Overseas Ref for A-League GF

[bulldogmariner]

A-League grand final red card sparks referee import call
By John Taylor
March 02, 2009

Former Socceroo Robbie Slater has called for a top-notch overseas referee to control football's showpiece event in Australia after yet another controversial decision "ruined" the grand final at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.

The Fox Sports commentator was stinging in his criticism of referee Matthew Breeze.

Slater claimed that Breeze got it wrong when he sent Adelaide United striker Cristiano off after just 10 minutes in the championship decider against Melbourne Victory.

Victory players were continuing their celebrations Sunday after winning their second championship in three years, but were given the fright of their lives by the gallant Reds before Tom Pondeljak's 60th-minute goal settled it.

"In a grand final you have to be 100 per cent sure of your decision-making," Slater said, referring to the incident involving Cristiano and Roddy Vargas.

"There was no swinging elbow by Cristiano. They both used their arms for protection when they challenged for the ball. It was a complete accident.

"Breeze was 10m away and he was initially going to pull out a yellow card until he consulted (assistant referee) Matthew Cream. Then he issued the red.

"Did the blood coming from Roddy's ear sway it? I thought it was a disgraceful decision and the grand final was ruined."

Slater urged Football Federation Australia to appoint neutral referees for future grand finals.

"Someone with a really big reputation," he said.

"Our last three grand finals have all been marred by controversy.

"Last year we had Mark Shield missing a handball that deprived Central Coast of a penalty late in the decider against Newcastle.

"That led to the infamous Danny Vukovic incident when he slapped the ref's wrist and copped a lengthy ban.

"The year before, Shield sent off Adelaide captain Ross Aloisi after 30 minutes and that turned the grand final against Melbourne into a farce."

Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar, after calling Adelaide a "pissant town" two weeks ago, could easily have cut loose on Breeze but feels there may be a need for a video referee.

"I am a little bit against it. I am a bit of a traditionalist, but something as significant as that has a massive impact," Vidmar said. "'Probably we should (have a video ref)."

Breeze, who was given his first A-League grand final, also sent off Victory striker Danny Allsopp (65th minute) after an off-the-ball incident with Reds defender Robert Cornthwaite.

"There are no images to suggest any headbutt (by Allsopp)," Slater said.

"Allsopp is walking and pushed his head towards him (Cornthwaite). It was like handbags at 10 paces."

 

[Bear]

Former Socceroo Robbie Slater has called for a top-notch overseas referee to control football's showpiece event in Australia after yet another controversial decision "ruined" the grand final at Telstra Dome on Saturday night.

Quite possibly the smartest thing iv ever heard him say

 

[Rowdy]

An overseas Ref's could just as easily fcuk up our GF if brought in for just the 'one game', they wouldn't be familiar with the 'culture' of refereeing standards that teams have had to play under during the whole season under home-grown ref's. i.e is that normally just a free kick? or is that a yellow? he might want to give a red for something that a local HAS given yellows for all season.



Solution: (said with hispanic tone) "Marqueeeee Refereeeee"

Better to go and pilfer upper level refs who officiate games in the Chamionship/or lower level ref's from Premier League  in Engerland, 2-3 of them, offer them excellent packages to relocate them/famillies to a beachside suburb anywhere on the eastcoast of their likings.

Make them our top ref's & let muppet's like Brezze  learn a thing or 2 from them

 

[Redline]

An overseas Ref's could just as easily fcuk up our GF if brought in for just the 'one game', they wouldn't be familiar with the 'culture' of refereeing standards that teams have had to play under during the whole season under home-grown ref's. i.e is that normally just a free kick? or is that a yellow? he might want to give a red for something that a local HAS given yellows for all season.



Solution: (said with hispanic tone) "Marqueeeee Refereeeee"

Better to go and pilfer upper level refs who officiate games in the Chamionship/or lower level ref's from Premier League  in Engerland, 2-3 of them, offer them excellent packages to relocate them/famillies to a beachside suburb anywhere on the eastcoast of their likings.

Make them our top ref's & let muppet's like Brezze  learn a thing or 2 from them

I like that idea.

The other option is to send our refs off to referee school. Send them to like Spain, or Italy or Brazil for the weeks before our comp starts, have them train and learn from those refs, who cop far more abuse then our guys are ever going to.

What do our refs have to undergo by way of training?

 

[FFC Mariner]

Just f**k Breeze off altogether and you are a long way to solving the problem. Shield is gone, just him to go.

A better ref than Breeze? I vote for...........

 

[Omni]

The big problem with a refs school is that the refs don't get much of an off season, they have various other things to referee (like state league or internationals). I'm all for anything that improves referees, I don't think bringing in a foregin referee for a one off game is going to do anyone any good.

 

[FFC Mariner]

There are good refs and decent AR's too.

Breeze and that other twat arent among them

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

Wasn't Aloisi's RC well deserved?

As for Cristiano's elbow, from what I've been told the national referees manager recently gave a talk to NSW SL referees about those sort of incidents, and provided some very, very similar examples for a RC - perhaps that would suggest that the decision was technically correct, just inconsistent in regards to the rest of the season?

I don't think neutrality is an issue, as Slater implies - after all, neither team was happy with Breeze

Omni has a legit point about the off season for the referees - although these guys are also working full time, then spending most of their weekend travelling for the HAL.  Until that situation is resolved, our referees are always going to be performing under par.

For those who suggest spending a lot of money on marquee referees - I would think that spending that money on making our refs into full time referees would result in a greater overall improvement.

