Criticism of referees is undermining recruitment drive, says Peat

Published on Monday 1 December 2008 23:20

GEORGE Peat, the SFA president, has accused Scottish managers of using criticism of referees as a device to cover up their own shortcomings.

This season has seen an almost weekly barrage of complaints directed at match officials by managers in reaction to a series of controversial decisions. According to Peat, the trend is threatening current SFA attempts to enlist new referees.

While he sympathises with the level of demands placed on managers in the modern game, especially those in charge of Celtic or Rangers, Peat condemned what he sees as their deliberate attempts to make scapegoats of the officials. "A lot of managers criticise referees to deflect attention from their team's deficiencies," said Peat.

"Kids thinking of taking it up will see some of this criticism and think 'that's not for me'. There is a recruitment drive on just now and we just have to hope not too many of them are put off.

"Managers are always under pressure, but with the Old Firm managers are under severe pressure if they lose just a couple of games. They are under more pressure than anyone else. Referees are under more pressure because more games are televised now.

"When you listen to some of the pundits, they watch an incident three or four times and still can't make their mind up about it. Yet they expect referees to do it within seconds. At times the criticism is over the top. People in the game realise how hard a job it is. Unfortunately, some people don't."

Peat, however, would like to see referees resume providing public explanations of controversial decisions. The practice was briefly introduced on the 'whistleblower' section of the SFA's official website, but the referees decided to call a halt as they felt it consistently painted them as incompetent.

"I think it's a good thing for referees to explain themselves, although not immediately after a match," said Peat. "I think it is perfectly feasible for them to do it on the Monday after a Saturday match, for example, and I think they should explain some of their decisions. It is something we are looking at all the time."

The SFA, however, has removed another layer of transparency from the way in which its disciplinary system operates. At the behest of Hibs chairman Rod Petrie, who heads the general purposes committee, there will be no public disclosure of players or managers being called before them in advance of their cases being heard.

Rob Shorthouse, the SFA head's of communications, confirmed: "The committee, under the chairmanship of Rod, felt that in order to give people the chance of natural justice, the first people who should be discussing the goings-on of the committee are the members of the committee and the people whose comments are being looked at."