Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett thinks Arsène Wenger is right to point out that the officiating in the top-flight seems to be getting worse.
Wenger complained about the penalty and the offside third goal Manchester City scored against the Gunners, and claimed that standards for referees had gone down.
Although Hackett didn’t agree that the penalty shouldn’t have been given, he did agree with the general point about refereeing, and thought the Gunners were hard done by at the weekend.
He pointed out in the Telegraph that England aren’t set to have any referees at next year’s World Cup, and took issue with a number of decisions Michael Oliver and his team made on Sunday.
He said: “There was the obvious mistake for the third goal at the Etihad that should have been ruled out for offside, but Wenger will also have been annoyed by a free-kick that Michael Oliver awarded prior to the penalty for the second goal.
“I think he (Sterling) had been fouled. Yet if Oliver gives the penalty, I think it also has to be judged as denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Yes, there was a defender in close proximity but that had no impact on Sterling’s ability to shoot and Nacho Monreal should have been sent off.
“I also think the existing select group of referees are not challenged enough, even when they are struggling to maintain form.”
I agree with the point about the lack of accountability for referees. Nobody denies that they have a tough job to do, but so does everybody involved in Premier League football.
When managers perform poorly, the fans or the board put pressure on them, when players don’t reach their level they’re accountable to their manager, but when referees continually make bizarre decisions nothing seems to happen.
The simplest way to bring in a system that holds referees to account for their decisions, but also helps them to get things right, is the video review system.
Offside decisions that should have been made, red cards for the wrong players, penalties that shouldn’t have been given; all would be picked up by the video assistant and reviewed.
Immediately, we’d have feedback for the referee that helps them to reverse poor decisions, and hopefully learn where they’re making mistakes as well. The FA just need to take some initiative, for once.