PGMOL

[KunDB]

How proud must Mike Riley and his select group of referees from the PL 'Professional Game Match Officials Limited' be today? A day on which it is confirmed this highly paid, highly trained bunch of referees in the best league in the world (so we are told) will not even have a single representative at the World Cup in Russia. What a mega failure, not one of them proficient enough to officiate at a World Cup, something I agree with as they are mainly useless and badly led by Mike Riley.  The official list of 99 officials contains none from home countries, for the first time since 1938 no British referee.

Article Link

On their official website they proudly proclaim:

Formed in 2001 to improve refereeing standards, the PGMOL group officiate across all the Premier League, English Football League (EFL) and Football Association (FA) Competitions.

The training, development and mentoring of 109 referees and 206 assistant referees â€" run by Managing Director Mike Riley (a former PGMOL referee) and a team of managers and coaches.

The most high profile officials, the 18 full-time professional Select Group referees.

From the start of season 2016/17, 27 Select Group assistant referees who prominently officiate within the Premier League will also become full-time professional match officials.

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Time for Mike Riley to step down I think.

[Lekos]

Not really their fault, but let the bandwagon roll.

Clattenburg was on the long list and would probably have gone had he not resigned and fucked off to Saudi Arabia.  This made him ineligible and FIFA have not allowed the FA to replace him.

Don't let information get in the way of a good rant though.

[Lekos]

Clattenburg was on the long list and would probably have gone had he not resigned and fucked off to Saudi Arabia.  This made him ineligible and FIFA have not allowed the FA to replace him.

Just read the article you linked and that information is in the 3rd and 4th sentences

Did you read it?

[KunDB]

Generally, it is best to read the article before commenting.

None are going that's just a hard fact and even if Clattenburgh had not cashed-in his chips, just one from 99 is hardly impressive for what is meant to be a highly paid and professionally trained team of officiating in the worlds top league.

[gavin]

I wouldn't let FIFA be the judge of refs anyway. It is a very hard job being a referee but I can't help thinking that they should be better than they are. I am wholeheartedly with City in their contention that good players aren't protected enough. We've been subject to some disgraceful tackles this season and they haven't been punished properly. Thats partly down to referees but lets not forget that the FA see fit not to punish such things retrospectively either. It is a good job football is a great game because officials from top to bottom are shite.

[nimrod]

A damning indictment on the quality of our (highly paid) refs.

Bit like our (highly paid) team - not good enough.

[KunDB]

I wouldn't let FIFA be the judge of refs anyway. It is a very hard job being a referee but I can't help thinking that they should be better than they are. I am wholeheartedly with City in their contention that good players aren't protected enough. We've been subject to some disgraceful tackles this season and they haven't been punished properly. Thats partly down to referees but lets not forget that the FA see fit not to punish such things retrospectively either. It is a good job football is a great game because officials from top to bottom are shite.

I agree with this, yes being a referee is a tortuously hard task, but in large part referees are so bad because of poor leadership. There is a culture within their leadership group and the FA of secrecy and no accountability. Referees make decisions that clearly influence the outcome of games but do not have to defend or account for them publically. A simple example is the amount of time that is added at the end of a game, the referee makes that up as they please and yes another example is the way they protect some players/teams but not others.

In this case the absence of a world cup official from Britain was down to pure failure to plan. There were 3 referees in the UEFA elite group, which you need to be in to officiate at the World Cup. One of them was too old under the FIFA age restriction rules (Atkinson) and therefore was not eligible to officiate at the World Cup, one other was retiring which was known about for ages and that just left Clattenburgh with no back up - lo and behold off he went and the ship was sunk. The PGMOL did try to appoint two new back up referees to the elite group but that was way too late for the World Cup so was no better than a shallow cover up of their incompetence.

Mike Riley failed to plan and failed to lead and the consequence is no British World Cup referees (Russia), for the first time since 1938.It is notable that Howard Webb who is in charge of the MLS, has achieved two MLS referees for the World Cup in Russia.

[Lekos]

Mountains out of mole hills. 

[KunDB]

Mountains out of mole hills.

Pearls of wisdom.

[Lekos]

Pearls of wisdom.

Great choice for your next name change

[KunDB]

Great choice for your next name change

I would not want to steal your thunder.

[bry the guy]

our refs used to last longer in world cup than our team,now what have we got.