When will they take the time to learn

Posted by Dave Roberts on 27/04/2010

Agbonlahor is fouled by Johnson. © Getty Images

Oh dear, here we go again - more well paid professionals attacking a referee over a critical decision where the end result of their whinging only exposes a woeful ignorance of the regulations they are supposed to play by.

Johnson brands ref 'a disgrace'

Let’s set the record straight immediately, despite accusations of him being ‘a disgrace’ and the second city derby being ‘too big’ for Martin Atkinson, the Yorkshireman was spot on to award Martin O’Neill’s side a penalty after Roger Johnson had felled Gabriel Agbonlahor in the box.

In his frustration Johnson exposes the shortcoming shared by players, managers, pundits and fans alike, a thorough lack of knowledge of the Laws of the Game. I know I’ve been banging this drum for a long time and it’s as annoying as the Manchester City bell in the ‘70s, but it’s a tune I’m willing to play until we get some objectiveness into the game we all love.

The 26-year-old defender, like the majority involved in the game, bases his understanding of how the game should be officiated not from solid education of the laws surrounding his profession, but from mistaken heresay and a prevalent desire of how the pros think it should be done.

It’s a bit like me driving down the M1 motorway at 79mph and then telling the traffic cop that as I’ve been driving for years I know he has to give me 10mph leeway on my speed and he’s had a ‘shocker’ for giving me a ticket. The 10mph leeway was something I heard over 15 years ago, funny isn’t it how I’ve never seen this in the Highway Code.

I have regular run-ins with players and managers when I referee, I expect it. The same is true of my UK based colleagues in the media. I clearly remember a very heated and cutting one-liner coming down the phone to me from one ex-pro who carries a high profile position on UK television. It answered everything that is wrong with modern day punditry, “Dave, I’ve played the game, you haven’t, so you can’t tell me I’m wrong.”

Clear examples of the urban myths are, ‘30 seconds to be added to additional time for every substitution’. That one began on TV six years ago when a comment about a substitution can take around 30 seconds to make. Another is, ‘If it’s a handball it has to be a yellow card.’ Neither the Laws of the Game nor any supplemental clarifications from the governing bodies have ever included such directives.

So what of Johnson’s challenge. He got a touch of the ball, yes. But here is another incorrect myth that’s been doing the rounds for a long, long time. The mere fact that the ball has been played by a tackling player absolves him from the rest of his challenge. Just watch the next live game, count the number of times a player makes the gesture to the referee that he ‘played/won the ball’ after the ref awards a free-kick against him.

Johnson clearly ‘took out’ Agbonlahor. The touch on the ball was minimal; the contact on the player was not. The ball was still alive for the Villa man had he not have been upended. Birmingham fans will not want to read this, but, it was a correct decision.

I do feel sorry for players and new referees in this area. Football is a contact sport, but any contact has to be fair, or to give it its proper terminology - not careless, reckless, nor done by using excessive force. Neither shall it be dangerous, nor does it need to be deliberate, unlike a handball. So I can see where there is plenty of room for differing opinion.

After many unsuccessful years of my trying to introduce ‘Law Training’ for the media types around the world I take my hat off to ESPN. They have recently agreed to let me provide its commentary teams with the inside edge.

The guys won’t get to know how wide a touchline can be, nor what four shapes constitute the makeup of a goal post – but by my being able to give them an insight to what is asked of a referee in the game, how they are guided to determine what is and isn’t foul play, and show them what the law actually states - viewers can be guaranteed that what they see and hear on their networks around the world is as reliable and educative as you can get. Perhaps one day a professional club will take the same bold step and sit their players through the same course.

Dave Roberts presents ‘ESPN Soccernet Press Pass’ and was an international referee.

A tale of two centre backs

Posted by Rebecca Lowe on 20/04/2010

It was amazing being at White Hart Lane to see Tottenham beat Chelsea on Saturday because the tension was incredible. With about ten minutes to go, I always go from my seat watching the game and back to the interview room to prepare for my post-match interview. As I walked in, sitting in the corner, slumped, looking very sorry for himself and moist-eyed, was John Terry, with his boots off and legs out, looking thoroughly annoyed following his sending-off.

He was sitting in front of our screen to watch the remainder of the match. As soon as I walked in, he straightaway said to me: “Was it a sending off? What did they say in the studio?” He looked like a broken man, I have to say. He looked really dejected and he actually said to me that he hadn’t seen the replay of the first yellow, when he fouled Pavlyuchenko, but he had seen the second yellow for a foul on Gareth Bale and that that was fair enough. He didn’t look like a man angry with the referee, because sometimes he can be, but he was more angry with himself, and he did sit there and look like he had thrown away the title for his team-mates. But I don’t think that is the case at all.

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