The Ref Stop

Appointment of not wanted referee

Davit

New Member
Hi,

There is a situation in Armenian football, that I would like to ask you about.
Armenian football federation has made an official decision that every club can choose one referee that they don't want to work on their games.
The story behind it was that one of the clubs didn't like one of the referees and they refused to play cup semi-final because the federation has appointed the referee that they don't want.
What do you think? Is this decision normal or not? Is there a precedent like this in any other country?
 
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The Ref Stop
Idiotic decision....

I used to love turning up at teams I’d had issues with, they had to get with the program or we continued to have financial casualties.
It was amazing though how some nightmare teams did learn my ways and became a pleasurable experience eventually.
 
Ridiculous! If the team doesn’t want to play then they don’t have to, but they should forfeit the game.

Why don’t they want this referee? If he’s not up to the job he shouldn’t be on the league so the team are basically accusing him of not being impartial and by removing him the league are agreeing. That’s a really bad precedent to set.

There are teams who have issues with me and tell the league they don’t want me again but after the league keep appointing me to their games eventually they get the message. These tend to be teams with discipline problems and their opponents are usually happy to see me.
 
Is this the pro/top league or a diddy pub league?

On paper to read it, it seems farcical. But, if thats whats needed to keep the peace then as an experiment, short term, if things are that screwed up ( i know nothing of Armenia far less its football). ( other than 2 FIFA refs got banned 5 year ago for life for fixing a game?) then, as much as I dont agree with it in principle, we dont know if its worth a shot.

No doubting tho the bottom line should be, if your considered suitable by the referee panel, then your in, regardless of the teams wishes.
What they could, and again, i have no background to this , do, is carefully select the referees, i.e Mr Unpopular gets appointed to xxx team v bottom of league team, rather than the big derby match, so, again on paper, if xxx loose, to bottom of league team, already you can start looking at the team, rather than the referee

If its diddy pub league, not as much money, media etc at stake, on the other hand, personal safety might come into play
Its kind of black and white, the refs appointment guy, appoints the ref, period.
Again tho, nothing to stop common sense being used, and/or a league official being present to neutrally oversee the game.

like above, i have never cared ( too much) for what any random team thinks, and have seen things work both ways, i have had teams think i was the messiah then through time came to dread me, and, teams who used to even consider if its worth them turning up when am ref, spin full circle and welcome me with open arms

But back to the topic, and as much as i tried give it some rational thinking, no, I cant agree that a team pick and choose the referee, if they are at that stage then its more than just the match officials who are the problem
 
Don't forget that in England we already ban referees from refereeing certain teams - only here it's done on geographic basis, rather than anything relating to their actual performance.

Mike Dean is one of the best referees in the country and has been for years. He's only ref'd Liverpool and Everton 2 or 3 times in 20 years of being SG1, and those occasions have only been a small number of derbys, never against any other team. And all of this purely because he supports a league 2 team that happens to be vaguely near those 2 premier league teams? I'm not sure how fair that is...

If the proposal is to scrap that scheme and instead allow clubs to veto a particular referee based on their actual performances (be that relating to fitness, conduct or even perceived bias), I think you can at least make an argument that it's worth considering?
 
The English method of not appointing refs to teams they support is pathetic
If you are in the elite group, you should be appointed to any game
You could link, say, Oliver Newcastle, to, not appointing him to Sunderland, Middlesboro, then any team in the relegation battle with Newcastle, then, any team trying for europe with Newcastle
Most of the time you can invent a connection if you try hard enough
If anybody thinks for one moment Oliver going to make a call for or against Newcastle over his entire career then they need to get out the clouds

take Scotland, where 40% follow one team, 40% the other
Statistically 80% of the referees will have been brought up on either side
Not possible every referee supports St Mirren
If we used the who do you support logic here, there be nobody to do any Celtic or Rangers game period
 
The English method of not appointing refs to teams they support is pathetic
If you are in the elite group, you should be appointed to any game
You could link, say, Oliver Newcastle, to, not appointing him to Sunderland, Middlesboro, then any team in the relegation battle with Newcastle, then, any team trying for europe with Newcastle
Most of the time you can invent a connection if you try hard enough
If anybody thinks for one moment Oliver going to make a call for or against Newcastle over his entire career then they need to get out the clouds

take Scotland, where 40% follow one team, 40% the other
Statistically 80% of the referees will have been brought up on either side
Not possible every referee supports St Mirren
If we used the who do you support logic here, there be nobody to do any Celtic or Rangers game period

Sorry, but that is nonsense. If a referee supports a team how can he possibly referee them, it would be a clear conflict of interest?

