Are referees fit enough?

 After incredibly getting away with the comments he and his assistant made following their cup tie with Portsmouth last season, Sir Alex Ferguson obviously felt safe to have a go at all Premiership referees. You may have seen where he said recently that he doesn’t believe that the introduction of professional referees has improved their standards.

‘Because the decision to go full time was one that everyone wanted, referees’ performances should have improved but it’s certainly not improved enough to say that it has worked,’ he said. 

Whether referee performances have improved is of course subjective. Premiership referee Howard Webb has cine and video clips to claim that it has, but the game and the laws have changed so much in recent years, it is impossible to compare the referees of yesteryear with those of today. 

However, Sir Alex was not done. He also said, ‘I don’t think their fitness is as good as it should be. If you are fit, it makes a difference mentally as well. Don’t get me wrong, some of them are fit but some are not fit enough and it reflects badly on them because they are supposed to be full-time professionals.’

Fitness, physical and mental is something that the PGOM Ltd (Professional Game Officials Management), which controls not only Premiership but also Football League and Conference officials, takes very seriously. It employs two Sports Scientists, a Sports Psychologist, a Vision Scientist and a Sprint coach for its officials. But Sir Alex is just concerned with Premiership officials for they are the only ones not to also have full time jobs. 

The first thing is that Premiership referees have to pass a stringent fitness test. In fact when referees move out of local football they have to pass a fitness test at every level, each one harder than the last. If Premiership officials fail the test, they get a second chance but if they fail that, they are off the league. If they pass that’s not the end of it, they must maintain their fitness for they are regularly monitored throughout the season. They come together once a fortnight where they are put through their paces and in the meantime they must follow a strict fitness regime, alone and from home. They are monitored by wearing a heart monitor, the results of which are downloaded to the computer and e-mailed to FA headquarters. This reveals whether or not they have exercised at the level required.

Here is their training plan for week commencing 15th September but without what each session entails. Monday – Conditioning and Strength exercises. Tuesday - Speed Endurance training. Wednesday – Speed and Agility training. Thursday – Rest day. Friday – Speed training. 

What really matters and what Sir Alex is interested in, is what happens on the field of play. Even here referees are monitored, this time by Prozone, which covers every Premiership match. Perhaps it’s worth explaining what Prozone is. Imagine a Subbuteo board showing the field of play. Instead of little plastic men, the players and officials are represented by round discs. As they move, so do the discs and it’s possible to tell how far and how fast each person on the field of play travels during the course of the game. 

For referees and their assistants it is particularly useful to learn whether they are in the right places for major decisions. You can imagine therefore, the great delight that Keith Hackett, General Manager of PGOM, had in relaying to Sir Alex the findings of Prozone, which showed that referees not only travel further in a match than players, average 12 km against 11 but also that they sprint faster. Incidentally, assistant referees need to sprint even faster, 9 metres a second against 7 metres. 

As far as I know, there has been no reply from Old Trafford but I doubt that Sir Alex does climbdowns. 

 Dick Sawdon Smith 

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© R Sawdon Smith 2008