Haha The Football League

i recently sent an email highlighting my concerns of the standards of our officials after the penalty incident on monday.

and they sent a response

Thank you for your email, your comments have been noted and forwarded through to the referees department for their information.

We often receive numerous queries and complaints regarding individual referee's decisions and their overall performances. Although we are usually unable to respond on each individual incident, we can advise that the performances of all officials are constantly monitored by way of club and assessor reports, the match video or DVD and, at some grounds, the Prozone statistics. Matches are also analysed by the Referees' Manager, a referees' coach and the referee and, despite the perception of some, match officials are most accountable for their performances.

On this occasion the referees' manager has been in contact with the clubs regarding the incident you refer to.

It is worth stating that referees will make errors of judgement in a match in the same way that players do. They make their decision based on years of training and experience and what they see at that moment in time, from a position different from anyone else in the ground - he can only act on what he sees, assisted by the other match officials and not everyone will agree with the decisions he takes. In this sense referees carry out their duties with integrity and make decisions to the best of their ability.

Contrary to expectations however, the Referees' Manager will not attempt to support a referee out of sheer loyalty. It is his responsibility through Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) to identify training needs of not only individual referees but also of all National Group officials. The Manager also works with his group in a bid to constantly improve standards in a game which has become faster and more frenetic over recent years. Every match is recorded and referees are under closer scrutiny than ever before. If an assessor notes an error in judgement might have been made by a referee, any such error will be discussed post-match as part of his on-going management and development.

We trust that some of this reply at least highlights to you the procedures in place designed to improve performances and we thank you for contacting us with your comments.

Regards,

Andrew Pomfret
Customer Services Officer
The Football League Limited
www.football-league.co.uk

Fair enough they make mistakes but I was sat miles away from the Ben Turner incident and I could see it was in the box. I think this was a case of the officials being shit houses.

Fair enough they make mistakes but I was sat miles away from the Ben Turner incident and I could see it was in the box. I think this was a case of the officials being shit houses.

It was right in front of us - 112 in the Ninian - I thought it was a pen, my father-in-law thought it was a free lick. Only when I got the Echo on Tuesday was I sure.

Only thing I can think of was Turner's reaction was a bit dramatic, and being such a big lump his momentum was taking him out of the penalty area a split second after contact.

Other than that, the lino was fine, he disallowed their goal - ref on the other hand was far too lenient on their fouls in the first half.

They've sent him for training then?

It is bonkers.

I met Howard Webb and he spoke about international tournaments and if you make 1 bad mistake like give an offside goal or not give a clear cut penalty then you get sent home and some refs have never refereed a game again completely.