Comments on: A Look Into Referee Favoritism

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:41:26 +0000

funny. some other Monaco fans regularly complain about the refs, but I myself hadn’t made too much of it…

By: Megame

Megame — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:36:28 +0000

And here’s Platini’s reply to Thiriez:
“People should understand that it is not Michel Platini who issues the laws of the game, but the International Board. I just express my opinion. Yes, we will kill the referees if we introduce the video. As soon as there is video, there will be no referees. ”
He also confirmed that tests with five referees are scheduled in October and November at -19 y.o. tournaments: “If the test is successful and if the French League wants to ask the Board to put refereeing at 5 in place, I will not object.”

By: Ronan "the don " Napier

Ronan "the don " Napier — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:57:41 +0000

I think lyon need to start playing ederson in CM instead of the wing considering we purchased him to replace juninhos position.

By: Megame

Megame — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:07:30 +0000

Now Thiriez, president of the “Ligue des Footballeurs Professionnels” is getting loud and clear about the fact that this situation can’t continue, and how he wants to improve the quality of refereeing:
two high speed cameras (25 pics/sec):one in one of the vertical posts, one in the horizontal post, coupled to a computer ( a kind of Hawk Eye, like in tennis).
He says it costs “almost nothing”, has been successfully tested since 2005(0% errors apparently). This solution only focuses on the position of the ball vis-a-vis the line (no replay possible for fouls, etc…).
He namely criticized the conservatism of the ruling institutions of football, represented by Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, who’d better listen to this, because that is what the European leagues want. For Thiriez, if these top guys kept ignoring that message, they would face the risk of seeing the leagues adopt such a system with or without them.

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:35:53 +0000

Extremely interesing Inara. Merci mille fois.

For me, the most interesting thing about the report is that it was commissioned by the president of the Ligue and done by a long-time D1 and FIFA referee; it isn’t the usual tabloid hack job. I’d be highly interested in seeing the entire report (Jo, the Nice Matin article (which is all we have to go on) doesn’t mention Lens).

That said, as one who has at times favoured both the “evening out” and “big team advantage” points of view on this eternal question, I don’t think that anyone who has made those arguments would expect the “evening out” to take place within the course of a single season (or to ever to be mathematically precise). The same goes for the “big club” theory.

It’s also worth pointing out that one of the primary bases for the “big club” theory is crowd pressure and media attention, and while Monaco are surely a “big club” in terms of their finances and palmeres, they are anything but “big” in those two respects.

As to the level of officiating in general, one yearns for the days of Vautrot and Quinou. I had some problems with Quinou when he was active, but compared to the current crop, he was Collina bis.

I also tend to blame Escalettes and the muppets running the FFF for this state of affairs (though to be fair, I blame for them for pretty much everything that is wrong in French football).

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:45:46 +0000

Don’t EVER talk about Duhamel to me… !!
I still didn’t swallow the Coupe de la ligue’s final between Lens and PSG.

Interesting Inara. Thanks a lot.
Can you just tell me where Lens is situated in these referee’s mistakes ?

By: Musab

Musab — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:42:06 +0000

I personally think French referees in general are lacking in quality. In the Galatasaray-Steaua Bucresti Champions league match, the Romanians played so rough and yet Duhammel did not penalize them as necessary.

By: Jean-Philippe Blais

Jean-Philippe Blais — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:44:49 +0000

Very interesting there.

I knew Lyon wasn’t favored that much by referee mistake but to have someone clearly prove it is another thing.

Keep up the good work.

By: Megame

Megame — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:23:40 +0000

Very interesting study indeed… And a powerful case for video refereeing in my opinion, which we were discussing in an earlier tread a couple of days ago..