It seems increasingly as though we spend a large number of weekends discussing the referee rather than the football. So many times we are witnessing glaring mistakes by the men in charge that influence matches and change the results of key English League clashes.
In contrast, when we watch Champions League football, more often than not we are discussing footballing quality and tactical analysis. The standard of the referees that take charge of the Champions and Europa league games appears to be markedly higher.
That is not to say we don’t see errors made by officials in European competition. Of course we do. However the frequency of such mistakes is different to English football.
Over the past decade or so I would suggest that our refereeing standards have dropped beyond belief. The number of referees conned by diving is unbelievable. Similarly the numbers who appear to be influenced by the crowds is on the increase. There is no consistency in the decision making across the whole field of officials. In recent weeks, the issue of shirt pulling and holding the opposition in the box has been highlighted. On one hand we have seen penalties given by Mark Clattenburg and Mike Dean while Mark Halsey didn’t give a penalty against Ryan Shawcross for wrestling Marouane Fellaini from a set piece. It is this kind of inconsistency which highlights the flaws in our ‘elite’ referees.
We do have some referees of high quality. Howard Webb is a world class referee and Mark Clattenburg is a referee who controls a match with great composure, but those two aside you would not say any of our other officials are of world standard.
The difference in quality of referee was highlighted this past weekend when Howard Webb took charge of Manchester United v Liverpool and Mike Dean refereed Arsenal v Manchester City. Webb allowed the game to happen and marshalled the game in a calm, understated manner. In stark contrast, Dean had the desire to be the centre of attention at The Emirates and made the game all about him. He made numerous high profile decisions, most of which he got wrong. Arsenal v Manchester City promised to be a great game which the referee destroyed within ten minutes. Had Dean refereed the United v Liverpool game, you could guarantee there would have been a couple of red cards and a handful of yellows and that demonstrates the difference between the good referees and the poor officials.
There has to be a reason why we see so many poor decisions and performances. Nobody honestly believes the referees intentionally favour one side over another when making decisions and so the reason for errors has to be ineptitude. So then the question must be why are our referees so far behind the standard of Europe?
It would seem apparent that something needs to be done about the training of our officials. The overall standard has to be raised and that would appear to be a long road starting from the bottom up. Apart from two or three of our elite referees, there is no quality to our officiating and that has to be a concern to the biggest and best league in the world. 
