Football Food For Thought / Tareq Quiroz / 19 September 2008 /

TQ was less than impressed with John Terry's dismissal at the weekend and the reasoning behind it and wonders whether we wouldn't be better off having refs who had actually played the game.

It has been another week full of talking points in the world of football. We may only be a few weeks into the season but you can already sense the pressure building as seemingly every game is pivotal to that teams chance of success in that competition. Amazingly the team under the most pressure at the moment are the current European champions Man Utd. It has been an inauspicious start to the season for Sir Alex Fergusons' charges and already you can feel the vultures circling. Four points from three games in the Premier League resulting in a price drift to [4.0] for the title, a defeat to Zenit in the European Super Cup and just a point from their opening home league game in the Champions League.

In contrast to United, the beaten Champions League finalists and main title challengers Chelsea have made a cracking start. Three wins and a draw from their four league games and a crushing defeat of Bordeaux in the Champions League. All is well under Big Phil at Stamford Bridge, highlighted by their position as clear favourites to win the Champions League at current odds of [5.6]. Despite that start it is an incident from Chelsea's game against Man City that has provided us with the biggest talking point of the week. John Terry was sent off late in the game for a pretty cynical but not exactly violent challenge. Referee Mark Halsey decided that the challenge merited a red card under the 'serious foul play' rule, but it has to be said that he is certainly in the minority in that belief.

This one decision brings back the age old issue of 'do refs understand the game?' or is it simply a case of they just have a rule book and they follow it? I am always left feeling that there are too many refs at the top level that simply do not understand the intricacies of the game. In this case John Terry made a horribly obvious attempt to stop his opponent but it was not violent or serious foul play. Mark Halsey rushed to the scene of the crime and brandished the red card before seemingly having time to even assess what had occurred. So puzzling was the decision that all the Chelsea's players were saying that there were anywhere between one and five Chelsea covering players. It never crossed anyone's mind that he had been sent off of for serious foul play.

As we are all now well aware, the automatic three match ban has now been overturned and Terry is free to play against United on Sunday, where Chelsea are favourites to prevail at [2.24]. Halsey on the other hand has been scrubbed off the Premier League list for the weekend and will be taking charge of the League Two encounter between Chester and Shrewsbury, likely to feature fellow betting.betfair.com columnist Ben Herd at right-back for the away side (see https://betting.betfair.com/football/ben-herd/playing-alongside-ashley-young-and-getting-skinned-170908.html for Ben's latest column) where I am sure everyone will be interested to know that Shrewsbury are fancied for an away win at current odds of [2.2].

A referee's job is by no means an easy one and just like the rest of us they have good days and bad days at the office. But unlike most other workers they are only asked to perform to a high level once a week so they surely can't blame tiredness or lack of concentration. Some pundits will say decisions even themselves out over the course of the season but that is completely untrue and is just another football cliché that everyone repeats. It is time to get a new breed of referees in and do away with the old school types. There is no reason why we shouldn't have young refs. Why not bring through a few of the academy players that don't quite make the grade as players who love the game and show an understanding of it. Put them through a decent scheme and in just a few years they could be the refs of the future.

Decisions on the pitch make or break not just the result of a game but they also have a bearing on the entire season. We are not just involved in a sport now, it is a serious issue for many people and should be treated as such. If you don't really understand the players then you shouldn't be refereeing at the top level in my opinion. I want top class refs who aren't interested in their own fame and grabbing the limelight. I want these guys to want nothing more than to referee a game of football in a fair and level-headed manner. Why do referees sprint to the scene of an incident to brandish a card? It is incredibly frustrating to watch and the time has come to phase out those who won't change and bring in those that want football to be about the players and not the referee.

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