Would this go someway to improving the performances of the ref's who along with diving players seem to be blighting our beloved game? The decision by Mr Halsey to dismiss Liam Trotter last weekend was one of the worst decisions I can recall seeing, and the F.A's insistence on backing their official was even worse.
I was chatting with the father of a high profile Championship/former Premiership referee the other day and he was telling me that ALL ref's in the football league (including the premiership) get exactly the same amount of money (£280 per match) for whichever game they officiate. This person's son, like most other officials, has a full time job which is far better paid than his part time job of referring.
To my mind this could be one of the issues; if Ref's were made full time and incentivised then surely that could help improve the standard? Football is now a multi billion pound industry, one wrong decision can have massive consequences to clubs, managers and supporters alike, I think with this in mind it is time to change the way's that the officials are treated.
For instance I think that ref's shouldn't all be paid the same amount of money and that the higher level you reach, the more money you earn, like most jobs it should be targeted and they should receive performance bonuses for when they have an outstanding game, but on the flip side should be fined when they have a stinker. If you think that even if they are in charge of two games per week for the whole season they are going to struggle to make more than £20,000!
If they were paid more money and made full time then they could spend far more time with players and managers, and learn more about the game and how players tackle, and generally things that really may help them do their job's to a higher standard. They would also be able to learn things about certain players and may be able to look out for those players who have a tendency to take a dive.
I guess what I am really getting at is that should a man who is in charge of a crunch title decider between Arsenal and Man Utd with all the added pressures that go with this type of match, earn the same amount as a man who is in charge of a mid table fixture in league two? I know the games are equally as important to the respective fans of those clubs; however it is clear that the latter should be a much easier task.
The only good thing is that if the premiership officials remain in the premier league and aren't demoted they receive a £50,000 bonus, meaning they would earn £70,000 a season as opposed to £20,000 in the lower leagues.
All in all though I think the gap between what players/managers earn and what the ref's earn is far to much, whilst I realise we don't pay our money to watch the referees, they do have a major role to play in the outcome of our matches, and maybe if they didn't have the added pressures of working two jobs, and were able to concentrate ENTIRELY on learning and developing themselves into better ref's, then perhaps they wouldn't dominate our papers after they continue to make mistake after mistake.
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