How polemic is refereeing outside of England? Very!

[horsechoker]

Every week it feels like we are discussing a new controversial incident relating to refereeing in the Premier League. Most of us here are British or live in Britain and only hear about or pay attention to issues in the Premier League. We seldom hear about refereeing mishaps in other countries, this could be down to:

A) The standard is much better outside of England and therefore there are fewer incidents
or
B) There are incidents but they are not discussed to the same extent in British football media

Last weekend we had the Martial/Lamela incident and it I'm sure we've had at least one other big incident every week since the season began. Furthermore, I'm confident that when the Premier League returns there will be another controversial incident.

So, what's going on?

 

[KirkDuyt]

It's exactly the same over here.

Fans of all clubs whinge that their club is always shafted whereas the rivals always have the ref on their side. Blom is clearly a secret Ajax fan, while Kuipers sleeps in a Feyenoord onesie. All linesmen are mentally deficient morons and our FA has made it a personal mission to gift the league to <insert team you dislike>

Personally, I think being a ref is just a shite and difficult job. There's 22 clowns on the pitch trying to deceive you and whenever they succeed the public wants to crucify you.

 

[V.O.]

For what it's worth, there was a complete bollocks handball (to the degree of the Palace one) in almost every Serie A game I saw last year.

 

[giorno]

As an italian who lived in england and follows spanish football:

England is tame when it comes to that kinda stuff. You don't even have major tv shows dedicated to it!

 

[Classical Mechanic]

As an italian who lived in england and follows spanish football:

England is tame when it comes to that kinda stuff. You don't even have major tv shows dedicated to it!

Imagine if English refs gave as many cards and pens as Italian and Spanish refs! Redcafe would shit a brick weekly.

 

[flappyjay]

A) The standard is much better outside of England and therefore there are fewer incidents
or

You realize these referees are all the same by watching the champions league. Some of the most appalling refereeing decisions I have seen are in that competition. The Rvp red at Camp Nou is still the only one I have seen of that kind.

 

[Piratesoup]

It's wall to wall crap across Europe as far as I can tell. I do feel, however, that the english refs are a bit more random and unpredictable in their shitness, going from way too harsh to way too lenient withing a couple of minutes. Doesn't mean they are worse overall, though, but it might be even more frustrating.

 

[VeevaVee]

It's wall to wall crap across Europe as far as I can tell. I do feel, however, that the english refs are a bit more random and unpredictable in their shitness, going from way too harsh to way too lenient withing a couple of minutes. Doesn't mean they are worse overall, though, but it might be even more frustrating.

Wonder if this is because of their unwritten code, which seems to be far too real? The amount of ex-refs you hear talking about balancing decisions out (in other words - two wrongs to make a right), not wanting to card too early etc etc. They're basically making up the rules as they go along, using the grey areas to their advantage to dictate the game and even out how their performance is deemed.

 

[Siorac]

It's exactly the same over here.

Fans of all clubs whinge that their club is always shafted whereas the rivals always have the ref on their side. Blom is clearly a secret Ajax fan, while Kuipers sleeps in a Feyenoord onesie. All linesmen are mentally deficient morons and our FA has made it a personal mission to gift the league to <insert team you dislike>

Personally, I think being a ref is just a shite and difficult job. There's 22 clowns on the pitch trying to deceive you and whenever they succeed the public wants to crucify you.

And in addition, the rules and their interpretations seem to change on a bi-weekly basis now with VAR in the picture. It's probably not easy to remember what's considered a handball when Mercury's in a constellation with Jupiter or whether it's offside if groundhogs can see their own shadow.

 

[Piratesoup]

Wonder if this is because of their unwritten code, which seems to be far too real? The amount of ex-refs you hear talking about balancing decisions out (in other words - two wrongs to make a right), not wanting to card too early etc etc. They're basically making up the rules as they go along, using the grey areas to their advantage to dictate the game and even out how their performance is deemed.

Possibly. It also feels like Dean and Taylor (the two english refs I know by name) get a massive hard on by being the center of attention and actively influencing a match, more so than other crap refs.

 

[Lord SInister]

Isn't it same everywhere?
I mean for years the fans of other jealous clubs fans used to whine that all refrees in PL are on United's pay scale.
Football fans are like those pervert uncles who think everyone's wife is better looking than their.


Go to any football club forum, there will always be a section of fans who cry about how ref is against their team, and how opposition have them in their pocket.

While it's not untrue refrees tend to give favorable treatment to big players and big teams, but it tends to get exaggerated.

 

[led_scholes]

In Greece we have tv shows for football but half of it every Sunday is about the refs' performance. Since 3 years ago, our domestic derbies are being officiated by foreigners for transparency reasons

For the record, we currently have Clattenburg as the Head of Officiating and he said for our match: Lamela should have been punished too.

 

[TheObjective]

In Denmark we had a terrible VAR-decision yesterday where a player was called offside even though he was onside. The VAR-team has explained on their website today that is was cause the VAR-referee simply place the marker at the wrong defencer.

Terrible mistake, but atleast they are pretty open about it, and have posted a video with the referee communication with VAR during the call. You can see the video on the below link (communication is in danish), but you can clearly see the line being place wrong.

https://www.superliga.dk/var

 

[stu_1992]

I thought the refs in England were bad, and well they are and especially VAR, but when I started to watch Ligue 1 regularly and attend games here, it's another level below. I have been shocked at times at quite how poor it is. Seems a lot more yellow cards for fouls that didn't warrant them. Biggest farce I witnessed live was a game between Brest and Rennes here last season where it took 10 minutes to overturn a goal scored by Rennes. All the while we in the stadium have zero clue what is happening the whole time. It seemed like the referee the convinced by the Brest players to check after the refused to play on after he initially dismissed it.

 

[Van Piorsing]

They want to be a character on the pitch and in the end they still somehow ruining it even with VAR as a viable tool in some cases.

 

[FootballHQ]

Surely just watch champions league and europa? Plenty of terrible decisions in those competitions every year. Chelsea-Barca in 2009 pretty good example of that and Nani being sent off v Real Madrid in 2013 aswell.

I agree thought it's a very hard job. Think linespeople do really well with majority of offside calls correct unless it's an armpit situation like often last season which is impossible to judge at normal speed.

 

[horsechoker]

I thought the refs in England were bad, and well they are and especially VAR, but when I started to watch Ligue 1 regularly and attend games here, it's another level below. I have been shocked at times at quite how poor it is. Seems a lot more yellow cards for fouls that didn't warrant them. Biggest farce I witnessed live was a game between Brest and Rennes here last season where it took 10 minutes to overturn a goal scored by Rennes. All the while we in the stadium have zero clue what is happening the whole time. It seemed like the referee the convinced by the Brest players to check after the refused to play on after he initially dismissed it.

What do you expect when you have farmers refereeing the games?