——————————–
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites…
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
——————————–
By Walter Broeckx
When I was reading my article on the statistics of Dean again I found that there was a big gap. There was something important missing. This was my fault but I kept it out of the article because otherwise it might have been twice the length it actually ended up at. And people would miss this important part of the hidden referees world.
The thing I left out or just briefly mentioned is that the referee world is very much about politics and who knows who and who likes who. Likewise family ties are important for some careers.
And again “Politics” are very important. And I don’t mean big international or government politics. But gently stroking the right person at the right time is THE WAY TO GET PROMOTION.
Everyone who has been a ref knows it. You need someone powerful to lift you to the top. So if you are smart and you can identify the person that can put in a good word for you it is important to please him.
You must remember that to get to the top and to get a Fifa badge you first of all must be a good ref. But that is only 50% of what you need. I have seen amazingly good refs myself who don’t get a chance to get higher. And then I see poor refs who get promotion. Because the latter knows how the game outside the field is played.
And that game outside the field is maybe even more important than the game on the field. When the commission has to choose between two refs who get the same score on the field. Who will they pick? Ref A who never is friendly towards the commissioners, who has no family ties, who has no bonds with high placed people? Or Ref B who always is there to laugh out laud with the most stupid joke a commissioner makes, who’s father also was a ref and knows the commissioners, and who is always chatting and talking with the powerful people in the game?
Well even if ref A gets a higher score on the field, the ref that will get promotion will be ref B.
And that is a very sad thing in the referee world. All the referees I have spoken with they all know it. And it just isn’t in my country of Belgium but it is widespread. Across the world as I found out in my contacts with refs from over the whole world.
Spotting the right connections at the right time. It is something the public in general is not aware of but believe me as an insider: IT IS ALMOST THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WHEN YOU ARE A REFEREE!!!
Your mistakes on the field are minor mistakes compared to making mistakes in your relations off the field. I have known cases in which referees didn’t get promotion even when he had the highest on-field scores. But to stick with the A and B ref, if ref A is a ‘loner’ with no connections he will miss promotion. Even if ref B has a lower score but well… he has the right connections.
Referees are not friends together, they are each other competitors. They all want to end at the top. They all want to end in the highest possible division in their country. Ok, not all. Some do it just for fun. As it can be fun. But for the ambitious ones, it is a world where you have to be a shark and eat or get eaten.
The correct family ties can also help. Believe me many refs have fathers who also were refs and who have connections and use their connections to help their sons. That in itself is of course not just a referee thing but many refs at the end of their career end up in the commissions. So it can happen that a father has to decide in a commission over the promotion of his son or another person. In such a case the father usually has no voting rights. But the father can of course have a few words with the people who have voting rights. And those people know that one of the fellow commissioners is the father of that ref. So what will be the most plausible outcome of the vote?
So if you have no family ties in the referee world you have to overcome this handicap. A big handicap. And then the best way to overcome this handicap is what we in my own language call “licking yourself to the top”. I’m not going to mention the body parts you are supposed to lick as I want to keep this site clean. But there are some parts I don’t really want to lick – although some people will lick anything they get offered.
So for those who were still thinking that only the performances on the field are important for a ref this might come as a surprise. But the fact is, socializing with the right persons at the right time are as important or even more important. Of course you must be a bit of a good ref but believe me it is just a part of it.
Of course with Dean I want to say that I don’t know if Dean has the right family connections. I don’t know if his father was a ref or not. But I really do think he is a smart and ambitious person. And it sure would be interesting to find out if Dean has family ties with refs or not. It could explain a lot and could confirm my thoughts on him.
So why doesn’t PGMOL release the information and let us know who is related to whom in the world of refereeing?
Personally I think that Dean is already having an eye on the place of Mike Riley… but maybe that just my bizarre imagination.
However can you imagine Mike Dean becoming head of the PGMOL? I leave that thought with you.
Recent posts
- A fair and balanced competition. The EU is about to act.
- Beautiful football combined with grit and determination when needed
- Sunderland v Arsenal from the cty f n vwls
- Sunderland – Arsenal: What can we expect from the ref?
- Ref Review: Kevin Friend – Arsenal Vs Liverpool (2 – 2) [30/01/2013]
RA,
You’re absolutely correct to call them mad. I wouldn’t begin to know how to get into that conversation. There are a few familiar faces there, and if anything, Bergkampesque seems to bring out the crazier side of them.
@All I saw a stat from optajoe this weekend and i said to myself what a “coincidence”. Man united and QPR are the only teams in the PL this season yet to have a penalty against them. Maybe Tune Group and Gill have had a say?
Interesting remark from Krause… Dean… again apparently….hardly one month between his last Arsenal game. And that was again hardly one month after his last Arsenal game…
And that again was hardly one month after his last Arsenal game….
Oh well you get the picture.
I really wonder what the FA and the PGMOL are after ??
I suddenly feel a bit sick,
Dean again… So expect a sending off from an Arsenal player. If Vermaelen plays he will get booked (standard), a penalty against Arsenal (also again almost a dead certainty) …. no penalty for Arsenal no matter what….
I really wonder how on earth they keep on sending him. Unless they have a specific reason for this of course…. Come on this can’t be a coincidence anymore….
The only good thing is that they probably cannot send him now for the Spuds game in 3 weeks. But then again.
Now we can make a bet on Dean for the United game.
