Consistency – The Missing Element!

By Zain Alvi | 31st August 2009

Consistency - The Missing Element! | read this item

mike-dean-gives-eboue-yellow-card Officiating in modern day football has already received its fair share of flak. Of course, whenever a certain team is at the receiving end of harsh refereeing decisions, its passionate fans jump at the opportunity to hit back at the match officials with great force. In this article, however, I will not go ahead with the oft-repeated idea of accusing the referees of lacking the ability to call big games without the heavily proposed use of technology.

Instead, I will join the minor revolution that calls for an increased support towards the officials. While technology is certainly a refreshing change that should take its time before fully integrating into this fast-paced sport, a humane nature of officiating is completely acceptable as long as one element never goes missing. Unfortunately, this essential element – consistency – has often been neglected by the officials in recent times.

On Saturday evening, more than 76,000 fans at the historic Old Trafford witnessed Manchester United overcome the visiting Arsenal under bizarre circumstances. The spirited Gunners dominated the first half but a controversial penalty decision sparked a revival that eventually saw the reigning Premier League champions come from behind to record a crucial 2-1 win. While Mike Dean‘s decision to award Wayne Rooney this decisive penalty was certainly justified considering the view of the entire play in hindsight, plays like that have often been declared as goal kicks.

Manuel Almunia was certainly at fault to commit himself to the challenge, but Rooney had struggled to round the ball effectively and the bottom line is, his touch had deceived him a bit too much. Therefore, judging by the textbook, the score should have effectively stayed at least 1-0 to Arsenal, if not 2-0 considering that Andrei Arshavin was denied a blatant penalty in the first half. Now before my readers jump to any conclusions, I urge everyone to fully understand what I just discussed.

In a nutshell, I understand how a referee can grant Wayne Rooney a penalty after watching such a close call within seconds of the play’s unfolding. However, for the sake of consistency, I am still struggling to find out how Darren Fletcher got away with conceding a penalty that was far more obvious! After all, taking this all into account, the game might have ended in a 2-2 draw, which would have split the points evenly rather than handing it all to the hosts.

Speaking of inconsistency, I want to utilize this forum to set the record straight on Robin van Persie’s offside goal for once and for all. Was the goal offside? Yes, of course! Judging by the textbook, William Gallas was definitely offside and the flag was justified to go up right away. However, it cannot be denied that several such goals have stood in the past and surprisingly, even received the continued backing of the official in question.

The rationale on most of these occasions: a lack of significant involvement from the offside player. Hence, as a fan of the sport, I was glad to see this flawed rationale receive the boot on Saturday night. I must add, though, that the awful lot of inconsistency regarding such decisions is certainly beginning to ruin the beautiful sport. On a side note, Arsene Wenger also clarified that his infamous ‘bottle-kicking’ incident was due to frustration over such late drama rather than objections over the call.

Even that incident was handled with inconsistency as there have been far worse demeanors on part of managers who have been spared such unreasonable humiliation in the past. Don’t worry Arsene, there is an apology coming from the FA Referees Committee. Returning to the detriments of inconsistency in on-field officiating, ask Chelsea, who were denied the clearest of penalties at Stamford Bridge in this past year’s Champions League semifinals against Barcelona.

The Catalans, who are now considered nearly invincible, were fairly beaten by the Blues that night when Michael Essien’s wonder strike should have been joined by at least one other goal when Gerard Pique’s obvious handball was shamefully overlooked. Perhaps the denial of all other legitimate penalty shouts from Chelsea was comprehensible, to put it nicely. But how could the referee call Pique’s error a “ball to hand” when he clearly appeared to knock the ball with his hand? If that’s how we define a “ball to hand”, then how about reversing all those other penalties that had resulted in blatant handball situations. If we are giving the referees a room for interpretation, then is it too much to ask for some consistency?

As a fan of the U.S. National soccer team, I often end up with a bad taste in my mouth as the crunch rivalry game with Mexico is usually decided by extremely inconsistent officiating. Most recently, a young American line-up was penalized (and subsequently demoralized) for a foul that never was. In the CONCACAF Gold Cup final, Giovanni Dos Santos pushed through the U.S. defense and on one such instance, his imbalance led to an embarassing fall inside the box. The result? An inexplicable penalty awarded to Mexico.

The worst part of it all is that the Mexicans could play with all the physicality in the world and yet the Americans were always the ones receiving the bookings for merely responding with their own brand of physical soccer. The poor refereeing picked up exactly from where it had left off when the Americans once again suffered in the World Cup qualifier against Mexico at the Azteca Stadium.

Despite taking a 1-0 lead, the visitors were undone not only by the high altitude, but also an officiating performance that clearly favored the hosts. While the U.S. players were booked for some challenges where they even won the ball, Mexico’s Nery Castillo was not even handed a single yellow card despite punching two U.S. players – an offense that commands a straight red card – on two separate occasions. Any explanations? I doubt it!

At the end of the day, I hope that I still make clear what side I am actually on. By now, it should be apparent that I certainly support the referees in modern day football as they cope with so much over an intense 90-minute period. As a reasonably lenient individual, I refuse to criticise someone over humane mistakes, particuarly when that person is amidst an unenviable position of officiating a game that carries immeasurable significance. Hence, I accept the decisions of the referees in their innocently imperfect form. The only thing that I hope will improve significantly in the immediate future is the level of consistency present in the most of important of calls that are made by the referees.

Reader Comments

The below views are those of our readers and do not reflect the opinions of Premiership Talk or its employees.

Zain Alvi says:

September 2, 2009 at 8:38 am

Shame that Eduardo is banned for an incident which was so minor compared to Ryan Babel’s penalty-winning dive against Arsenal at such a crucial stage of the CL a couple of seasons ago. Like I said, this is some shameful inconsistency right here!

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