THE WORST OFFICIATING ON EARTH

Can someone who's been around English football longer than this American answer a simple question: How can the best league on the planet have the worst officiating?

Newcastle United fans have a right to be livid about the automatic red card that somehow didn't appear when David Luiz flipped Demba Ba like a pancake with nothing but air and Batman between them and the net in the fourth minute of what turned into a 3-0 Chelsea victory Saturday. I'm exercising that right.

But I'm more livid about two of Newcastle's biggest matches ever being ruined in consecutive weeks by inexplicable, result-altering referee decisions.

It's possible both matches, in the end, at least roughly fit the scores. The shame is that there has to be a question about it. The shame is that the points earned - including Newcastle's last week - are permanently tainted. The shame is that, instead of scintillating performances on one side or the other, the legacy of what should've been two forever-memorable matches won't involve the players at all. We've been robbed of more than results. We've been robbed of history.

Referee Mike Dean has reportedly confessed to making an error on the unshown red. I would call that a form of cattle excrement. The so-called admission obviously is meant to obscure something worse: cowardice. The call and the offending club were simply too big for the official. And we see that over and over, week after week - big teams evading big calls from small refs.

In a league as revered as England's, that's a travesty. I don't know how officials are chosen or groomed or evaluated in the Premier League. I do know this: It has to be better. Fans who invest so much of themselves deserve more. A lot more. Somebody, please. Do something.

Comments

[Marc Duffy]

Bang on. They cow tow to the richest clubs and nothing is ever done.

[graeme devonian]

the reason being is that they are so shit scared of losing their 50k a year for being a pro ref, they would rather bottle a decision than make it and get it wrong.The lino gave no help and as such is equally to blame.Funny though how Boltons Gary Cahill walked for a lesser and less obvious foul than Luiz did on BA, I would like to bet that If our ref was on their game and vise versa woe would be looking at a totally different result.
We are in effect playing Refferee lotto, if you get a good one who wont bottle the decisions the game will be fair, if like we had, you get a spineless coward in charge then the so called richer/bigger teams are going to get the big decisions their way

[Sean Berry]

I would have preferred the ref to make the right decision in both cases. Against United, we probably would have lost as a result, but it still would have been an exciting game. Then against Chelsea, we would have had a one man advantage for 86+ minutes, something you don't get to see very often, and that would have been exciting as well. You would hope we would have won in that case, although Chelsea are very good even when they're down a man (or two, as was the case in another game recently). More importantly though, Pardew said they would have played differently with a man advantage, and it's possible that we wouldn't have lost S. Taylor for the season as a result. This game, unfortunately, may have ended our European dreams - it was much more than not getting a point or points out of it.

[AndyB]

Its all about the demands that referees make instant decisions coupled with the resistance to TV replay technology. I feel sorry for the refs as the game is in the 21st century & the referees are equipped for the 19th. I find FIFA to be the biggest obstacle to progress in this area however I find that many fans are no help and if you raise this topic you'll usually get a moan about how the beatiful game shouldn't be delayed. What's beautiful about a travisty of justice every week !