English Refereeing Sucks in Non-League Too

By: Daryl | October 17th, 2008

Is it just me, or is the reputation of English refereeing at an all time low? There’ve been far too many high profile mistakes and controversies lately. Thinks like Graham Poll (pictured) giving three yellow cards to the same player at World Cup 2006, Mark Hasley’s red card to John Terry being overturned by the FA and most recently Stuart Atwell gifting the now legendary “phantom goal” to Reading.

Fans of English refereeing blunders will be pleased to hear that it’s not just the World Cup, Premiership and Championship that gets monumental English refereeeing controversies. It happens in the FA Vase too.

On Saturday October 4th, Cullompton Rangers faced Willand Rovers in the first round of the FA Vase (basically the FA Cup for teams in England’s lower regional leagues). With the game at 0-0 and with five minutes of extra time remaining, Cullompton won a penalty. Mark Simic stepped up and scored, thinking he’d won the game.

However… referee Simon Mann spotted some encroachment. So that means a retake, right? Not according to Mann who announced “Encroachment, no goal, restart with a goal kick.”

According to the Midweek Herald:

The match ended five minutes later and extraordinary scenes broke out as the host club protested that they had been wronged. The match referee was supported by one of his linesman that he had indeed been correct as the laws had been changed within the past two year.

After much investigation, it was discovered that there was indeed a law change within the past two years with regard penalty kicks – but only in mini soccer.

Uh-oh. And so the Football Association got involved, and ruled that due to Mann’s borderline monumental error, the game was null and void. It never happened. So this week it was played again.

And to prove there’s no justice in the world, the Collumpton lost the rescheduled game 1-0, with ex-Collumpton player Danny Baily coming off the bench in extra time to score for Willand Rovers.

[spotted on 101 Great Goals]