[St Charles Owl]

Good points SCO and I was perhaps harsh initially, he hasn't done anything criminal. It's just the attitude of it that grinds me. The current culture certainly needs to be addressed.

The current culture is what causes the mistrust as well. You and I see week in, week out sports being played over here where umpires are as much part of the fabric of the game and part of the "family" of their respective sport. In football, the ref is the enemy of just about everyone, players, manager and fans, yet in reality they get probably 99% of decisions correct!! The problems arise with contentious decisions, which will always happen as most ref decisions are judgement calls, but if they were allowed to explain their decision honestly without the blanket of secrecy that gets thrown over them, then a lot of these controversies would no longer be news!!

For me the classic case was a baseball game last season where a pitcher was throwing the perfect game only for the 1st base umpire to get a bang-bang call for the final out wrong, therefore robbing the pitcher of the perfect game!! The umpire saw replays after the game and was able to admit in public that he got it wrong and that he was sorry for doing so, after all he is human!!! The following day at the next game, with the same umpires and players, there was a great moment when the pitcher in question took it upon himself to hand in the team cards at home plate before the game to the same umpire who got the call wrong, shook his hand and said it was ok and thank you for admitting the mistake!! Total respect all round ensued and the game went on without the controversy going on for days in the media!! Refs make mistakes, players and managers make many more costly mistakes doing their job, an element of respect for both needs to be the way forward.