Referee James Bell… discuss

[Fal]

Unless I’m Blind he hasn’t been allocated a match for the next set of fixtures so he’s maybe been given a break, or on his holidays with his winnings!

[Donnywolf]

I don't think it's about bribery, it's about referees not being impartial - James Bell for whatever reason - loyalty to Sheff Wed, personal bias, reaction to crowd jeers, or perverse arrogance (which I think drives many refs - that feeling of smug satisfaction about being centre of attention and having the power to upset so many people) - deliberately and routinely favoured one team over another on Tuesday. That is corrupt.

That's a nonsense. There is absolutely no incentive for referees to be biased in any way or form.

The reactions to referees performances are blown way out of proportion. They're an easy target, and are held to account much more rigorously than anyone else on the pitch, despite being paid the least. We've got players making really stupid decisions that are getting them rightly carded, yet the referees get their credibility questioned for rightly issuing those cards.

Refereeing is tougher than it's ever been – television has massively skewed the expectation of them and what they're there for; they're bound by very exacting assessment criteria which limits their ability to let games flow; and then you've this increasing celebration of 'shithousery' whereby refs have to contain with 22 players, managers and subs trying to influence every decision they might make.

Referees will always perceive a game differently to everyone in the stands because they've got a different perspective aspect of the game to everyone else. I think there are some excellent referees, I think there are some less good ones, and yeah there are some who I whince at the prospect of, but either way they don't deserve the level of nonsense that gets hurled at them just because they read a game differently to people watching.

Talking of nonsense, how are refs "held to account much more rigorously than anyone else on the pitch"?

In his last three matches alone, James Bell has given:

21 (TWENTY ONE!!!) yellow cards
4 red cards

Yet he'll never be held to account in the media because they aren't forced to give media interviews. Crowds can chant, but they are powerless - they can never hold him to account.

Who's holding him to account?

I'm presuming the Refs Assessor but then I have to ask if the Assessor gave him 80 out of 100 as the marking was last time I saw one , I would say way too high , so who is holding the Assessor accountable .

If that's how it works I would then expect the Ref to give the Officials a similar score THOUGH in the Case of the 4th Official he might have given higher as he was alert enough to keep watching the Anderson "clash" and with his superb eyesight managed to discern him to be the aggressor and alerted the Ref to that in a few seconds

It all STINKS