Just putting down some spread bets – if Verm does get booked, and we get a pen against us, and a sending off at least I’ll be going to Aus. It’s my new antidote to Mike Dean reffing us.
I am not a person to bet on situations, but that might not be a bad idea. FIFA and UEFA are sensitized to betting abnormalities. If you can show consistent odds in your favour when Mike Dean is refereeing, you might get FIFA/UEFA to listen. I think the FA and PGMOL are a waste of time.
Dean again for Blackburn makes me sick. I mean seriously why oh why do they keep sending him to us even with his well documented bias against us? Stats prove it,his actions prove it and heck even his dancing and jumping proves it. what more evidence do they want so that they can stop sending him to us once and for all? Why do they keep sending him?
Mike Dean was the ref when we lost to Bradford… Just putting it out there
Can anyone really, seriously believe anymore that English football is refereed in a fair manner? That they are doing their absolute best to be impartial and make sure that correct decisions are taken on the field?
@shard those in denial and who have agendas of their own do believe that.. It has become so blatant its not only infuriating but also sickening… Bent organisations running English football down
@Shard 10.11pm
The referees are biased. The authorities are in on the act. But I believe that the referee reviews that started here on Untold are the key. Enough pressure and they will be exposed. Surely?
WTF! Dean again? Someone must be really having a joke at our expense. How many times this season already? Is there a way we can bring this to the nation’s attention apart from this blog? This can’t be right, people.
Even if we are too good for Blackburn besides the obvious help he will give them he will make sure we are crippled somehow for our next few games after that. This is wrong.
Correct Al , we will beat Blackburn, but with dean there will be a cost. Then we will meet him again at WHL. Ivan, you are on committes, why are you allowing this?
Seems the bookies “know” something http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2276506/Paddy-Power-pay-Manchester-United-winning-Premier-League.html#axzz2Kdi4BHr4
The bookies are right, as wenger knew, once they got rvp, that was it, citeh are now a bunch of demoralised mercenaries, still capable of playing well at times, but now punching below their weight.. Nasri seems to have lost the sheer enjoyment of playing he had when he was with us. Where will he end up….i can guess…..He has a trophy and a fistfull of dollars…..but I wonder……arsenal need to make sure rvp is the last title gift to other teams, such things are hugely damaging on every level and I think we have all had our fill.
Walter….corruption of referees begins with the ass-kissing required to advance. Once you sell your soul to the highest bidder or for the biggest reward, you are a prostitute and can never be trusted to be totally impartial or untouchable again.
As a retired professional referee I paid the price for my ethical and moral principles and I still don’t regret it. Basically I shot myself in the foot when I was on the FIFA nominees list by divulging some unethical and nefarious dealing being perpetrated by my provincial chairman. After exposing his and others machinations, I was dropped from the list, dropped from the professional league and refused key international games when I was the senior-most official in line for that appointment.
I also seemed to ¨fail¨ every written or on-field assessment from that moment on, despite, upon revision being shown to have passed all standards. The chairman once assessed me and at half time came into the dressing room and screamed at me for being an incompetent referee! This was totally against the rules for assessors but he was supported by the local FA nonetheless.
My local FA refused to risk losing the referee chairman or even acting on any of my allegations and my fellow referees tried but failed to prevent my eventual demotion.
At that moment I saw the bigger picture for what it was, a cabal of self-interests and corrupted fixers who preferred the status quo and eschewed any ¨risky¨ but justified enforcement of common decency and respect for the rules of healthy and fair Football competition out of fear, cowardice and indifference. This is the competitive side of officiating and the dog-eat-dog syndrome Walter talked about.
I am now happy to officiate kids games and appreciate the sincerity and honesty they bring to the game…they are there to have fun and they do….its now the parents who are getting insane.
I hate to say “I told you so”, but:
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/27183
My comment’s currently the last one (08/02/13 and 10:45).
Red-Man,
An amazing thing. Don’t know to laugh or cry
@Red man says it all doesnt it? Myself i rightly predicted that we would have Dean and Atkinson for the back to back City and Chelsea matches weeks ago and i was right which made me really sad. The predictability of PGMOL is really sickening.
Is there a limit on the # of times we are appointed a referee by the FA in all competitions in a season? I remember back a few years ago and we had Graham Poll appointed like 8 or 9 times in one year. At this rate we could be looking at Dean another 2 or 3x’s is that right?
@Krause this will be Dean`s 5th appointment in all competitions for us so far this season..last season we got him 6 times in the league alone and not sure if we had him in cups. I wont be suprised if he is the ref at white hart lane and i am 99.9% sure he will be the ref in our match vs Man United. Thats 2 more plus one in the middle then im sure we will be looking at something like 7 times this season or more
Mahdain,
and you can be sure that if we manage to beat Dean (and Blackburn) this weekend and if we would get further in the FA cup the chance of seeing him again in the next round or in the semi final let alone the final is around + 95%
@Walter my thoughts exactly.. if we manage to beat him in this round then im sure they`ll give him another chance to screw us over and out of the competition and if we somehow managed to reach the final then its nailed on for him to be the ref. Infuriating
@Domhuail
Thanks for telling the story and good on you.
Glad you say you still don’t regret it.
If you’ve got principles you’ve got no choice.
As to the matter of Dean – is there a way of expressing an opinion at the cup match? As long as people don’t get themselves ejected of course.