Referees, Referees, Referees

The referee in football is undoubtedly the main figure who get a kicking.

Games of high incident that involve controversial moments often result in mass scrutiny of the ref, hence why any ref will have other refs to analyse his performance in ridiculous detail.

Logic dictates refs should have more to help them make difficult calls, but with goal line technology still causing lots of debate the likelihood of it being applied pitch-wide is even more remote. It is also unhelpful if linesmen do not provide aid.

There is often complaints that the standard of refereeing is plummeting. But weekends like the one just gone do not help their cause at all.

The headline decision was the antics of Mark Halsey, who was referee during Sunday's Wigan vs Newcastle game. The big talking point came after a horrendous tackle from Wigan winger Callum McManaman left Newcastle full back Massadio Haidara requiring a stretcher and extra medical attention. At the time, the Wigan winger escaped with the eventual Newcastle free-kick having been awarded for handball by the same player.

The referee can fairly claim that his view was blocked by a retreating Newcatle player but there is no excuse for the assistant linesman, who had an almost head-on view of the incident and completley ignored it.

Toon fans have been here before, with Kyle Walker, Sebastian Larsson and Antonio Valencia all getting away with awful tackles this season and the headline example from 2010 when Nigel de Jong got away with a rotten tackle that almost forced Hatem Ben Arfa into retirement.

Of course opposition fans can mock given that Cheick Tiote and Yohan Cabaye have reputations of their own for such challenges, plus an extremely idiotic Kevin Nolan challenge that led to Victor Anichebe - the recipient - sueing him.

Such a challenge can happen with any team and had the reverse happened few Newcastle fans could have complained if Haidara had been red carded, like Nolan was in 2009 and like Everton's Mirallas should have been for a poor tackle on Ryo Myiachi during the Everton-Wigan Cup game the week before. But all of this is beside the point - it happened here with these players and you would duly expect a red card.

But from the moment McManaman got away with it the game was immediately changed. No red card would have meant no half-time scuffle involving Newcastle assistant manager John Carver, a Wigan academy coach, several stewards and the last players to leave the pitch before half-time. It also would likely have meant Wigan would not have had the bodies to throw forward for a last minute winner that should have been chalked off anyway for a ridiculous handball.

If it had just been this game, the Referee Association could be purely concerned with what went on here and move on but aside from the long running threads of ineptitude all season long it was a pretty awful weekend all round for them.

Trouble began in the Saturday afternoon game between Everton and Manchester City, where Lee Probert got a number of decisions incorrect. Early on saw Everton get a goal incorrectly ruled out for an offside. While one player had been off, Marouane Fellaini was not when he received the ball moments before he fired it beyond Joe Hart.

Everton also had a valid penalty shout for a foul by Nastasic on Fellaini, and also felt aggrieved an unusually scrappy performance from James Milner did not receive the second yellow card some meaty challenges deserved.

But the most baffling decision came the other way when Fellaini handled five yards inside the box and Probert, somehow, awarded a free-kick outside the box. This decision defied logic, comprehension and general eyesight.

Sunderland-Norwich was the other game where the referee's decision making was integral to match reporting. This begun when away goalkeeper Mark Bunn was ruled to have handled the ball outside the box and duly earned a red card.

This is debatable because of the angle it hit the away keeper, and TV angles do not show it clearly hitting either his chest or his elbow. Based on this doubt, you can't be sure as to send the man off.

Already aggreived by this, Norwich then complained more with handballs at both ends. The first came when Sebastien Bassong's attempt to control the ball with his chest saw the ball hit his arm, and the second when Danny Rose was ruled to have punched the ball outside the box when he was about three or four yards in.

The bigger howler is the Rose one. Although not as clear as Fellaini's handball, it was definitley inside the box and it should have been a penalty to Norwich rather than a free-kick. However the penalty was one - it was unfortunate but it was a spot-kick for the hosts.

Norwich also could arguably have had Grant Holt sent off for a forceful dive into home goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, which was punished with a yellow. Had Bunn not earlier been ejected or had Mignolet been seriously injured then he might well have been.

Fans are always happy and ready to moan about the performance of the referee but moreso than usual, referees have become painted as incompetent figures who can't control football. There was wall-to-wall condemnation of the Turkish referee who sent off Nani during the Manchester United-Real Madrid Champions League tie for what was at worst just a foul.

Naturally, things spiral out of control when such poor decision making is abound. It is ridiculous to say Bunn and Nani's offences were more than McManaman's tackle.

All season long there have been repeated howlers that have screwed things up, and it has been a lot more noticeable than in previous seasons. Ironically, the chief gripe of previous years - the goalline technology debate - has not been wheeled out as much as in previous seasons.

Other sports seem to have grasped better disciplinary concepts to control things when they go wrong. They also seem to have more control on referees when they go wrong. But in football whole games still revolve on the judgement on referees and when they get it wrong, games are distorted beyond recognition.

The FA's disciplinary proceedings are also remarkably poor. They leave referees out to dry, but also by protecting them accept their mistakes as genuine passages, which helps nobody either. It's all a mess that needs reform or else it leaves further trouble a guarantee.

At some point there will be an incident that leads to the whole house of cards caving in. But until then this structure will remain.

More needs to be done to stop what is arguably one of football's hardest jobs becoming not so much harder as impossible. Instead, referee standards are decreasing at an alarming rate, and refereeing howlers are becoming a weekly fiasco. Unfortunately, it seems a few more tackles like McManaman's will pass before something's done about it.