Live mics for referees?

[Albertlegend]

Im pretty sure an English ref was mic'ed up during the early 90's and the audio was Tony Adams chasing him and screaming like a banshee after him for 90 mins. 

As well as letting fans hear the decision process it might make players stop acting like fannies towards refs.

[ajwffc]

We could go one step further and mic up some of the players. like
Sky were doing when they still had the Pro14

[accies1874]

There must be some way of doing this already because there's been one clip this year from England where the referee's audio was played on Match of the Day or something and a penalty was awarded. There was a fast break, and the referee played an advantage then had to let it up the park to give a penalty after someone slid in near the corner of the box near the goal-line. I'm sure it involved Man Utd as the ref (might have been Mike Dean?) spoke to Ashley Young and Phil Jones during the bit that was shown?

Think it might've been from the FA Cup final last year, and they let you hear the discussion with between the ref and the VAR crew.

[101]

This would highlight the fannies who try to referee the game themselves, it would be good to trial this in a quiet game like Killie Rangers* or Don Rangers* I'd love it if we could also mic up Allan McGregor

[Mallo_Madrid]

I think it would be good just to show the absolute bile and shite refs have to put up with and the pressure they are put under after making every single decision.

Referee's in this country could have an absolute cracking game, get one decision wrong and its all over social media & newspapers with the referee getting absolutely slated. Its an awful culture. The fact that referee's, as humans, are expected to get every single decision correct over the course of a 90minute football is match is bonkers. 

 

[trainspotter]

1 hour ago, Albertlegend said:

Im pretty sure an English ref was mic'ed up during the early 90's and the audio was Tony Adams chasing him and screaming like a banshee after him for 90 mins. 

As well as letting fans hear the decision process it might make players stop acting like fannies towards refs.

 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

"Toby toby, Tobias".

Games gone IMO.

[Northboy]

2 hours ago, Albertlegend said:

Im pretty sure an English ref was mic'ed up during the early 90's and the audio was Tony Adams chasing him and screaming like a banshee after him for 90 mins. 

As well as letting fans hear the decision process it might make players stop acting like fannies towards refs.

Thanks to trainspotter for the link. I'm sure I saw an interview with David Elleray years after when he was critical of how the programme had been edited to make it seem more sensational. His recollection was that the players behaviour wasn't as bad or as continuous as had been made out. It still remember it as pretty disgraceful though, particularly from Adams.

[Northboy]

15 hours ago, ajwffc said:

If they do it for games with the extra officials behind the goals some pundits might finally notice that they do help the ref make decisions. 

Haven't the extra officials been ditched now that VAR is coming in?

[Ginaro]

4 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

There must be some way of doing this already because there's been one clip this year from England where the referee's audio was played on Match of the Day or something and a penalty was awarded. There was a fast break, and the referee played an advantage then had to let it up the park to give a penalty after someone slid in near the corner of the box near the goal-line. I'm sure it involved Man Utd as the ref (might have been Mike Dean?) spoke to Ashley Young and Phil Jones during the bit that was shown?

It was Michael Oliver shown on American TV a couple of months later.

 

[Handsome John]

I remember STV doing a documentary with the ref (Iain Brines?!) in a Motherwell v Hearts game mic’d up. 

It showed why some referees don’t get respected as the tone and language used when speaking to players that night was terrible. 

Would still like it to be used in the future though. 

[The Moonster]

I enjoyed the clip and I think it's a great idea, can't really see any downsides.

On a side (VAR related) note though, when they were going through the VAR decision the referee is told by the VAR that the ball comes off the defender it's definitely a goal - at that point the referee says "I think I'm gonna have a look just to sell it to the players". Get that so far to f**k, we don't need you to sell anything, discuss the events with your refs, get the decision right and get on with the game.

[Donathan]

One takeaway from the clip even ignoring VAR is just how different the role of the assistant referees when there's an audio link to the ref. Linesmen in Scotland are basically just there to give offside/corner/goal kick/throw in and very occasionally put the flat up to signal the ref's attention if he's missed something, but in this clip it's much more of a dynamic team effort to officiate the game.

[The Moonster]

1 hour ago, Donathan said:

One takeaway from the clip even ignoring VAR is just how different the role of the assistant referees when there's an audio link to the ref. Linesmen in Scotland are basically just there to give offside/corner/goal kick/throw in and very occasionally put the flat up to signal the ref's attention if he's missed something, but in this clip it's much more of a dynamic team effort to officiate the game.

I hear they don't even train linesmen up here, it's just the first two people that pay in they get to run the line.

