16-08-2015, 16:21
When I lived in the UK and went to Wednesday games home and away, it was fairly rare that I came away thinking that the ref had been the decisive difference between the teams. Sure there was always those times when you think it should have been a pen, but those were usually 50-50 anyway. It seems to me that the refs in England are far more consistent with their performances that they were in the 70s and 80s and with all the cameras now available to TV it is still fairly rare that a decision is blatantly wrong.
You mention the ref observer system being more proactive and demoting poorly performing refs but surely if they really wanted to be proactive they need to be offering more and better training and coaching of these refs to improve them rather than just replacing them. I know the refs down in England attend a lot of courses and also spend time at the clubs going over rule changes and working with the players. It seems refs in Scotland must show some potential to get to the league level but after that maybe the learning stops, when in fact it should be greatly increased so that they can rise to the next level. Maybe this is another area where the SPFL are just not up to it like we see with other aspect of the game, particularly the TV contract.
You mention the ref observer system being more proactive and demoting poorly performing refs but surely if they really wanted to be proactive they need to be offering more and better training and coaching of these refs to improve them rather than just replacing them. I know the refs down in England attend a lot of courses and also spend time at the clubs going over rule changes and working with the players. It seems refs in Scotland must show some potential to get to the league level but after that maybe the learning stops, when in fact it should be greatly increased so that they can rise to the next level. Maybe this is another area where the SPFL are just not up to it like we see with other aspect of the game, particularly the TV contract.