Howard Webb and the standard of referring

Although happy that Liverpool were knocked out, Howard Webb really is a terrible referee. In the two recent Liverpool games alone, he got the most basic and easiest of decisions wrong (Liverpool came out the right side of a couple as well by the way).

Off the top of my head:

Eto'o foul on Henderson which was a clear straight red
Hazard clearly brought down in the box... no penalty
Suarez clearly brought down in the box by Eto'o... no penalty (I think Webb got the one with Terry/Suarez correct)

Podolski escaping a yellow card for a trip on Liverpool defender (I think)... it was such an indisputable yellow card, really basic stuff
Oxlade-Chamberlain's foul on Suarez... no penalty (the most blatant penalty you could see, good call for the one he did give by the way)
Bottling out of giving Gerrard a second yellow... like Podolski's, an indisputable yellow card under normal circumstances

You could add Hugo Lloris's foul on Ashely Young at OT but Young deserves what he doesn't get really. Still poor by Webb though.

That is a serious amount of bad calls in recent games, I really don't get how he so well regarded. Is it just because he's a big guy who commands authority and has similarities, in that respect, to Pierluigi Collina? To think he actually got to referee a World Cup final.... which of course was the best of the lot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSN6t9_A82A

Although I often complain about refs in Finn Park we have to remember that they have seconds to make a decision(often from an obstructed on distant vie)w they don't have the benefit of endless replays
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PA8q5Q-kTg

I don't think ref's standards have got any significantly worse in recent years, its just the advances in cameras, video technology, etc make the bad decision far more obivious

I've no issue with that. I just don't see why somebody who gets so many major decisions wrong is so highly rated. I fully agree that it's a thankless and difficult job. Great video by the way.

People focus too often on what referees get wrong than what they get right. Every game Webb officiates, more or less, has him under a microscope where the best players in the league are playing the best football at the highest speed and intensity. Put simply, he has far more difficult decisions than any other referee around. By all means, he should be criticised when he gets things wrong but some manner of perspective is needed otherwise we'll be demoting every referee who takes on a few top-class matches and makes mistakes.

As for the second penalty he should have given for Liverpool. Simply put, if Suarez hadn't actively made it look like a dive and had just fallen normally, it's likely Webb would have given the penalty. Unfortunately Suarez' theatrics placed the element of doubt in the referee's mind where he couldn't confidently award the penalty. It's unfortunate for Liverpool that Suarez cheated himself out of a penalty but I suppose what goes around comes around.

He's not the only referee that gets big games. I think he has got a disproportionate amount of big calls wrong, allowing for the human error expectation. Most of the calls I referred to weren't of a 50/50 nature, they were clear cut. I would give him credit for the first Liverpool penalty, but then it's easier to give one than to give two. I honestly think he would have given the second one if it had been the first one. For me this displayed a lack of courage to give a second penalty against the home side in a matter of minutes.

Pellegrini has made a bit of a show of himself with his comments regarding the referee last night. Seems to be a bit out of character. I didn't take much notice of the alleged foul on Navas... should it have been blown? His references to the referee's nationality, Swedish, are a bit bizarre. Chile isn't exactly a footballing powerhouse either, yet he's deemed capable of managing in the biggest competitions in the world.


"I think it was not a good idea to put a referee from Sweden in charge of such an important match, and a referee who made an important mistake against Barcelona in a previous match. Today he arranged it."

"I think there is more important football in Europe than Sweden. This is a big game with two important teams and maybe in this type of game you need a referee with more experience."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

Pellegrini has made a bit of a show of himself with his comments regarding the referee last night. Seems to be a bit out of character. I didn't take much notice of the alleged foul on Navas... should it have been blown? His references to the referee's nationality, Swedish, are a bit bizarre. Chile isn't exactly a footballing powerhouse either, yet he's deemed capable of managing in the biggest competitions in the world.


"I think it was not a good idea to put a referee from Sweden in charge of such an important match, and a referee who made an important mistake against Barcelona in a previous match. Today he arranged it."

"I think there is more important football in Europe than Sweden. This is a big game with two important teams and maybe in this type of game you need a referee with more experience."

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I don't think he is right to blame the ref. It wasn't as if he made any major mistakes, perhaps he was a little bit over officious in the sense that he was blowing for marginal free kicks where other refs would have played on, but this was the case for both teams and he was giving marginal free kicks to City too. It might have been a foul on Navas in the context of the game (where marginals were being given) but that was in the other half of the pitch, it was a positional mistake from De Michelis that caused the penalty.

I think he's tying himself up in knots going on about the standard of football in Sweden making last night a poor choice of ref. A more valid arguement might be to ask if it's wise to give the match to a ref from a league which finished 15/16 weeks ago. Most of the leagues in Europe with a short winter break (Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Turkey, Belgium) have now restarted it would probably make more sense to use refs from these leagues and then reintroduce the refs from leagues with longer breaks (Sweden, Russia, Ukraine) a little bit later.

I'm an Arsenal fan so my opinion probably doesn't count on this one! But for the Oxlade / Suarez nailed-on penalty my instinct in real time was "he might give this" but equally I thought Suarez just ran straight into him. Only on replay did I see that Oxlade had a kick at him.

In Webb's defence, it does look like a bit of a dive from his angle

http://i.minus.com/irMVhlpuQdoq.gif

Stone wall from the other side...

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Gz...f-save__1_.gif

Which is why officials should have some recourse to use those cameras.

Eh, no.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

In Webb's defence, it does look like a bit of a dive from his angle
Stone wall from the other side..

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I don't think Webb was influenced by Suarez's theatrics, one way or the other. From his angle it looked like Suarez leaned into the defender and came out worse.
From the other side (Webb's blind side) it was a stonewall penalty. If he had thought Suarez got hit and the defender got nothing on the ball, he would have blown up for a penalty regardless of Suarez's enhancements.