RateTheRef

i am a little bemused by the quantity of officials required for a World Cup match.  Apart from the three running about and those in the VAR booth (five more according to the appointments) there appear to be two referees acting as fourth officials.  Neither of these fourth officials are apparently able to program the substitutes' board.  This is a task allotted to someone sitting at a table by the half way line.  This official also seems to have at least two assistants sitting with him.

I am not sure whether I should be outraged by the fact that, despite this number of people being required, I have not had a call up or whether I should be asking for a pay rise since I am expected to carry out the whole substitution malarkey on my own each week whilst simultaneously galloping (ish) up and down the line.  By FIFA's time and motion calculations I seem to be doing at least six people's jobs at the same time.

My post was a little tongue-in-cheek.  I certainly accept the good sense in having two specialist replacements available.  Why they both need to be involved in passing electronic boards to each other baffles me somewhat.  The purpose of the admin staff at the nearby table is also not clear to me when the rest of us seem to manage all the tasks on our own.  And why an entire office full of VARs is required for each game is completely beyond me.  It all seems like a job creation scheme to me. 

4 of the VAR team are in the dedicated VAR centre. The VAR, AVAR, OVAR and SVAR. The SVAR takes over monitoring play developing if any of the other 3 are reviewing an incident. The SAVAR is at the ground where there is a back up VAR room in case the link/comms go down between the VAR centre and the ground.

If that were to happen the 4O moves into the VAR room in the ground and takes over as VAR with the SAVAR taking over as AVAR and the VAR team would operate as a team of 2 instead of 4. As well as being the reserve AR to replace an injured AR, the 5th official would also take over the role of 4O if the named 4O has to move into the ground based VAR room.

It therefore makes sense that they are actively involved with any substitutions etc and are maintaining a record of them, along with any cards issued etc. incase they have to step in as 4O.

It all seems very complicated to me -I wonder how long that on field match officals at this level will become redundant ?

How Jack Taylor, Joe Worrall, George Courtney et al managed to referee so efficiently and well despite not having this as huge cadre of support officials is nothing short of a miracle. Perhaps it was something to do with their abundant talent.

And the fact players did not spend 90 mins using any and every form of the dark arts to try and con them. You can't compare then & now, the game itself is so different. Back then many players would have a cigarette at half time, some probably accompanied by a pint.  These days players, and the top top referees, are super fit athletes, not even an ounce of fat on them. There's a whole department dedicated to getting the right nutrition. The game is played at probably double the speed and is much more technical. Red card then was only given if multiple bones were broken or the fire brigade had to be called out to rescue said player on the wrong end of the tackle from the top of the floodlights. The LOTG were simple and understandable, these days you need a degree in contortionism to understand the handball law and degrees in maths and science to understand offside!! It was a lot more simpler, players got on and played, referees got on and refereed. 1 shaky camera in the middle of the main stand unlike the 24+ uber HD cameras of today, that can have zoomed right in slo mo replays onto social media within seconds. No social media... Managers didn't spend their entire post match interview blaming the ref for a blade of grass being 0.000001mm longer than the one next to it, WWI, WWII and probably WWIII and anything else that the ref is guilty of. A global audience of millions and a media who join the managers in blaming refs for all and sundry, whilst ignoring the bad behaviour and unsportmenlike conduct of players. Top flight games have literally millions riding on the result. I'd wager they were no more accurate in decision making than their counterparts of today but back then no-one took any notice, ref error was no different to player error, a quick shrug and it was forgotten, unlike these days where you still hear how terrible x ref is because they made a poor game changing decision 10 years ago and football still hasn't moved on from it!

Quote from: bmb on Wed 30 Nov 2022 18:09

Quote from: Whistleblower on Wed 30 Nov 2022 16:42

How Jack Taylor, Joe Worrall, George Courtney et al managed to referee so efficiently and well despite not having this as huge cadre of support officials is nothing short of a miracle. Perhaps it was something to do with their abundant talent.

And the fact players did not spend 90 mins using any and every form of the dark arts to try and con them. You can't compare then & now, the game itself is so different. Back then many players would have a cigarette at half time, some probably accompanied by a pint.  These days players, and the top top referees, are super fit athletes, not even an ounce of fat on them. There's a whole department dedicated to getting the right nutrition. The game is played at probably double the speed and is much more technical. Red card then was only given if multiple bones were broken or the fire brigade had to be called out to rescue said player on the wrong end of the tackle from the top of the floodlights. The LOTG were simple and understandable, these days you need a degree in contortionism to understand the handball law and degrees in maths and science to understand offside!! It was a lot more simpler, players got on and played, referees got on and refereed. 1 shaky camera in the middle of the main stand unlike the 24+ uber HD cameras of today, that can have zoomed right in slo mo replays onto social media within seconds. No social media... Managers didn't spend their entire post match interview blaming the ref for a blade of grass being 0.000001mm longer than the one next to it, WWI, WWII and probably WWIII and anything else that the ref is guilty of. A global audience of millions and a media who join the managers in blaming refs for all and sundry, whilst ignoring the bad behaviour and unsportmenlike conduct of players. Top flight games have literally millions riding on the result. I'd wager they were no more accurate in decision making than their counterparts of today but back then no-one took any notice, ref error was no different to player error, a quick shrug and it was forgotten, unlike these days where you still hear how terrible x ref is because they made a poor game changing decision 10 years ago and football still hasn't moved on from it!

I'm sorry but I am not 100% sure if you think it was better then or better now   

I'd love to see the higher skilled game & athleticism of today played without the dark arts and with the same levels of respect between player/coaches/referees of yesterday. Not sure I will ever get my wish!

I know style varies but taking all things into consideration I think the general standard has been reasonably good.  Same as the lining really. Let’s put it another way, I have seen a lot worse in previous years.

Other than the amount of officials in the VAR booth.... this version has seen dedicated 4th officials in the same list as the referees eg Mr I Vad was only at the World Cup as a 4th official. as was Ma Ning and the others from Concacaf and Comenbol