Daily Bits and Bobs

Defender out for the season. Rugby – should football follow it’s example…?

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

Under 21’s central defender Semi Ajayi has joined Championship side Cardiff City on loan until the end of the season. Good move for the player as long as he plays.

Internationals:

Chuba Akpom played ninety minutes for England Under 20’s last night. On 78 minutes and after being upended by Mexico goalkeeper Raul Gudino – Akpom fired home the spot kick to make the score 1-1. England went on to win 4-2 on penalties..

Lukas Podolski came off the bench and scored an equalise for Germany in their friendly against Australia. Mesut Ozil played the entire ninety minutes!

Tonight there are more fixtures involving Arsenal players with Gabriel in line for his first Brazil cap against France. Both Giroud and Koscielny are expected to feature in that game.

David Ospina is in the Columbian squad to face Bahrain, Alexis is with Chile who play Austria and finally, Tomas Rosicky and his Czech Republic team-mates take on Latvia.

No injuries please…

Football referees – love them one day, hate them the next and that’s because over any one season their performances are very inconsistent. Human error will always have a part to play but so does total inadequacy…. And it’s the latter which stands out more all too often in my opinion.

But, regardless of how poor the officials are, footballers have a duty to respect them, despite how much they may disagree with a decision given during a game.

If they don’t and as we see all too often, especially from the Chelsea and Man Utd players, they don’t, the officials need to toughen up. They need to look at the book of footballing rules and start implementing those rules, just as Michael Oliver did at Old Trafford with Di Maria.

Ok, he laid a hand on Olivier which perhaps made the decision easier, but all he did was pull his shirt. Is that more offensive than a player, or more importantly, a group of players invading a referees personal space in a hostile, sometimes aggresive manner? I’d say no…

Greg Dyke, the FA Chairman has had a lot so say about many things recently, surrounding a referee being one of them.

“We have seen a pretty scary increase this season in the number of clubs charged with their players surrounding referees.

“I believe it is particularly important for professional clubs to set an example so that this kind of conduct is not replicated at grassroots and youth level.”

Well perhaps Mr Dyke needs to have a word with Mike Riley because the only way to stamp out this ghastly trait, one which thankfully our players seldom portray, is for referees to start brandishing yellow and red cards…

Rugby does it, why can’t football?

And if anyone watched the England v France match last weekend, they’d have witnessed just how an official deals with ‘naughty stuff’ on the pitch, and how Rugby players respect a referee.

Nigel Owens was the referee and after having cause to read the riot act to a France and England player – ‘yes sir’ was their reply…

I don’t subscribe to the ‘stuff’ about rugby players being more gentlemanly than footballers, well, not entirely but the difference is that in rugby, the referees are respected because generally, they are very good. Unlike in football where referees are so hit and miss and quite weak and I think footballers believe they can get away with anything.

Unlike football, referees in rugby take no back chat and all the players know and respect that.

If the FA want that kind of respect in football then together with the PGMO, they need to wake up and start sorting their boys in black out and make sure they deal with the players who surround the officials.

Make things more clear and then book them. If they persist, send them off but of course make sure it’s the right player!!

That’ll stop all the referee abuse in a flash, although I bet Jose will say his team are being picked on….. Again!

That’s my morning ramble over, have a good Thursday…..

rico

51 thoughts on “Defender out for the season. Rugby – should football follow it’s example…?”

  1. Adam says:

    As long as people like Mourinho see surrounding the referee as a tactic and another facet of their enormous desire to ‘win’ at all costs, it will continue. Anyone who read the lame and frankly pathetic explanation by none other that John Terry could be in no doubt as to how this is viewed at Chelsea.

  3. Lee says:

    The difference in respect towards the referees is massive between rugby and football…..don’t think it’ll ever really change as football tends to be played by over paid dick heads!

  4. Joe says:

    Good write up Rico and I agree with everything.
    But what scares me more than inept refs is the ones with bias against certain teams.

  6. allezkev says:

    To me, it’s simple, and a referee will probably only have to do it once, twice top whack.

