Downplaying The Authority Of The Referees Won’t Help Football – Ange Postecoglou

Tottenham manager, Ange Postecoglou has come out to say that VAR is causing a constant erosion of referees’ authority. He recently called for upskilled officials after Spurs’ loss to Chelsea, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, he would never complain about bad decisions on the pitch because decisions are decisions, and ranting when things do not go your way never changes anything.

Ange added that the constant downplaying of referees’ authority will not help the game of football in any way.

His words, “Decisions are decisions: you either accept it or you don’t. Some of it is self-inflicted [but] if we are going to go out and complain about bad decisions every week what will happen is what happened today: a forensic study of every decision. I think that’s the way the game is going. I don’t like it – I could be a lone voice as I’m told that’s the way forward. With VAR intervention it just felt like a lot of standing around. At some point, we have to accept the referee’s decision. This constant erosion of referees’ authority, this is what the game is going to get: they will not have any authority, it is going to get diminished and we are going to be in the control of someone a few miles away watching a TV screen.”

“What I want are the best officials always being upskilled to officiate the game but it’s so hard for referees to officiate these days. Their authority is constantly getting diminished. Now, we want transparency and I can guarantee the next thing is we will have referees mic’d up explaining decisions. There’s plenty of other sports you can watch where referees do that but I don’t think it should be in football. But I’m in the wilderness on that one. Premier League managers should just manage their football clubs. I’ve never and I never will talk to referees about the rules of the game. I was taught that you grow up and you respect the officials. Now, managers look for ways to bend the rules. Tell me what the rule is, and I guarantee you will have a room full of managers processing ‘how can I get around this’.”

WOW.