After another bad refereeing performance in the A-League Grand Final, it’s becoming an alarming concern that refereeing standards in Australian football is poor, probably equal to the current “coaching quality crisis”.
It’s becoming an alarming fact that of the last four Grand Finals, three of them have had some major drama involving a referee.
The referees, it seems, are becoming influenced by the players on the pitch, and not the other way around.
It is not only the Grand Finals that are subject to this poor performance.
How Kevin Muscat even played after his stomping incident is confusing to everyone. Like Muscat, Danny Tiatto gets away with a lot more then he should.
Even the great Juninho struggled when he was here because he was not protected by the referees and was constantly taken to ground through over physical play.
My brother in-law taught John Aloisi’s daughter when he was playing at the Mariners. When asked what the major difference between here and Europe was, he said the refereeing here is quite poor. He said that players – particularly skillful ones – were not protected in the same way that they are in Europe.
I think this poses a problem on two fronts: first, in order to encourage our players to improve technically they need to be protected and not spend a lot of the game on their arse, which is why we are poor technically as a nation.
Second, highly technically gifted players may be apprehensive about coming to the league because their skills will either be under-used or they will end up like Juninho and spend alot of the time on the grass.
I would love to see someone in the mould of a Kaka, Nakamura, or Ronaldinho set our League on fire, with protection from the referees.
Savvas Tzionis
Guest
I believe the one thing that the A-League lacks in comparison to the old NSL is Quality Coaches. Back then we had Zoran Matic, Eddie Thomson, Frank Arok, Ferenc Puskas, Rale Rasic, Dragi Sekularec. Big names (especially Sekularec and Puskas) who were attracted to Australia because of our relatively superior economy. Nowadays we are a backwater for Europeans to migrate to and hence we have to make do with sub-standard Australian coaches and second rate coaches who could only find a job in the state leagues or the lower level clubs in the NSL (Merrick, McKinna, Mitchell, Van Egmond, Kosmina).
Towser
Guest
David V Theres always going to be physical players in any league,(Carlos Bilbao Argentinian "the Animal" 1966 WC? & the player who kicked Pele off the park)but we are talking about the expectations of spectators here in certain leagues. The expectation of spectators about the degree of physicality allowed on the park is far greater in the UK & here than generally accepted in the football world. Hence referees tend to be less protective of players in these countries. Therefore the dilemma of where the line is & if a player has overstepped it.
David V.
Guest
Towser, European football has always had its physical side and I remember Maradona receiving some shocking treatment from Spanish defenders. And he had his ankle broken by Andoni Goikoetxea, the Butcher of Bilbao. South American football, especially Argentina, can be pretty rough too.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
das but by definition, his studs were down - isn't that what people are complaing about! :) as I've said before, Muskie taught Mullen a valuable lesson about keeping your feet - a lesson he learned well in what was a good game by him in the grand final.
Towser
Guest
Isnt this what the referees technical director is here for, former Dutch ref Mario Van der Ende ? To raise our refereeing standard. He's still here I presume? No further reference to coaching after your heading jaymz, so its hard to pick a starting point for a discussion on it, but yes coaching needs to improve. Perhaps your point about technique & protection ties in with coaching. Not much point in bringing in coaches from Europe who value technical play if the refs dont protect players like Juninho. But make no mistake in this country like England & Scotland its a fine line between allowing robust play by public demand & allowing technically gifted players to express themselves. Juninho had no problems in England,but I'd put that down to the standard of refereeing there & the fact that referees have been involved in judicating at thiis level for generations. Lets face it the whole concept of refereeing in a new professional league like the A-League is new just like everything else. Thats why for a while yet we have to keep bringing in those from overseas who've been there done that. The only Australians in football who have experience of this are returning Socceroos. Its vital we use as many of these also for input both as players to pass on knowledge on the field(Craig Moore.
Kazama
Roar Guru
Agreed, Jaymz. The refereeing standard in this country is very poor and I think that we need to have full-time referees and also greater depth. Even with his poor Grand Final, among many other bad games, Breeze will still be the #1 ref next season.
dasilva
Roar Guru
Isn't that a studs up challenge then
Pippinu
Roar Guru
I'm the first to agree that our officals are hopeless (the linesmen are just as bad as the refs), and that playmakers like Carlos need more protection (Salley should have received two yellows by about the 10th minute in the grand final for his disgraceful form of "marking"). Re the so-called Muscat stomping incident, I have already said, and a few better qualifed people than I have agreed, that with Mullen lying on the ground with the ball between his buttocks that a player was allowed to go after the ball, and that any contact was incidental. That is an altogether different issue to an intentional stomping action.
Midfielder
Guest
Jay Your point on poor refereeing is true IMO FFA needs to find some money from somewhere and develop a pool of quality referees.