The old way of appointing that ran until a couple of years ago, where you were prevented from refereeing teams based on your postcode was certainly wrong. That was why Mike Dean couldn't referee Liverpool or Everton, and indeed was even removed from a cup final appointment because Liverpool got there. The current method of being able to referee any team that you don't support is far more sensible.
 
Sorry, but that is nonsense. If a referee supports a team how can he possibly referee them, it would be a clear conflict of interest?

The old way of appointing that ran until a couple of years ago, where you were prevented from refereeing teams based on your postcode was certainly wrong. That was why Mike Dean couldn't referee Liverpool or Everton, and indeed was even removed from a cup final appointment because Liverpool got there. The current method of being able to referee any team that you don't support is far more sensible.


You for real?
As referee, you give what you see
If you aint giving what you see....you would not be where you are
You saying if you doing, Brentford and guy goes down in box, you giving the pen cos its Brentford. .
No
As said. On that basis, there would be no Scottish refs ever. Given in class of ten 4 are green, 4 blue, 1 motherwell and 1 abdn
And the motherwell fan is a C or R fan without the bus fair....
 
You for real?
As referee, you give what you see
If you aint giving what you see....you would not be where you are
You saying if you doing, Brentford and guy goes down in box, you giving the pen cos its Brentford. .
No
As said. On that basis, there would be no Scottish refs ever. Given in class of ten 4 are green, 4 blue, 1 motherwell and 1 abdn
And the motherwell fan is a C or R fan without the bus fair....

It is down to credibility. Let's say Michael Oliver refereed Newcastle and gave them a disputed penalty, the press then run an article proving he is a Newcastle fan. You've got a sh!t storm that could have easily been avoided.

Oh, and less of the insults with the "you for real" comment please, that isn't how we work on here.
 
It is down to credibility. Let's say Michael Oliver refereed Newcastle and gave them a disputed penalty, the press then run an article proving he is a Newcastle fan. You've got a sh!t storm that could have easily been avoided.

Oh, and less of the insults with the "you for real" comment please, that isn't how we work on here.


lets say a elite referee carries out his duties....

and sorry not sorry, you are an experienced official and see no shirt colour, just the foul
So Oliver would do the same, unless you are bringing his neutrality into question
As i referred to exhibit A.....there would be one ref doing Scotlands top league on Englands basis...

some refs feel obliged to give things against the team, in a vain attempt to prove they are neutral
Which of course..is worse

i would trust Oliver to ref Newcastle v Palace, fairly and to best of his ability

and , you do too..
 
It doesn't matter about the referee's ability, it is down to credibility, nothing more nothing less. No different to conflicts of interest in work environment - I am very good friends with a senior sales person at one of our company's suppliers, so for that reason I am excluded from any commercial negotiations or supplier performance review activities with them. The fact that I wouldn't let our friendship affect any decisions I made is neither here nor there, me being involved wouldn't be fair on me, him or the organisations, and the same applies to football.
 
What do you think?

I think it is stupid and a dangerous path to go down.

I also wonder how many local teams would pick me as their exclusion. :P

But, basically I don't think the power to select/reject referees should be with the clubs at all.
 
Hmmmm, there is a really poor ref in our Sunday League.
His weak refereeing has led to 2 of the most horrible games I've ever played in.
Not a bad idea :D

They can only pic one, so won't be able to avoid every tough ref
 
Can't see the benefit of this. Undermines the implicit impartiality of referees. If every club chose one (or two) referees this could easily be spotted and show those refs in a disastrous light for no other reason than 'those clubs don't like them'.
Clubs can find all sorts of reasons to dislike a ref and invariably they come down to what happened in one minute of one match rather than their general performance.
 
The English method of not appointing refs to teams they support is pathetic
If you are in the elite group, you should be appointed to any game
You could link, say, Oliver Newcastle, to, not appointing him to Sunderland, Middlesboro, then any team in the relegation battle with Newcastle, then, any team trying for europe with Newcastle
Most of the time you can invent a connection if you try hard enough
If anybody thinks for one moment Oliver going to make a call for or against Newcastle over his entire career then they need to get out the clouds

take Scotland, where 40% follow one team, 40% the other
Statistically 80% of the referees will have been brought up on either side
Not possible every referee supports St Mirren
If we used the who do you support logic here, there be nobody to do any Celtic or Rangers game period
not st mirren ayr united surely
 
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