The Quality and Style of Refereeing

In the bbc we read today that none of the officials involved in the Italian match-fixing scandal feel they or their clubs are guilty of anything.

Interesting this.

Three teams relegated and no one has done anything wrong.

I don't have access to the transcripts but from what I've heard, it seems to me that people continue to feel that they should be able to influence referee selections.

I know that this story has other principles at stake but I think that the scandal is also an interesting commentary about the quality and style of refereeing out there and about how referees are assigned by governing bodies.

I think that some club officials take risks in influencing refereeing selection not because they are part of a gambling ring but because the feel at the mercy of what they think are either incompetant referees or a system that cannot assign referees fairly.

For instance, I'm not English, but I still don't understand how you end up with an Argentinian refereeing an England-Portugal match. I also think that for instance you should not have an Englishman refereeing an Argentina-USA game. It is a question of refereeing styles not of possible corruption or even competance.

If I were an administrator or team manager I would do whatever little thing I could to ensure that the type of referee I was getting for a big match would be totally neutral in style.

...But I'd try to make sure that I wasn't recorded doing it :)