Referee Relegation System
Last week, the Stoke City manager, Tony Pulis made headlines when he suggested a system of relegation and promotion for the English Premier League referees. Some critics have called him ‘outspoken’ and his post match comment outlandish- for suggesting that
officials who constantly under-perform should only be used in matches that take place in the Coca-Cola Championship, a league under the English Premier League.
His ‘referee relegation’ idea was made after a match between Sunderland and Stoke City on November, 6th, during which a number of debatable decisions were made by referee Martin Atkinson. The Potters were deprived of a goal, which appeared to
have passed the goal-line with a header by Kenwyne Jones. Before being hit home however, in re-plays of the controversial incident, the ball appeared to have been ‘handled’ by the Sunderland captain Lee Cattermole in an attempt to clear it. The incident took
place in the 77th minute, which meant that Stoke could have leveled with their opponents, and Cattermole would have been sent off, had Atkinson noticed the hand-ball.
Pulis further stated his discontent at the red-card awarded to Ryan Shawcross, when the defender was shown two yellow cards after committing both challenges within three minutes on Welbeck. The Stoke boss argued that the smaller mid-table teams are constantly
at the wrong end of decisions that could affect the outcome of a match, giving the example of Manchester United’s Gary Neville, who he feels should have been sent off in the game in which Sir Alex Ferguson’s men won 2-1 against The Potters. Neville had already
been shown a yellow for a challenge on Etherington, when he made another careless foul on the winger, but was not sent off by referee Andre Marriner; a decision described as “remarkably lenient” by Phil Mcnulty, chief football writer for the BBC.
Other decisions which Pulis feels have left his team at a disadvantage include a disallowed goal by Walters in a game against Tottenham and an unnoticed handball by Zat Knight in the match with Bolton. The Stoke manager made a stalemate in the press saying
“We know we're not going to get certain decisions that other clubs are going to get. I think that has been made blatantly obvious over the past few games.” Critics argue that perhaps Pulis should stop making excuses for his team’s bad form-of-late and not
put Stoke on higher ground, as all teams suffer from questionable refereeing decisions. Stoke won their latest game against Liverpool, who sit at number 11 in the English Premier League. The Reds hold the same number of points as Stoke, namely 16 and have
played the same amount of matches as The Potters.
Other managers have come out in support of the Potters boss. Harry Redknapp, manager of Tottenham Hotspurs voiced his opinion in favour of Pulis’s idea of a referee relegation system, saying the suggestion is worth giving more attention to. He sympathised
with the Stoke boss over decisions made in the game against Sunderland and went on to explain that he did not find fault with the refereeing standard in every game, instead perhaps once every four years. He mentioned that there were one or two referees who
he considered not being up to par. After making these comments last week, Redknapps’ men beat Blackburn on November 13th, in a sensational match with the final score standing at 4-2.
Wigan Athletic manager, Roberto Martinez too let his thoughts be known, after his team were debatably denied a goal in the game last week against Blackburn, the final score being 2-1. Newcastle boss, Chris Houghton came out in favour of Pulis, saying that
the Stoke manager has had a “very raw deal when you see some of the incidents.”
Only time will tell if the Football Association take Tony Pulis’ suggestion seriously, having still not employed the use of video technology, the ‘Referee Relegation’ debate seems a far-off thought to officials and the higher authorities. Certainly, the
Potters boss created quite a storm with his suggestion and when confronted recently with the press, did not feel the need to elaborate more on the issue, saying that he had already said all he wanted, concerning the officials.
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