HomeZ OLD CATEGORIESArsenal (NN)EPL: Are Referees and Linesmen ruining the beautiful game?

EPL: Are Referees and Linesmen ruining the beautiful game?

“The best League in the world”“The most entertaining league in the world”

Terms flouted about on a regular basis by pundits and analysts

when describing the English Premier league.

But can it really be called such, when the referees and linesmen get it so wrong, so often?
Maybe they also want to add to the excitement…. Maybe they’re just useless.

The latter seems more closer to the truth.

Best League…worst Match Officials 

How many offside goals were allowed this season alone? Inzaghi would’ve loved playing in the EPL in 2017.

How many perfectly legal goals wrongfully chalked off? Handballs in the box, fouls out of the box…The list grows longer with every match day.

Yes, they are but human…and to err is part of our nature, but a growing number of errors are killing the reputation of the premier league.

Referees have taken over from divers as the biggest villains in the game.

Where would Man United be sitting on the league had their numerous offside goals been disallowed? How many of their players should have been carded and have seemingly gotten away with murder?

The world still waits for retrospective action by the FA against Paul Pogba who’s highly dangerous tackle on the neck of Jordan Henderson would’ve landed in him time in the sin bin in Rugby.

You know things are getting really bad when Man United veteran referee Howard Webb comes out to criticize the match officials after his poor performance in the Manchester versus Liverpool game. But it goes much deeper than one bad day at the office.

Kyle Walker’s blatant push on Raheem Sterling in the box should definitely have been a penalty on the weekend. Much has been made of  Sterling’s decision to stay on his feet against Spurs. The winger was reluctant to go down, probably because tougher action has been placed on players regards simulation. Former Manchester united player Michael Owen received a torrent of abuse on twitter after he suggested that Sterling and other players should go to ground because it really was the only way to ensure a spot kick was given.

Another side effect of poor refereeing is that it provides ready-made excuses for managers when their teams(and themselves) have been poor. Post match conferences are now punctuated with numerous “If’s” and “Buts” explanations and the 89 minutes of mediocrity before and after the focused on moment, is oft forgotten.

The Pressure grows for the FA to take stronger action against poor performing officials.  Repeat offender Mike Dean has gotten relegated to the Championship…that didn’t help much because he actually managed to messed up another game there, awarding a penalty for a handball outside the box in the Barnsley vs Leeds game.

How does the English premier League sort out this crisis?

So far, and worryingly so, the question remains unanswered.

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