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Welcome To the April edition of the Branch Newsletter. Things seem to have settled down somewhat on the pitch, thank goodness. Unfortunately, the scenes from Istanbul in the build up to the UEFA Cup semi final between Galatasaray and Leeds, show that there is still a problem off the pitch. The sad story of two Leeds supporters being stabbed to death puts things into perspective. There was also trouble at a recent friendly international between Belgium and Holland, the two nations who are jointly hosting Euro 2000. These incidents have naturally caused much concern in various quarters. Let us all hope we do not hear of any more.
On the football front, we now have the mouthwatering prospect of four English clubs in finals of European competitions. A Manchester United versus Chelsea European Cup Final would be a real boost to our game, and if Leeds and Arsenal can meet in the UEFA Cup Final as well, English football would really be in the spotlight. Of the four, Leeds have the toughest task, having lost 2-0 in the first leg, but they are not out of it yet!
This month's Newsletter includes more news from the Internet, courtesy once again of Brian Foreman, a report on the Southern Division Quiz, and some interesting views on incidents which have happ ened in the game in recent weeks. There is also an update on FIFAs approach to professional referees, and an invitation to you all! Sadly, there is no Mystic Ref this month. Colin Morris has a new job, and has been bogged down with work recently, but ther e should be an update next month. Actually, he\rquote s not the only one who has been bogged down with work, and I apologise if this Newsletter is a bit late.
The Branch has had another person contacting the website. This time it is no other than our very own Ray Ellingham. Ray sends his regards to all Branch members and praised the website, saying it was years ahead of anything they have in Wales. It sounds like he is coming to the dinner and dance, so there will be a chance to renew friendships there.
There will only be one more Newsletter before the end of the season, but don\rquote t let that put you off sending any articles you may have. You can contact me by any of the methods shown below, and, as you know, I'm always grateful for any articles, as I can always put them by for future editions.
Send articles to: Ian Miles 17 Church Farm Road, Upchurch, Kent ME9 7AG. Telephone: 01634 235148.
E-Mail : :ian.miles@marshalls.co.uk
All views expressed herein are not those of the Branch unless otherwise stated.
Following the articles in the February edition of the Newsletter, where both myself and Brian Foreman got on our soapboxes about the instruction to referees to take a more lenient approach, things do not seem to have improved too much! First of al l, we had the Manchester United players protesting to referee Andy D'Urso, after he awarded a penalty to Middlesborough for a foul by Japp Stam. The vehement protests resulted in only one caution, for Roy Keane, but possibly saved Stam from a red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity, and almost certainly distracted Juninho enough for his penalty kick to be saved.
Saturday 12th February, was full of unsavoury incidents in the Premiership. Firstly, in the Newcastle versus Manchester United game, Roy Kea ne managed to get himself sent off for a second cautionable offence, the first one being for visibly suggesting that the assistant referee needed glasses whilst protesting, of all things, a throw in! Clever, eh? Andy Cole was cautioned for protesting the s ending off, and Japp Stam was cautioned following yet another face to face confrontation, this time with an assistant referee. There were also several occasions when Manchester United players surrounded referee Steve Lodge to protest. And all this only a few days after the Andy D'Urso incident!
On the same day there was a mass brawl in the Leeds versus Tottenham game, following a rash challenge by Lee Bowyer. This was one of nine cautions in the match, which ended with another minor confrontation when Perr y tackled Harte in the corner. In my opinion, Harte jumped to avoid the tackle, but landed on his opponent, who obviously thought that Harte had stamped on him, and promptly jumped up and pushed him. After the match, Leeds manager, David O'Leary jumped to the defence of his players, saying they did not cause the brawl, (so obviously none of it was their fault), while Spurs manager George Graham said that he did not think that the referee, Dermot Gallagher, "equipped himself well at all", (so obviously it was all his fault!) Both clubs have subsequently been heavily fined and warned as to their future conduct. Also on the same Saturday, there was an incident in the tunnel, following the Chelsea versus Wimbledon game.
Having seen all these incidents on Match Of The Day, it was refreshing to hear the pundits blaming someone other than the referee. Gary Lineker, Trevor Brooking, and Alan Hansen were all critical of players losing their self-control. They all agreed that if players want referees to be more lenient, then they themselves have to be prepared to take more responsibility. They must also be aware of their responsibilities to set an example to young players, who are highly influenced by the top professionals. The television men also called on managers to use their position to influence the situation.
What a pleasant change! Mind you, during the same programme, Trevor Brooking had to explain the offside law to Alan Hansen, who obviously did not realise that you had to be actively involved in play before being declared offside! Oh, well! I suppose we can't have everything!
