Why Referee's are better human..

The primary job for a Referee in any sport is to ensure that fair play occurs, rules are applied and most importantly followed by the people involved whether they like it or not. This blog will look into the reasons why cameras or computers will never replace the sheer unbridled emotion that one single person can create in one erratic second that will either have some poor person sacked or hired.

When you sit down and think about the 'big red button' that we all imagine the Prime Minister to have we think of sheer panic and 'what if' moments. For him it could be a nuclear blast or even an attack on his house. The red button would stop the incident and leave everyone standing still and watching in disbelief as to why he pressed that button (no idea what it would be like anyway). Well this is similar to a match referee having the 'what if' moments but instead of having just one chance at hitting the red button you get trigger happy and want to press that thing all day.What I am saying is that at some point in our lives we all have that same 'what if' impulse moment to see what happens, an adrenaline rush where you try to rationalise what is happening and what would happen should you decide on an outcome.

If like me anyone has ever done public speaking then you appreciate that when 10, 20 or even 100 people are watching you then it can be slightly unnerving but imagine 70,000 people watching you. A referee will have around 400 cameras watching their every move as well! Try telling me this wouldn’t test your abilities as a human being to deal with this situation in a rational manner. Add to the fact that all these 70,000 people are shouting and screaming at you to give them what they want. If you don’t they will hound you and quite possibly hang you from London bridge if they could.

If we had goal line cameras then you can forget winning the 1966 World Cup or if cameras had been used in 1986 we wouldn’t have seen Diego Maradona's 'hand of god' that we are still talking about 24 years later. Referees create excitement through their human traits; at times of great stress we do not act rationally or have the capabilities to make the right decision so how can we expect them to have it right every single second of the game.

If we take the human element out of the game we are taking a piece of our own personality out of ourselves, imagine the game without a 2 hour rant about a decision a person made that you didn’t agree with? Imagine a game where there wasn’t a series of obscenities following a wrong decision or even worse imagine a game where as a supporter you didn’t see a man give your team a penalty in the 90th minute against your arch rivals and say to me it would be better if a camera gave it? No chance. We all love that human being pressing the 'what if' button, that one person who made that crazy yet totally irrational decision to send your best player off over celebrating a goal by throwing himself into the crowd in that one wonderful moment that is scoring a goal?

Referees are as much part of the game as the managers chewing gum or the players putting their left sock on first because they did it when they won last week just for good luck. We don’t need them just to ensure that fair play occurs but we need them because we as humans always want someone to blame when we fail. I want to see mistakes because that is life and what better way to express blame than seeing a 43 year old man from South Shields disallowing a perfectly good goal in the 90th minute to deny your team the win. It hurts like hell but we felt it and by next Saturday it will have been forgotten.

I am against goal line technology because it takes the human element out, it minimises risk, how boring is that? It will make the game less exciting and deny fans the inexplicable answers they desire 'why did he give that penalty?’As a passionate football fan I have felt that feeling of frustration, of anger and disgust for a fellow human being who is only doing his best. I understand that there is far too much money involved and the 'what if' moment occurred when French striker Thierry Henry blatantly hand balled in the Republic of Ireland’s penalty box and subsequently the Irish were denied a place in the World Cup finals which probably cost the nation millions in merchandise, T.V rights and countless pints of Guinness in the pub.

I do not want to contradict myself in saying we should stop hurling unnecessary abuse at a referee but what I am saying is that would you do his job? Most probably not, would any rational manager do it? No, so let’s get on with it and allow these guys the chance to light the touch paper and give the game some excitement!