Reply from the FA

Thank you for contacting The Football Association.

The Football Association receives frequent correspondence on the performance of referees in general and also individual refereeing decisions across all levels of football.

Unfortunately, because of the huge scope of these enquiries, we are unable to answer each correspondence individually.

The issue of refereeing standards is a constant source of debate to anyone with an interest in football, fans will always have an opinion on the apparent injustice of decisions involving their teams, and rightly so, football is a game full of opinion.

Our stance will always be that referees and their decisions have to be respected for the game to remain workable. They are arguably the most consistently professional people in the game making split second decisions that will be analysed repeatedly by slow motion cameras and panels of football experts.

Ninety five percent of the time these decisions will be correct, when they are wrong it is unfortunate but because of human error unavoidable.

They make their decision based on years of training and experience and what they see at that moment in time. The referee can only act on what they see, assisted by the other match officials and naturally not everyone will agree with the decisions they take, especially when a supporter's own team is involved.

Bias is an issue that is constantly raised. The FA receives many letters from fans of clubs complaining about what they see as favourable treatment.

Our concern is to be even handed across the board. Referees try to uphold the laws to the best of their abilities and we are confident that no bias is shown towards any player or club.

There is a system in place for monitoring the performance of referees, and referee's assistants, involving assessors and reports from club managers.

Communication is an important issue and regular review meetings also now take place, involving referees, clubs and managers.

Refereeing has been restructured with the aim of continued improvement of the overall standard of refereeing in the professional game.

This sees match officials categorised into two groups:

The Select Group officiates in the Premier League and other competitions and comprises 20 referees and 39 assistant referees and is the responsibility of Keith Hackett, Head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).

Premier League refereeing enquiries should be addressed to Keith Hackett, The Premier League, 30 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8PL or at general@fapl.co.uk

The National Group officiates in the Football League and other competitions, with 50 referees and 188 assistant referees. Referees Manager Jim Ashworth supervises this group, which will also receive increased training and development.

Football League refereeing enquiries need to be addressed to Jim Ashworth, The Football League, Edward V11 Quay, Navigation Way, Preston, PR2 2YF or at fl@football-league.co.uk

The relevant groups pick and monitor their officials as well as developing them physically and mentally. The two groups receive feedback from the Referees assessor and in some cases other official participants.

All assessors come from a footballing background and the majority are fully qualified referees. The performances of referees over a season are taken into consideration when the leagues appoint their referees for the following season.

**If you have any further queries or if this automatic response has not answered your specific enquiry please reply using the Contact Us form and select 'Other' as the subject**
Yours sincerely,

Customer Relations Unit
The FA

Posted By: BSE Canary, Mar 7, 10:18:00