Not only will this allow for far more training and education time, but it would also allow for preseason training camps, as well as more time spent reviewing performances.  And, most importantly, it means they won't be taking the field carrying stress and fatigue from their day job (and for any elite athlete - and let's be honest, refereeing needs just as much, if not more, focus as playing - your mental condition is extremely important).
Though I always wonder why referees who make massive errors week in week out still get appointed - or why referees make the same errors.  I can only assume that means they aren't getting pulled up for their mistakes, which means that questions need to be asked of the inspectors, coaches and managers of the referees, and not just the referees themselves.  I suspect that blaming Breeze isn't really addressing the real issues facing aussie referees.

Unfortunately, Breeze has a history of getting big decisions wrong.  Unfortunately in this game, it seems that his assistant referee was a big factor in this, but I think he's always struggled with red cards - so why does the FFA persist instead of giving more opportunity to the 'lesser' referees?

Same with all of the 'Big 3' (Shield, Breeze and Williams) - the FFA's policy of sticking with those referees even when they're underperforming has, IMO, seriously undermined refereeing in the HAL and prevented the 'lesser' officials from getting a serious shot at the GF.

Sure, maybe it'd be good to get in some big name ref just to take the GF - but this is just a bandaid solution that doesn't really fix anything.

 

[Redline]

So why aren't they full time? Is it simply because there isn't deemed to be enough need for full time refs? They should have at least 1 senior ref who is full time undergoing training himself, training other refs, SL refs the like. CLearly it shouldn't be Shields or Breeze. But there needs to be a good ref, and AR on the books full time.

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

A full time ref would cost too much money.

I think the referees get something like $800 a match.  Used to be $600 but it went up.  Even if they ref 20 games (which they don't), that's $16 000.

Compare that to what it'd cost for them to ref full time - and it'd have to be a good salary to take them away for their day job (NRL referees can earn over $100k a year) - big cost, especially when the sport only runs half the year.

 

[Redline]

That makes sense. But they will HAVE to eventually put on full time refs. It will get to a point where the benefits will outweigh the costs. And for the good of the game it needs to be done as well.

 

[Paolo]

professional league with professional players, coaches, administration.....i think its time that the refs were professional aswell

 

[Bear]

professional league with professional players, coaches, administration.....i think its time that the refs were professional aswell

+1 its a joke that they are not, makes our league look amature

 

[Jesus]

OS refs for all games is onyl option. One game can be f**ked up. Bring one or 2 for the whole season, stop giving free "you're the best awards" to breeze and shields and you are right

 

[Paolo]

OS refs for all games is onyl option. One game can be f**ked up. Bring one or 2 for the whole season, stop giving free "you're the best awards" to breeze and shields and you are right

just as much as it is a competition to develop australian talent, it is a comp to develop australian referees

 

[Jesus]

OS refs for all games is onyl option. One game can be f**ked up. Bring one or 2 for the whole season, stop giving free "you're the best awards" to breeze and shields and you are right

just as much as it is a competition to develop australian talent, it is a comp to develop australian referees

The key word is competition. Where has breezes competition been? Who has pushed him to be a better ref? No one, and he hasnt become one.

Bring in one or 2 overseas refs and they will lift the standard of the other refs, or if they dont at least we dont have to put up with them

 

[Tassiemariner]

Im pretty sure Dilovski was given referee of the year award.

Why wasn't he given the job?

 

[Omni]

OS refs for all games is onyl option. One game can be f**ked up. Bring one or 2 for the whole season, stop giving free "you're the best awards" to breeze and shields and you are right

just as much as it is a competition to develop australian talent, it is a comp to develop australian referees

The key word is competition. Where has breezes competition been? Who has pushed him to be a better ref? No one, and he hasnt become one.

That's EXACTLY the problem it's not that there aren't good referees who could handle the A-League around Australia, it's that the FFA are so committed to the seperation of their panels that B Panel referees aren't given a go *cough* Kris Griffths-Jones *cough*

 

[Rowdy]

For those who suggest spending a lot of money on marquee referees - I would think that spending that money on making our refs into full time referees would result in a greater overall improvement.

Not only will this allow for far more training and education time, but it would also allow for preseason training camps, as well as more time spent reviewing performances.  And, most importantly, it means they won't be taking the field carrying stress and fatigue from their day job (and for any elite athlete - and let's be honest, refereeing needs just as much, if not more, focus as playing - your mental condition is extremely important).

A Referee or 2-3max brought in from overseas, WOULD be a full-time ref, thats the whole idea of the the concept. They SHOULD already be a 'full-time' referee before even being considered for our job/s.


They wouldn't be sitting around in the off-season doing jack-shit, they'd be training running clinics for AR's, NYL's, W-League, State League Ref's and assisting in the development programs for junior referees. yes we have systems in place now, BUT they're NOT producing what we NEED NOW! There's nobody in Australia I've seen worthy of being offered $100k plus contract from the FFA to Ref fulltime.

So something has to change......Be like the Japanese in their ideology of taking all the great things from all around the world and then making it their own. So who has better standards of refereeing than us? 

Take your pick of Leagues from all over the world  - but better to choose leagues that are similar to the A-League 'style' of play and standard. That's why I suggested The Chamionship in England, as English football is well known for it's physicality, like our own here in Australia

By spending some dollars on 2-3 high quality Refs NOW, will only help to create a better infrastructure for future professional full-time referees in the FUTURE

 

[loyalist]

Im pretty sure Dilovski was given referee of the year award.

Incorrect