Bosses keen to help refs improve

Sheffield Wednesday manager Brian Laws shares his thoughts with a referee

Week after week, football managers, players and fans bemoan the standard of refereeing.

But two of the game's unions - the League Managers Association and the Professional Footballers Association - are keen to do something about it.

This week they revealed their blueprint for raising the standard of officiating.

LMA statement

The blueprint could hardly be more timely for South Yorkshire's clubs after a week in which both Sheffield's professional sides have had goals that should have counted disallowed, and Barnsley and Chesterfield both had players sent off who, with the benefit of hindsight, should have stayed on the field of play.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Brian Laws is part of the LMA's panel who have compiled a report on what improvements can be made and how support can be given to referees to help them get more of the game-changing decisions right.

With that in mind, BBC Radio Sheffield spoke to four of their clubs' managers to find out how they thought refereeing standards could be improved.

Sheff Wed boss Brian Laws Sheff Utd boss Kevin Blackwell

Doncaster boss Sean O'Driscoll Chesterfield boss Lee Richardson

Back to top

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY MANAGER BRIAN LAWS

"I would hate to be a referee, it is a horrible job because every decision you make is a critical one and it can make be the difference between winning the games and not.

"I went for a meeting with the LMA and we had a real heart-to-heart meeting to try and figure out how we can help and improve the referees. Quite clearly they need support and we are all there to try and help them.

"We put a dossier together that we are going to put forward to the European Court that will try and change one or two things and give them the support they need.

"At the moment they are being coached by referees, which is fine, however all their decision making is on a training field and in manufactured situations where they know what to expect.

"That is no good. They want things that are being worked on daily and there is a big push for them to go around football clubs on a regular basis so they can make more decisions on the spur of the moment and not in a manufactured situation.

"It horrified me when I spoke to one referee a couple of months ago and I asked how often he trained as a group of people and when was the last time he worked together as a trio [with his assistant referees] and he told me he had never worked with the linesmen before."

Back to top

SHEFFIELD UNITED MANAGER KEVIN BLACKWELL

"I think the main contentious issue has been the goal-line technology, and I think you'll find every manager is in favour of it.

"I'm not in favour of video technology for every tackle etc because the spontaneity of the game is what makes the game.

"If the ball crosses the line, and it can get you promoted or relegated, then that is a massive decision. Now we've got that technology, why not use it?"

Back to top

DONCASTER ROVERS MANAGER SEAN O'DRISCOLL

"I think there's a way to complain, and we've complained with the best of them, but we do it through the proper channels. I like to talk to the referees after and get their views on it.

"I referee games out in training and I'm consistently bad, but I'm consistent.

"If you don't talk and you don't share ideas then you've got no chance and that's what's happened for years and years. I think managers should complain but through the proper channels. Maybe there's no proper channels."

Back to top

CHESTERFIELD MANAGER LEE RICHARDSON

"What I don't understand, and nobody has explained to me, is how, with the amount of professional footballers we have, we can't incentivise refereeing to make sure that referees have at least played the game at some level.

"To me there is a misunderstanding of situations that comes from, what I can gather just observing the physical shape of some referees, that they have not played the game to a reasonable level and they don't know what tackles are intentional and what are accidental.

"There are far too many sending-offs and bookings and, in fairness to referees, I don't think that is their fault, it is Uefa. The rule changes we keep getting year on year have made it a far different game to when I played."