An Article appeared in the Kent Messenger a little while ago under the above title, with a sub-heading of "Men in black" 'sick and tired' of verbal abuse by players". Thanks to Steve Martin for bringing it to my attention. The article is reproduced below for those of you who missed it.
Stayaway referees are threatening to increase the number of football matches in Kent being played without a qualified official in charge.
Keith Masters, Secretary of the Kent County FA, issued an early New Year warning as more qualified referees opt to remain at home rather than be subjected to abuse from players.
Although Kent boasts close on 1700 qualified referees, the number making themselves available for local league matches, both on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings, is dwindling.
Mr Masters said: "I want to make it quite clear that there is no shortage of referees in Kent". What we are experiencing is a problem caused by referees making themselves unavailable on match days. The trend is beginning to grow and it's no good sweeping the matter under the carpet.
Referees are sick and tired of being subjected to verbal abuse and the number declaring themselves unavailable is steadily rising. Referees are telling me that they want immediate action taken against those who heap foul and abusive language on them instead of waiting a month to find that the offender has been suspended.
We cannot give them that immediate form of retribution, unless a referee is subjected to an assault, because disciplinary procedures are governed by the Football Association at Lancaster Gate.
If we are to prevent this problem from mushrooming then something is going to have to be done. Mr Masters admitted he was increasingly concerned by the abuse referees were being subjected to in minor football. He first issued a warning about the problem in his report to the KCFA annual meeting in June.
He said: "More and more of these minor games are going ahead without qualified referees because of abuse - not from the youngsters - but their parents on the touchline".
Consequently, impressionable young players see their parents hurl abuse at a referee then copy them because they believe it\rquote s acceptable behaviour.
Having won the County Quiz last year, our Quiz team once again ventured down to Woking for the Southern Division Quiz Final. Due to past successes, this is a well trodden route, although we were following a year\rquote s absence as we missed out last year.
The team consisted of the usual suspects, namely Pat Carey, Gary Groutage, Ian Miles, and Graham East, who returned to the team having missed the County Quiz a few weeks earlier due to personal commitments. John Aggett stepped down to make way for Graham.
The Quiz took on the now familiar format. The first round was the True or False round, which is normally a fairly gentle way of breaking the contestants into the Quiz. However, it didn\rquote t quite work out like that for the Gravesend tea m this time round. Pat Carey opened the batting, and got the first three questions wrong, scoring only 1 out of a possible 4 points. This sort of a start was unheard of, but there was still a long way to go. But when Graham stepped up and also scored 1 ou t of 4, the situation went from bad to worse! Gary and Ian both scored full marks on the first round to redeem the situation, but at the end of the first round, Gravesend shared last place on 10 points with Chiltern! Last year\rquote s winners, AFA, were in the lead with 14 points.
The second round, the dreaded numbers round, was slightly better. Questions were now worth two points each, and we scored 20 out of 32 points available. Each team member scored either 4 or 6 points, and only one team scored more than Gravesend. Unfortunately, that team was AFA, who were now in the lead with 36 points, followed by Redhill on 32, and Gravesend on 30. We were now back in the running, and with 2 rounds still to go, there was everything to play for.
The third round was the restarts round, with questions once again worth two points each. Again we scored well, although each member again dropped points. In fact, we top-scored in this round, along with Southampton, with 22 points. AFA remained in the lead on 54 points, but the deficit was now cut to just two points, and Gravesend were now in second place. North Herts were in third place on 51 points, and the eventual winner was going to come from the top three, as the others were well behind.
The final round was the restarts r ound, and questions were worth 3 points each. Again we scored consistently, with each team member scoring 9 or 10 points out of a possible 12. However, we were relying on the AFA showing a little charity by dropping a few points, and although it looked at one stage that we might just do it, AFA managed to nudge slightly further ahead to clinch victory.
The damage had undoubtedly been done in the first round, and with questions only worth 1, 2, or 3 points each, there was not enough room to make up the deficit. We could have no complaints. We were simply not at our best on the day.
There was some small consolation, as Ian Miles won the top individual scorer award, following a tie-break with two other competitors. This was not before a misread entry on the score sheet had initially lead to Graham being declared the winner. The look of shock on his face was a picture, as he knew that there had to be a mistake!
The final scores were as follows:- AFA 94; Gravesend 90; North Herts 85; Woolwich 83; Redhill 81; Chiltern 79; Southampton 78; Mid-Sussex 72.
Gravesend's individual scores were:- Pat Carey 22; Graham East 19; Gary Groutage 24; Ian Miles 25.
Rest assured, we will be back next year!
The idea of professional referees has been discussed long and hard for many years. Questions such as "Would it improve a referees" performance?, "Will the referee make less mistakes because he is being paid?", and "What would happen if the professional referee had to retire through injury?", are just a few of the many questions that need answering.
