Go to your room and apologize for your refereeing errors

By: Bob | August 20th, 2007

The 2007-08 English Premier League season still has that new car smell and already there is an all too familiar situation where a referee is the center of attention. The referee in question is Rob Styles who ran the show during the Chelsea and Liverpool match on Sunday and had a train wreck of a game that included awarding questionable penalty to Chelsea in the 1-1 draw (thanks to the EPL YouTube henchman we now must learn Arabic to be able to watch video clips. Alaikum assalam).

For his efforts, Styles has been dropped from the Premier League refereeing rotation next weekend. Referee head honcho Keith Hackett also has some other plans for Styles.

Hackett added: “I spoke to Rob this morning and obviously he is extremely disappointed with the decision and admitted he got it wrong. I have left a message with Rafael Benitez to apologise.

“Having looked at a video and seen a better angle and a better view, clearly he (Styles) now recognises that he got it wrong and he’s deeply apologetic for that. I think, in fact, he too will be making contact with Liverpool in order to offer his apologies.”

Styles might have stunk on Sunday and the decision to drop him for next weekend might be the correct one, but should referees really be in the business of apologizing to managers, teams and players? As far as I can tell human error has always been part of the sport. Even though it is frustrating as hell when your team gets jobbed, that comes with the territory. That is something that has seemingly been forgotten in recent years with referees grabbing more of the attention and also being under increased scrutiny.

Making a referee apologize for his errors just seems like an absurd notion to me. If all referees were to do that there wouldn’t be any “I’m sorry” cards left at the stationary stores.

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Category: English Premier League

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justjack

Yeah, I with the no apologies policy, that's whacked and makes a bad situation even worse. It total undermines referees. Instant replay is the constant gripe of non-refs who have never wondered what it'd be like to facilitate a players' game. That's also a no-go in my book.

But then again, everyone was not up to their best Sunday. Liverpool was so poorly sporting as a side, picking fights, operatically diving and pushing the envelope constantly. When they were playing they were playing brilliantly and besting my lads. It was unsurprising but shameful nonetheless to have behaved so badly as they had. Chelsea even began to lose it and went over the top more than a few times. In all of that a solid referee could have made a difference, instead Styles bungled the job pouring petrol all over the players then lit a match with the penalty, fanning the flames later with the "third" yellow against Terry (or whomever he was widly gesticulating at). If you can't control a match you don't deserve the position. And it's also true everyone can have a bad bad day, Styles was no better than the players who let their emotions get the better of them. They all need to go to their room until they can behave in public like adults again. I'm all Blue but I didn't want to see a 1-1 on such a bad call, and all the cards flying and the tempers and tantrums. Shameful all, but as a ref here in the States, I hope to never have quite as bad a day as Styles did. I felt angry with his performance and am glad he's sitting out this week.
Connor

I agree, I think forcing referees to apologize for their mistakes and making such a public case about refereeing errors really undermines the authority of the referee. They make mistakes just like players, which can effect the game just as much as a player. A referee might award an incorrect penalty, and a striker might miss a shot with an open goal, and a goalkeeper might drop the ball into the net, and a defender might trip and let an opponent go 1v1, and a ... etc etc
Brian

He wasn't forced to apologize, he did it on his own accord.
gwar

no, he should have been dropped, he had an absolutely shocking game. Not just the penalty either, notice how in the midst of the whole second yellow card to Essien he randomly points in the area of defence (no where near terry) and holds the card up again, was that for Ben Haim, Essien, or a thrid for Terry. At the same moment with yellow card and ball in handm he hands it to a completely confused looking Torres and arbitrarilly gives liverpool a free kick from that spot. You can see Torres rather confusedly explain the whole thing to Alonso. He really should be dropped, he had a horrible game last week sending off Kitson for what can only be described as a light foul there too.
Sam

@Jake: I don't know how much you know about round football, but if there were to be instant replay, it would just be made up for in stoppage time.
Jake

How would instant reply work in soccer, when the ball does not stop for 45 seconds after every play like it does in pointy football? Just curious.
combat chuck

@chris: agreed. It would also make it much harder for refs to pull off any funny business, like getting paid to call a game in one team's favor (I'm looking at you, Calcio).
chris

Instant. Replay.

And who wouldn't want to see how 'Special' Mourinho is when he tries to toss that red flag like Aunt Susan.