, Megadrive Man said:

 

I'm guessing that the Sky era has highlighted referee mistakes a lot more with the multiple camera angles and extra coverage and analysis of games. 

 

I've only been watching football for about 30 years but it seems like the standard of refereeing now is the lowest its ever been.

 

Historically there's always been contentious decisions, the 1966 world cup did the ball cross the line and the 86 Maradona hand of god goal, but it feels like it's every week now.

The thing making it worse now is VAR. Because they double down to protect their mates or display their biases, instead of doing what it's there to do, get the big decisions right. So people just don't understand what the fuck is happening. That red for Mac for example, we'd have all been pissed off, we'd have appealed, it would have been recinded and nobody would really have thought twice about it after that. But with var and someone with all those cameras and time getting it wrongz you can't help feel they're either corrupt, completely incompetent or both. And it's every week, multiple times. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Carvalho Diablo

It's cheating and outright bias, that's the bottom line.

 

The PGMOL is inhabited by corrupt cowards. There needs to be sackings and prosecutions taken against them. The money involved is eye watering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
No2

Sky had Utd v Arsenal on last night, the match when Horseface missed a last minute peno. My conclusion is that Mark Hasley is wrong, referees were just as shit and biased 20 years ago. Andy Gray mentioned on the penalty in commentary that "we don't have Television angle for you but the referee was perfectly positioned to see it". This is 5 minutes after Sky showed about 16 different angles of Viera's kick out at Horseface. My second conclusion is there wasn't a camera angle because there wasn't a foul.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dave u

99% of the decisions refs get wrong on the field I'm fine with. It's a really difficult job and so many decisions are subjective anyway so there is no clear right or wrong. The Virgil red for example.

 

The issue I have is when there are things like the Gordon shove in the back on Trent which the ref definitely saw and for whatever reason decided not give the foul. That has nothing to do with what I've just said above. It's weird and suspicious.

 

Then there's the inconsistency. Booking for Trent for throwing the ball away and then 30 seconds later the ref sees Gordon do the same thing and he doesn't book him. Not booking Joelinton for waving an imaginary card twice when you know for a fact he'd have booked any of our lads for the same thing.

 

But the biggest problem I have isn't the on-field ref making errors, its when you've got some other cunt sat there in Stockley Park with all the replays he needs and he's still getting it wrong.

 

That's why I believe it's just down to bias/corruption.

 

Paul Tierney didn't tell the ref to look at the Mac Allister red because he wanted to fuck us over. It really is that simple.

  • Upvote 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rushies tash
1 hour ago, niallers said:

Another example of an official who is both inept and/or has it in for us

 

 

Just literally posted the same clips in another thread. If refs want respect, they need to start officiating games consistently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jurgen Knows
2 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

Can't see it, he blocked me for reasons unknown!


It’s a video of Mo Salah at the receiving end of a similar foul in a similar position against Newcastle last season. Referee didn’t even give a foul.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×

×
×
  • Create New...