However, it appears that FIFA are moving closer to having professional referees. There are plans to draw up a list of top referees, wh o will be professional by the end of the year. They will be used to form the squad of officials for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea.
FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter has said: "The professional referee must and will be introduced. It is not logical for a game that is becoming increasingly professional to still be refereed by amateurs".
Where countries have a professional league, the national association would pay referees, but if there is not a professional league, then FIFA will pay the referees di rectly, so that they do not become the poor relations. In some countries, such as Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico, referees are basically professional already.
The FIFA Referees' Committee has also been conducting experiments with a two-referee system. However, the experiments, which have been carried out in Italy, Brazil, and Malaysia, have so far proved inconclusive. One problem with the idea is the old chestnut of a shortage of referees. Some things never change!
Whilst reading the March edition of the Football Referee, two articles particularly grabbed my eye. Both related to the unfortunate incident earlier in the season where, in the FA Cup tie between Tranmere and Sunderland, where a substitute effectively repla ced a Tranmere player who had been sent off.
On the "Letters To The Ed" page, a letter stated "Shortly after, the referee and the fourth official were suspended until their case is heard. When did that ever happen to a player?" A good question. The other article, under the heading "The Millennium Dome Has Nothing On Referees", suggested that the suspension was "In effect a suspension of some 7 games approximately with a fine of £4200." Bearing in mind the difference between a referees' fees and players' salaries, this seems to be a bit heavy, to say the least. The article also points out that "The actions of the Club sending on the 11 th player appear to have gone unnoticed" . So the club was not penalised at all. Double standards? I'll let you decide for yourselves.
Here are some snippets from the latest offerings sent to me by Brian Foreman, who has been surfing the Internet again. I am sure you will find them of interest.
Former FIFA referee and friend of Dave Watts, Roger Milford has called for players who try to cheat referees to be put under the same scrutiny as referees. As we all know, any refereeing decision which is deemed by the television pundits to be anything approaching controversial, having watched it from umpteen different angles in super slow motion close ups, is put under the microscope, leaving the poor old ref on the receiving end of insults and abuse. How would players react if their actions were analysed to the same extent? If they were also to suffer the indignity of trial by television, and possibly receive a ban or two as a result, perhaps their managers would see things slightly differently, and the football watching public might actually look to blame players rather than referees. As far as I am concerned, it's "Good luck with the campaign, Roger!"
Premier League referee Mike Reed was the subject of controversy, having apparently "celebrated" Liverpool's second goal in their 3-1 win over Leeds. The explanation from the official was that the goal had resulted from an advan tage, and, as all referees know, there is no better feeling than that! However, the lesson to be learned is that if you are in the same situation, it might be wise to exercise a degree of restraint.
Following a meeting of football\rquote s top brass, it has been agreed that steps must be taken to improve the image of the game. Goal line cameras, full time professional referees, and an overhaul of the disciplinary system are all on the cards, and could be introduced as early as next season. Another subject that is high on the agenda is to emphasise the responsibility of players and managers to respect referees and their decisions.
Be prepared for a Law change for next season. The goalkeepers four step rule is to be replaced with a time limit of six seconds for the goalkeeper to release the ball. However, despite positive results with the experiments in advancing free kicks forward by 10 yards if the offending team delays the restart of play, or shows dissent, it is felt by FIFA that it is "premature" to introduce this worldwide. Personally, I don't think it would have been premature ten years ago. Further tests will be carried out in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship and in a major competition in England next season.
Congratulations to Trevor Bailey, who tied the knot with Sally recently. I'm sure we all wish them many years of happiness together.
Congratulations also to Jason and Caroline Bowrage on the birth of their new son.
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DIARY DATES
26 th April 2000 Football match versus Ashford Branch. Kick off 7.15 pm at Ashford Town FC.
11 th May 2000 Football match versus Bromley Branch.
13 th May 2000 Referee of the Year Dinner & Dance. At Mid Kent Golf Club.
19 th May 2000 KRA Dinner & Dance at Dartford.
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The members of the Gravesend Branch of the KRA with their partners
are cordially invited to celebrate
Eileen and Leslie Eyres
Golden Wedding Anniversary and Eileen's ??? Birthday
to be held on
Saturday 10th June 2000 commencing 8pm
at the
AEI - Hemley Sports Club, Dunkirk Close
GRAVESEND, Kent
Dancing to the sounds of the "Crazy Music" Disco
Definitely no presents, just a social evening.
RSRV
Susan Eyres
59 Gloucester Road
GRAVESEND, Kent
DA12 5JZ
