[0762]

It also begs the question - What happened to the SFA ref observation/vetting system? The years pass by and yet, as a footie fan, I rarely see any evidence of this formal scrutiny being used to demote rogue/incompetent referees! IMO it just confirms that the SFA group of referees is nothing more than a 'select club'. In the case of the previously mentioned Andrew Dallas, this ref has been awful on many occasions preceding yesterday's match at Fir Park - scathing criticism raised often enough in post match reports! As Chris Sutton subtly hinted - Hugh Dallas' son and possibly an 'untouchable' because of that association!

Maybe you are seeing the results of the refs simply not keep up with the changes in the game.  Football is much faster these days, the ball pings around a lot and players are prone to faking challenges etc.  All of this makes it more difficult for a ref, and then we now have the benefit of a 100 different angles to analyse the decision!!

The refs are poor, but demoting the current top ones would just probably promote even poorer refs, the whole system needs to change, we need to look at maybe 2 refs, more use of technology and better coaching for refs from a young age.  I think everyone would accept a short delay in a game to make sure the decision on the pitch is correct, in fact in some cases this could happen while the game is still going, bit like playing an advantage, then bringing it back.  Look at sports like tennis where technology has completely taken away the bad decisions or watch the Super Bowl today and first notice the number of officials, all with eyes on the play, their communication and the way they use replays to check decisions.  Not saying we want to stop the game as much as they do, but if its 15 seconds, 2-3 times a game then I would prefer to see that.

FIFA experimenting with video technology in the recent World Club finals tourney. So maybe there is a 'light at the end of a very dark tunnel' and video tech will eventually prevail in world footie as well!