[Marten]

22 hours ago, Ginaro said:

Was interesting to hear how much the ref and AR spoke about the decisions, could almost do away with the commentators.

To begin with VAR decisions should be available to hear post-match, like the Dutch FA have done, as the referees/VARs would basically run the audience through the decision better than the commentators.

They could make the ref mic available for the broadcasters to show at HT/FT, because no doubt there will be concerns about lots of swearies. Then make it available live, especially once players know it's being broadcast live (maybe a red button option first).

Don't really see any downsides to ref mic?

That works brilliantly in the Dutch league. Every week the Dutch FA put (at least) one VAR moment on their YouTube channel, usually the most controversial one. Then you hear the conversation between the referee and the VAR officials and everything going on in the process. Really interesting and at least creates a bit of understanding for the public.

[well fan for life]

3 hours ago, Handsome John said:

I remember STV doing a documentary with the ref (Iain Brines?!) in a Motherwell v Hearts game mic’d up. 

It showed why some referees don’t get respected as the tone and language used when speaking to players that night was terrible. 

Would still like it to be used in the future though. 

I'd be interested to hear it now. As it stands we just need to go by body language and you see guys like Andrew Dallas in the league cup final this season just having a total shocker. You could see he had totally lost a grip on the game as it went on. 

It would also be interesting to hear the usual suspects who you can tell are in the ref's ear for 90 minutes.

[Christophe]

The officials on that Arsenal vs Millwall clip are actually sitting in the changing rooms drinking with tea cups and saucers!! What a bunch of absolute melts!

[craigkillie]

6 hours ago, Donathan said:

One takeaway from the clip even ignoring VAR is just how different the role of the assistant referees when there's an audio link to the ref. Linesmen in Scotland are basically just there to give offside/corner/goal kick/throw in and very occasionally put the flat up to signal the ref's attention if he's missed something, but in this clip it's much more of a dynamic team effort to officiate the game.

All referees in the Scottish Premiership, and probably some other levels below that too, have audio communication with their assistants.

[Ginaro]

6 hours ago, The Moonster said:

"I think I'm gonna have a look just to sell it to the players". Get that so far to f**k, we don't need you to sell anything, discuss the events with your refs, get the decision right and get on with the game.

If it's a really contentious decision and you know the players are going to argue with you for a while then it might be worth doing. Think he could have been playing it safe as it was his last game.

9 hours ago, Handsome John said:

I remember STV doing a documentary with the ref (Iain Brines?!) in a Motherwell v Hearts game mic’d up. 

It showed why some referees don’t get respected as the tone and language used when speaking to players that night was terrible.

Glad I'm not the only one who remembers seeing this, definitely at Motherwell but Google doesn't turn up any info about the documentary.

6 hours ago, Marten said:

That works brilliantly in the Dutch league. Every week the Dutch FA put (at least) one VAR moment on their YouTube channel, usually the most controversial one. Then you hear the conversation between the referee and the VAR officials and everything going on in the process. Really interesting and at least creates a bit of understanding for the public.

Could I request a translation of this one?

3 hours ago, G_Man1985 said:

If more people start to hear full on what exactly these players are saying it would make great news.
I'm sure when I was at the rugby you had to pay ( 2 pound I think or something along them lines ) and you got to listen to the referee all game. Or you didn't.

Maybe referees might feel better for it as then now fans will be able to hear what football players say to them ?
Maybe it's a start for players to maybe show more respect like rugby players ?

May have been a cost for an FM radio set to the ref mic frequency, but I'm sure I remember tuning in once with just my own FM radio.

It's pretty obvious that players at the top of football and rugby act as role models for youngsters, which influences the respect for the referee (or lack of). A young rugby player listening to rugby referees and players speak to each other would be much less likely to act the way young footballers do towards officials.

And even though football is less complicated than rugby it would still help educate lots of who don't know enough about the laws.

[HibeeJibee]

10 hours ago, The Moonster said:

On a side (VAR related) note though, when they were going through the VAR decision the referee is told by the VAR that the ball comes off the defender it's definitely a goal - at that point the referee says "I think I'm gonna have a look just to sell it to the players". Get that so far to f**k, we don't need you to sell anything, discuss the events with your refs, get the decision right and get on with the game.

An extension of this is whether or not more and more delays will occur - especially after goals - due to VAR becoming a refereeing 'safety blanket'. You've seen it in both codes of rugby where perfectly clear decisions were increasingly held-up for review, as refs became cautious of awarding anything important without sharing responsibility/being "seen" to double-check.