Am I the only person who thinks they are totally shite and just ruin games

Last few Ref's I've seen have been hopeless and the one today ruined the game today between Raith and Alloa.

And they get paid for the privilege of being utter numpties

PS I apologise I'm on ranting mood tonight

Agree completely with the above post. Past two rovers games have had poor refs. Not to mention the may games before these. Today the game was runied by being stopped every two minutes for free kicks tht shoudnt of been giving. Absolute rubbish in the way they perform.

Don't greet! You chose to support a shite team..

whoz talking about raith rovers here??. No one. We are just talking about the standard of refs we have been getting as have most probably many other teams.

Yes.

No-one else has ever noticed this.

The ref wasnt great today but if youre looking for culprits who ruined the game it was more down to the scheidt served up by the two teams, really poor.

Better them than me.

It's easy to criticise.

Fun too!

(Simpson's Quote)

Defo a case of refs being totally shite in lower leagues. Worst performance so far has to be the prat in charge of our cup match Vs St Johnstone, missed 2 blatant penalties one for us and the Jason Scotland one.....first looked like a dive from scotland, but had another wee look...seen less given....and before I forget The waste of space that is Colin "wee fat b*****d" Hardie.

The refs are totally crap in these leagues, not just towards us admittedly. The One incident and a very strange corner decision(just like the one Cowden scored from) were the refs worst points. In saying this, there have been times this year where I've thought 'How the hell did we get that'

Refs all round are shite, not just in these leagues. Look at Freeland's performance today.

How true.

Its far from an easy job, the best thing to do is become a Ref and then you will know exactly how hard the job is, this is what i did and now i lay off some Refs. All refs have bad games. The refs now are shite because its the same old crap ones due to no new blood coming through the ranks because the young refs get slated for one bad game and never go back.

I think the refs at San Starko have poor games because of the intimidation of the large home crowd singin him deaf

Apparently Freeland had a stinker yesterday right enough, there's a thread on the SPL running about this subject.

Apparently Freeland told Yogi at half time to stop smiling about it. I suppose this was down to a comical refereeing performance, after all, booking a player who had already been booked and forgetting to produce the red is straight out of John Cleese territory.

So it's not exclusively us, however I agree the incidence of little Hitlers like Hardie at this level is significantly higher.

Could the answer be turning refs full time?

I doubt there is money for that but it would really improve the situation.

Am i the only person who thinks the standard of player in the league is totally shite and just ruins the games

Last few teams we have seem have been hopeless (ok not morton) and the players yesterday ruined the game between Stirling and Peterhead.


And they get paid for the privilege of being utter numpties

First thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread title.
Referees have more stinkers than good games, regardless of which league they do it in. Willie Young always drew positive comments, yet he fcuked up umpteen games at Scapa.

Several referees seem to think we pay our gate money to watch them.

Our ref yesterday was a guy called Euan Norris.

Never had him before but he was okay yesterday.

The only really shite ref we've had this season was Kenny Clark, so i don't know if it's just lower league refs.

Youre in the second divison not the SPL. If you think the standard of players are crap then away and support some SPL team.

In an ideal world, yes, but the money just isn't there. Refs should be made more accountable. If they have a really bad performance they should be on probation - another bad performance in 6 months or whatever and they should be punted off to the juniors. The refs know that there's virtually nothing that will be done if they fúck up, so they either don't care or in some cases (it seems) deliberately make some ridiculous decisions.

that would be great, all we need are greater numbers of refs but there just isnt enough people willing to do the job. Maybe we can do what everyother employer does and recruit a bunch of Polish and other foreigners

There is the mechanism for referees to be held accountable. There is a referee supervisor at every SPL game (and most SFL games) who submit a report on the performance of the referee (would love to read the report from Easter Road on Saturday!). Referees can (and do) get demoted down through the classes, and once you go down, you can't come back up.

I agree the standard is very poor at the moment, maybe the system of accountability just needs to be more transparent?

Correct there have been a few down graded in the last few years.

You want to see the guys who are coming through - it doesn't get any better.

Problem is, if they downgrade all the crap refs, there wont be enough left to look after 20 or so senior games every weekend.

I've not seen a decent ref in the flesh this season, and I include in that league and cup games, and a U21 international.

Freeland last week was abysmal, but I think he must have enjoyed the attention, as he did exactly the same again, by all accounts.

No. How would paying referees more help them to make better decisions?

The problem with refereeing these days - worldwide, not just in Scotland - is that while the refs know the rules backwards, they don't understand football. The guy we had yesterday, Somers, insisted that every free kick was taken from the exact blade of grass, for example. While it is the rule that free kicks must be taken from where fouls happen, surely there can be some leeway (unless it's reasonably near to goal)?

There are also guys who think that the fans have come and paid their money just to watch them. Yes, this means you Messrs Hardie, Muir and Boyle, and by all accounts Mr Freeland as well. It's true - the best refs are the ones you don't notice. The one we had against East Stirling early this season (can't remember his name, but he must be newly-promoted) was excellent as he let the players play and just blended into the background, only whistling when it was totally necessary. I wish there were more like him.

Last point - how does Don McVicar remain squeaky clean in all this? Surely if the refs in this country are failing, those at the top should be held accountable as well?

Wrong! Alloa where shite and Rovers where worse than shite. Ok the ref had some weird decisions but he never runined the game, as there was no game to ruin.

He never gave the game a chance to flow blowing for everything.

As somebody else said the best Refs are the ones you don't notice and many of them just want to be the star of the show.

have to agree that the ref def ruined the game yesterday. Didnt alow for two passes to be strung together without blowing his whistle. as for the One incident i dont have a clue why he gave the free the other way. Linesmen were just as bad. yet again at SP a corner giving which shudnt of been.

Agree. At the end of our game yesterday the referee was booed off the pitch, but he didn't make any decisions that could be considered to have cost us the match, and his performance was not any worse than most of the Rovers side. Why should we expect the refereeing to be any higher standard than the football on show?

I have done the refs course, and so know a bit about how the game is meant to be played etc etc. The course has opened my eyes a bit, and makes me see things a bit differently, as to why a ref interprets the laws of the game in a certain way. However, MIKE TUMILTY the ref at Starks on Saturday had an absolute nightmare. Sorry, caused an absolute nightmare. It is no excuse that Raith aren't good enough to beat shite like Alloa at home, but the ref was atrocious. He blew for every little niggle, and refused to let the game flow. He also did Alloa out of a few decisions too btw! He awarded free kicks in the wrong direction (more than once I may add). The railway side linesman was also having a nightmare, marking offsides when the players and the ball came from our half! Trouble is, we are getting arseholes like these every week at Starks, and have been for at least 3 years. Is there a conspiracy by the SFA against Raith? It is definately a case of SFA you're having a laugh. Time they got their act together the poncey suit wearing twats from Hampden.