WHAT'S THE SCORE, REF?

Sunday Herald, The, Jun 15, 2008 by Stewart Fisher

FOR once, Scottish referees can breathe a sigh of relief.

With only fourth offi cial Craig Thomson out in Austria and Switzerland in any official capacity, at least they can't carry the can for any of the refereeing controversies which have engulfed Euro 2008. But at the end of a season which has seen no shortage of domestic headlines generated by the likes of Iain Brines and Mike McCurry, now is as good a time as any to focus on the main sources of misunderstanding between referees and players circa 2008, and the steps which can and are being taken to sort them out.

Drawing on the view of a hat-trick of experienced officials - Donald McVicar, Hugh Dallas and Kenny Clark - we could even be said to be providing a valuable public service. All three agree that the biggest problem of all is communication. Attendance at the SFA's refereeing seminars is so limited that they were scrapped this summer, and only one SPL team to date has taken the SFA up on an offer of a faceto-face briefi ng on what will be expected next season.

Stewart Fisher reports

PROBLEM AREA ONE OFFSIDE

A DIFFICULT task in the first place for match offi cials hardly made easier by the increased amount of interpretation involved on the part of a referee or assistant as to whether a player is "interfering with play" or "seeking to gain an advantage". Such confusion may or may not have been a factor in Mike McCurry's high- profi le mistake in the Rangers v Dundee United game this season, and was certainly taken to new extremes in the Holland v Italy game last Monday when Swedish referee Peter Frodfjeldt invoked an obscure sub-clause to rule that the prone Christian Panucci, lying near the advertising hoardings behind the goal, was actually on the goalline and consequently playing Holland striker Ruud van Nistelrooy onside.

Donald McVicar, SFA head of refereeing development: "People talk about the 'new' offside rule, but the change in the offside law was brought in in the early 90s. Before, the defence used to go out on mass to play somebody offside. I think some coaches would like to go back to that. But just because you are in an offside position doesn't mean you are offside. I know a lot of people didn't understand that [the Panucci decision] because it hasn't happened before, but as soon as I saw the player behind the line I knew right away that was the case.

although the phones were ringing within two minutes."

Kenny Clark, recently retired Grade One referee: "Although strictly speaking according to Fifa and Uefa's interpretation it was correct to award the goal, I think in terms of the spirit of the game, the morality of the laws of the game if there is such a thing, Van Nistelrooy's goal shouldn't have stood. There is a difference between someone who leaves the fi eld as a tactical move, or who has gone off innocently but then delays his return, but Panucci could have been out cold for all we know. Are we saying a man who is unconscious could be playing someone onside? That is just crazy to my mind. If a forward who goes off the fi eld cannot be judged to be offside because he is not active, then it has to work both ways.

Other than that, unless someone comes up with a formula to use video technology in a way that doesn't disrupt play then you will not get perfection."

Hugh Dallas, referee development offi cer, with a seat on Uefa refereering committee: "I am very comfortable with the rule the way it is at the moment. The referees know how to interpret the law, although there are always some mistakes, and often you fi nd mistakes occur because assistant referees are not in line with the second last defender. Last Saturday was the fi rst time that our top assistant referees have ever had offside training as such. You will always have grey areas because that is football, but you certainly don't want to go back to the way the offside rule was before it changed back in the early 90s."

PROBLEM AREA TWO INJURED PLAYERS

NOT so much of a problem in Scotland as in other parts of the football world, but the so-called Fair Play conventions are still open to abuse. The most common incident occurs when a team's chances of a quick break are thwarted by a player from the opposing team staying down after an injury and his team-mates stopping play in an attempt to pressure the team in possession to put the ball out of play. A dispute on this topic marred the Champions League fi nal, leading to Didier Drogba's sending off for slapping Manchester United's Nemanja Vidic.

DM: "The laws of the game can't cover it. In the FA Premiership they have a convention which they operate which says that it goes back to the goalkeeper, and that seems to work quite well, but that has to come from the players."

KC: "I think that is pretty easily dealt with: teams and referees should just be instructed that the only one who can stop the game is the referee. We have seen constantly in the last World Cup, where a player would stay down to prevent a quick breakaway, midfielders would stop and a player would be pressured to put the ball out. The Italians were particularly adept at it. Terry Christie wrote a letter to the other clubs in his division a couple of seasons ago saying 'I am going to instruct my players to play on in the event of injury and let the referee make the decision'."