How Is Humiliating Referees Supposed To Help Them?

Mike Dean has been demoted to the Championship after what Alex Ferguson described as a 'poor performance' in the top of the table clash between Man Utd and Chelsea. His next match in charge will be between Bristol City and Swansea and he will be joined the the assistant referee, Simon Beck, who failed to notice that Didier Drigba's goal was a yard offside.

There is no denying that both men made major errors. Dean's decision not to award a penalty for a Gary Neville foul on Nicolas Anelka was particularly incredulous, although one suspects that this incident is not high on Alex Ferguson's list of complaints.

But how is publically humiliating them like this going to make them any more competent in the future? Referees are already under enormous external pressure. Andre Marriner  decided to send off Wolves captain Karl Henry for a challenge on Tomas Rosicky that was more miss timed than malicious last weekend. It seems likely that he had the recent injuries to Arsenal players Aaron Ramsey and Eduardo in the back of his mind when he decided to produce a straight red.

Nicola Rizzoliv also did not appear to be reaching into his pocket for a second yellow card for Man Utd's Rafael last night until hearing deputations from a delegation of Bayern Munich players.The crowd, the media, managers and players are all putting pressure on referees. The FA should not be part of the problem. Its job should be to nurture and protect officials, not to hang them out to dry like they have done Dean and Beck.

Publically humiliating officials by 'relegating' them to a lower division is only going to increase this already substantial pressure. If an official knows they have the threat of disciplinary procedure hanging over them that is going to have a considerable impact on their decision making process. They are likely to worry about the consequences of their actions instead of just judging each decision on its individual merits.

The technology is there to assist officials and is used in almost every other major sport in the world, cricket, rugby, tennis and American Football to name but a few. Yet the governing bodies seem more anxious to threaten officials with punishment than offer them assistance.

Referees and assistant referees could easily be given a buzzer. If they feel a decision is contentious they press the buzzer and that decision is then reviewed at the next convenient opportunity. I am not in firm favour of this as I feel it could interrupt the flow of football. Neither is Sepp Blatter who when rejecting proposals to introduce technology talked about retaining, 'the human nature of our sport'.

Well humans make errors and referees and their assistants are no exception. Either we need to give them the tools they need to do the job better than they are doing it at present or we need to accept that they are going to make mistakes.