Last season, Mark Clattenburg was the best referee as measured by Football Is Fixed's Bum Ref Index. In an underachievement of some magnitude, the man is this season rated the most incompetent of the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB) referees.
The Economist's Big Mac Index, on which our slightly subjective league table is based, utilises the econo-myth of purchasing power parity to compare currencies while we compare referees negative impact on the games in which they officiate using our privileged position as market analysts. We also assess the infrastructural biases of which, unfortunately, there are many. It is these biases which form the edifice that is primed for externalised corruption. As we have said before, addressing these issues of actual and potential corruption would significantly clean up the English game.
The Bum Ref Index (to November 26th 2007) is listed below. Stroud, Mason and Probert have only officiated ten games between them and are omitted from the table. Rennie and Knight are yet to feature at all.
1. Walton 2.91
2. Dowd 2.99
3. Halsey 3.00
4. Marriner 3.03
5. Atkinson 3.17
6. Wiley 3.43
7. Dean 4.06
8. Bennett 4.11
9. Foy 4.15
10. Webb 4.25
11. Tanner 4.48
12. Styles 4.54
13. Riley 4.79
14. Clattenburg 5.24
Clattenburg has been dismal all season although his relegation position is weighted for his abysmal Merseyside derby capers. There are a range of reasons why a previously kosher official becomes problematical - from the personal and psychological to the corrupt - and a period of convalescence away from the game would appear in order for referees who markedly deteriorate in performance for whatever reason. As well as allowing a referee to re-energise for what, after all, is a stressful (if highly rewarding) career choice, it would also undermine any corruption by using investigative pattern recognition to expose the cheats. The quality of officiating would be incrementally improved across the board.
Interestingly, all of the PGMOB officials who are also on UEFA's roster are judged as being the weaker officials - Clattenburg, Riley, Styles, Webb, Bennett, Dean and Atkinson occupying 7 of the bottom 10 positions.
Of the top European leagues, the only one which is able to compete with England in terms of corruption is Italy's Serie A. In the light of the recent and, inevitably, ongoing referee scandals, the FIGC use a roster of 30 officials for the league. Only one referee has officiated as many as 7 games in total in Italy. In the Premiership, Riley and Webb have each refereed 7 LIVE games alone and twelve of the seventeen PGMOB referees have controlled seven or more Premiership matches. The mathematics of this core group of officials makes disturbing reading. 116 out of 137 Premiership games (85%) have featured this dirty dozen. When one looks solely at the high betting turnover live games, the situation is even more dire. The listing below represents the number of times each official has been selected for Sky or Setanta events this season:
7 - Webb, Riley.
6 -
5 - Styles, Dean, Atkinson, Halsey.
4 - Bennett, Clattenburg.
3 - Wiley, Tanner.
2 - Foy, Walton.
So the dirty dozen have not only officiated at 85% of our Premiership theatrical shows but they have also blown the whistle at 52 out of 54 live matches - a striking 96%.
A couple of years ago, there was a rumour doing the rounds of the trading rooms to the effect that the PGMOB and their paymasters were seeking to reduce the core grouping of Premiership officials to just ten. People mocked. We blogged that a minimum grouping of fourteen would be required to take account of injuries, "mock" suspensions and fourth official necessities but that an absolute core of twelve would be required. Voila!
There is a general consensus of opinion among football fans and professionals that the quality of refereeing has reached a new nadir this season - think Styles and Liverpool/Chelsea; Dean and Man Utd/Chelsea; Clattenburg and Everton/Liverpool; Riley and West Ham/Tottenham. The only argument in favour of establishing a small core group is that somehow these officials represent the pinnacle of their profession. Nonsense. Any cursory glance at a random lower league match will expose more skilled practitioners than those who top the PGMOB roster. The demotion of English officials within the UEFA hierarchy is a clear external benchmark of this skills shortage. But, of course, the dirty dozen were not selected solely on their abilities to referee a football match. No, no, no... Brave meritocracy has packed her bags and run...
The justification for such a small cell of referees does not exist. By limiting the control of the Premiership matches and their highly liquid parallel global betting markets to such a small party of people, the PGMOB has developed a structure seemingly made for infiltration, coercion and corruption. As there is no validity to the scenario as it currently stands, we need to be moving towards the only two real democratising forces as soon as possible.
WE WANT TWO REFEREES ON OPEN MICROPHONE PLUS TWO ASSISTANTS
WE WANT THE FIFTH OFFICIAL TO USE VIDEO REPLAYS FOR PENALTY, SENDING OFF, GOAL-LINE AND OFFSIDE DECISIONS
Or we can watch as our beautiful sport is dragged repeatedly through the filth of corruption in front of our disbelieving eyes.
The only people supportive of the current state of inertia are those who utilise their power bases to influence the outcomes of football matches for whatever proprietary reasons.
Yesterday's West Ham United versus Tottenham game was everything that is bad about the English game. In the old days, this would have been a London derby and words like passion and pride and bragging rights would have been the motivational aspects of the match. And yesterday? Dream on. The biggest gamble of the weekend was on Ramos and his Spurs but Riley's presence as referee made the game non-tradeable either way. Over 30% of Sky's live games have been refereed by Riley or Webb this season and yesterday was Riley's sixth Sky event. His input is problematical without fail. A half decent official would have given Spurs three penalties and sent off Robert Green for his foul on Keane. Mr Riley saw fit to wait for the choreographed Lucas Neill special in injury time allowing pantomime baddie Jermaine Defoe to perform the highly seasonal under-heroics from the penalty spot. Furthermore, Riley showed his randomised colours in his general officiating - West Ham received 3 yellow cards for 33 fouls while Spurs received 4 yellow cards for 5 fouls!
Mike Riley is the one Englishman, apparently, who will be travelling to the Euro 2008 Finals in his capacity as our, allegedly, best official.
Best at what, though...?
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
