Tony Mowbray sees red over refs

Nov 7 2008 By Chris Lepkowski

HERE’s a very crude insight for you into what happens after a match.

The managers of both clubs come out and speak to the media (unless it’s Sir Alex Ferguson) and answer our erudite and fascinating questions.

Players from both sides also pop their head around the dressing-room door to give their accounts; sometimes , they do so with a press officer twisting their arm until it goes purple.

The end result is that the media are happy, the fans get to hear why so-and-so was taken off, how long the left-back will be out for and how the players will aim to put it right when they go to Old Trafford next week.

Everyone’s happy.

Only that’s not quite the case.

There have been cases where the Birmingham Mail and other newspapers have asked to speak to a referee after the game.

In seven years, I haven’t known one official answer the call.

What generally happens is that they smile smugly, brush past everyone and disappear into the night - already plotting how they can make the headlines in the following week’s game.

There is no accountability. Albion manager Tony Mowbray wants that to be changed. And it’s not surprising.

Michael Jones called two massive decisions during last Saturday’s game between Albion and Blackburn Rovers. The first involved the penalty awarded to Blackburn after Ryan Donk tugged Jason Roberts’ shirt. The second was Benni McCarthy’s sending-off for two bookable offences.

“I have always thought it would be beneficial to the referees for supporters to see their human side,” said the Baggies boss.

“It would be beneficial for the supporters to get a feel for the personalities of the officials because then you can be a bit more forgiving.

“My idea would be for referees to rotate around football clubs and referee nternal, small-side games, so that you actually get to understand their personality.

“You can forgive somebody if you actually respect them and like them.

“If they make a bad decision, you can actually understand it and know that there is nothing pre-meditated or malicious about it.

“They have just seen it wrong or got it wrong. but sometimes you haven’t got a clue about the personalities of the officials and they can be a bit robotic in terms of just administering laws. as opposed to refereeing games and human beings.

“I sometimes think, at times, you can get annoyed because you don’t get any personality back from referees.

“Supporters would benefit from getting a feel for what a referee is all about if you could see his personality on the television in an after-match interview or see some comments on why he did something.

“Sometimes, you need a bit of humility and need him to admit that he got one or two things wrong in the course of the game.

“That timing of that is important as well.

“It’s no good leaving it until Monday and then sticking a statement out, as they did in Scotland when they have all looked at Match of the Day and got their stories straight.

“They should be able to say ‘this is what I saw and that’s why I gave a penalty’.

“If the cameras suggest it’s not a penalty they can say ‘I got it wrong, but from where I was, it looked like it was a foul or a handball’.”

Mowbray wants to see more ‘common sense’ refereeing. “I sat and watched Derby County against Nottingham Forest on Sunday and we’re not the only team who are suffering from the odd bad decision every now and then,” he added.

“Maybe it’s part and parcel of football but when it affects you, it can be damaging for that particular weekend.

“Can anything be done? I would just like common-sense refereeing. That would be my message.

“We should let the referees not feel like they have to get every law right and every rule right.

“Let them referee in the context of the game that is going on in front of their eyes, as opposed to thinking about what’s a sending-off and what’s not, what’s a booking and what’s not.

“You don’t want them thinking ‘what’s the assessor going to say? Did I get that right? Am I going to get left out next weekend.

“We should just let them referee the game. At the moment, they seem to be trying to adhere to the laws rather than refereeing 22 players on a pitch.”