Studs Up

What job can you be completely cack at and still barely get hit with a slap on the wrist?

What job is also essentially impossible to do because of the rules of the game and the fact that your bosses refuse to implement any changes or technology to help you, basically hanging you out to dry?

If you guessed Regional Burger King Sales Manager, you’d be wrong. It’s being a football referee. I don’t think for a minute Howard Webb was making any deliberate attempt to help Man United, but the nature of the game forces refs into these kinds of situations where mistakes can and will constantly be made. It’s so taken for granted that media, fans and even football federations are ready to excuse these blunders either because it ‘adds to the excitement’ of the sport or ‘it all evens out in the end’. The stupidity of both justifications is only equaled by how readily accepted they are. Webb could have just decided the title race as well as the last European spot with one massive error, yet all the FA do is demote him for a week. Howard doesn’t need to be punished more, the way the game is refereed just needs to be updated.

Take a cue from the Americans, particularly the NFL, who are constantly updating their rulebook to stop people exploiting them (diving) or cocking them up (bald refs).

The stakes are getting higher, the mistakes are more costly and the fact that Sheffield United took West Ham to the cleaners over Tevez should have alerted football’s governing bodies to the fact that the sport is not, in fact, above the law. Down in the Championship you’ve got Reading who could be promoted on the back of the “goal that wasn’t” and if that happens, you can bet your bloody life that the teams below Reading will try to file for some kind of compensation.

Which team in particular stands to lose from Reading’s faux-gain, sitting one point above them?

Yup… Sheffield United.