    If a referee makes a decision, and a gaggle of, say, four players get into his face in an aggressive & argumentative manner, a manner that the manager had probably orchestrated in training. The ref simply gives am four a yellow card. If any are already on a yellow card, he sends them off…
    Shock, horror….
    But you see the players’ attitudes change…

  7. potter says:

    Respect is an animal that lives on a two way street , before you can ask players to obey their rules they have to abide by them themselves . As long as they continue to apply things differently for different situations there will be no common ground. It’s simple really , set out the ground rules and apply them evenly and everyone will know where they stand . If a player steps over the line then he gets punished accordingly. Whilst Riley leaves space for interpretation the opportunity for bias/injustice is there and that breeds the suspicion that there are forces behind the scenes that are influencing the honesty of the game.

  9. Adam says:

    Potter. I agree with that but I do think that carefully implemented technological help that allows the right decisions to be made is all part of the equation. When a ref makes a wrong decision. It can only be a genuine mistake, incompetence or unfair bias. Technology might help the game to eliminate some of the more contentious decisions but there will always be those cases where it comes down to a matter of opinion and as we see, opinions can easily be biased too.

  10. allezkev says:

    The IRB supports its officials to the hilt…
    Therefore rugby referees don’t feel the need to favour one team/country, over another…

    You wouldn’t have a situation in rugby, where a manager like Ferguson or a club like ManUre, could fcuk up a referee’s career.
    The favouritism in football is borne out of a fear that if a referee upsets a certain manager or club, that those individuals could ruin his career as the FA, UEFA, FIFA would not support the referee as say the IRB does…

    Look at Clattenberg, he upset Ferguson and that fcuked him for getting anymore big matches involving Utd…

  11. Joe says:

    Well Scott Oz in the final and they nearly beat the world champions last this sport thing looks easy for your lot. 😉

  13. Adam says:

    Kev. True but now the poison dwarf has stepped straight into his shoes. Allardyce tries it too but nobody takes any notice of him.

  14. potter says:

    I would have no problem if all the manager’s put aside their differences and joined together to sort things out. However they all have their own agendas and in reality are just as bigger cheats as all the rest.

  24. agirlagunner says:

    Boooo!! So quiet. rico, you must be struggling to write during intersnoozzz.

    Something has to change with the cuture of inept refereeing. And technology must really be introduced for some things…

  26. agirlagunner says:

    Haha, rico. You don’t sound like you “struggle” though. 😀 And that’s a compliment! 😛 How are you?? I’m off on hols soon, yay!!! Hope to be blogging more! 🙂

  36. Joe says:

    Rico going to category A games is expensive I am dead when the wife finds out how much the Chelsea game cost us. 🙂

  39. Barney B says:

    As a former Premiership rugby player (admittedly, when it was still a predominantly amateur game) who later qualified as a rugby ref, I’m still amazed at the way the FA (presumably, or was it the PGMOL?) dropped the ability of a ref to move where a free kick could be taken as a result of dissent or harassment.

    Yes, it’s probably true that there’s an inherently greater level of respect for the ref in rugby, but understand what underlies that: you should not underestimate the scorn or vitriol you might cop from your team-mates by gifting your opponents an extra 10 yards territory as a result of your own back-chat/sarky comment/lack of discipline.

    Especially if it put them within penalty kick range, as happened once when a ref marched the offending team back 30 yards, as one lippy tw*t seemed determined to have the last word.

    Bring back sanctions like that & peer group pressure from your team-mates would prompt an almost immediate improvement in collective player behaviour.

  40. Adam says:

    Barney. Good morning. I wasn’t aware that that particular rule had been changed but I agree that it was a step in the right direction, if you’ll excuse the pun. But you make a very good point. I also believe that refs being more consistent would be welcome. Some refs are known as being ‘soft’.
    Morning Rico and all.

  41. rico says:

    Morning Adam and all..

    Barney, I didn’t know that rule had changed either but now you mention it, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a free kick moved forward…

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