Not an ex-player...probably.

The topic of conversation this morning on Radio 5 Live centred on referees, the fact that attacks on them at grass roots level has gone up by a quarter and what can be done about that and general disrespect shown to referees at all levels of the game. It’s an interesting and wide ranging topic that I’ll touch on now, but what really piqued my interest was Roberto Martinez stating that he wished more ex-players would become referees as they have a better understanding of the game, the players mentality and would do a better job because of it.

Frankly, I’m not so sure but more of that in a minute. The issue of respect towards referees has been a hot one for a long time now. It gets dragged to the back pages when the likes of Alex Ferguson and Arséne Wenger openly criticise a referee for his performance in ill-advised post match interviews but even when the papers aren’t foaming at the mouth about the subject it is always there.

Players, managers, fans and pundits all grumble on about this decision or that decision every week of the year. Who is to blame for this apparent lack of respect towards our flawed officials? I suspect there is blame to be found on every side, personally.

Players and managers would rather criticise the man in black for a dodgy decision than look at their own failings following a defeat. Fans would rather blame the whistle blower than their own heroes for the same defeat. Television – Sky and the BBC in particular – know that highlighting a refereeing mistake is going to get the viewers screaming and yelling at the TV so they highlight it as often as possible, from as many angles as possible with as much disdain as they can muster.

The referee, too, has to shoulder some blame for the criticism aimed at him (or her in this modern age of non-sexism in football). Not because, as paid professionals, they should do a better job (though they should, really), but because they never hold themselves responsible and do not seem to be accountable. It is a rare thing for a referee to hold his hands up after a game, admit he got it totally wrong and apologise to the team / player / manager he wronged.

They hide behind the FA, the Referees Association and their own private lives rather than face up to the fact that they made a mistake – but as fully paid up professionals, surely that is what they should be doing? And have you noticed that when a particularly brave ref does admit his folly and offer an apology it is almost always accepted with grace and the matter is forgotten? A lesson there, surely.

It sounds like I’m really down on referees and think they deserve all they get. I don’t, not at all. I think some of the abuse they get from fans on the terraces, some of the criticism they get from managers and players and some of the over-the-top coverage given to their errors by TV companies is completely out of order. Sometimes it can be justified when done fairly but what cannot be excused are physical assaults on referees – at ANY level of the game.

Referees are human and they will make mistakes. It’s part of the game. They should make less mistakes now they are paid for their services, but they’ll never be perfect. They have bad games, truly awful games even, but so do players and so do managers.

The FA will bang on about their Respect campaign and while the sentiment is sound, the execution is poor and ignores a rather fundamental part of respect – it has to be earned. Here referees can only help themselves.

But enough about that – it’s too big an issue to cover in one blog post. Back to Roberto Martinez and his wish for ex-players to become referees. In theory it sounds like a good idea. I can’t help feeling it needs thinking through a bit more though.

I’m not going to argue against the assumption that ex-footballers understand the game better than most, would understand certain situations better than most. I’m sure that’s true. I WILL argue against any claim that they will make less mistakes because of that knowledge.

How does having played the game help you judge whether a ball has crossed the line or not? How does having played the game help you decide who did what in an off the ball incident? How does having the played the game help you judge whether or not a player handled the ball through a crowd of players?

It doesn’t. There is simply no advantage to being a former footballer when it comes to making judgements of these kind. And what of temperament?

I keep picturing Roy Keane as a referee. Infamous as a player for getting in the faces of referees on a regular basis, how would he react if a player did the same to him? The current professional refs maintain a most impressive aura of calm under sometimes intense anger and provocation. Would Mr Keane do the same – or would we be watching on in horror as involved himself in a 23 man brawl? I fear the latter (and in the interests of fairness, for Keane read any hotheaded ex-player).

Professional footballers, both current and retired, are by their very nature competitive and proud men. They need to be to make it at the top of the game. That’s not the make up of a person required to control such people. I will concede that they will understand them better and that, as ex-players, they may command more respect from the 22 on the pitch. But even with that heightened sense of respect it would not and does not take much to push the more highly strung over the edge and into confrontation.

Roy Keane rules out a perfectly legitimate Wayne Rooney goal. An understandable error as he was unsighted by a body of players in his way. Would Rooney remain calmer with Keane than he would with, say, Mark Clattenburg at this injustice? No, of course not. Would Roy Keane, confronted with a ranting Rooney, behave as calmly as Mr Clattenburg? No, he would not and right there you have a recipe for disaster.

Ok, so the likes of Keane, Cantona, David Batty, Vinnie Jones and other hotheaded former pros just couldn’t take control with the measure of calm required. But what of the more cerebral characters that have and do play the game? I’m thinking of Glen Hoddle, Paul Scholes, Jamie Redknapp. Could they do it?

The problem of seeing the game better remains – they can’t. In handling situations with fired up players they would undoubtedly do better than your Keane’s and Jones’. But would these type of characters put themselves forward for the referee role, the role that runs the risk of being centre of attention for the wrong reasons? I highly doubt it, don’t you.

So on the one hand we have the sort of character that would relish the role being too aggressive, too competitive, too hotheaded, while on the other hand we have the perfect character for the job who is very unlikely ever to want it!

Players as referees, Roberto? I think not. Which leaves us right back at square one. Where I fear we’ll always be.

What do you think, have a I called this right or am I utterly wrong and players would make the ideal referee?