Who is/was the worst referee? Poll included

[abcdef]

Mike Riley was notoriously bad.

Special mentions to Peter Walton and Lee Mason.

 

[Papa Shango]

Clive Thomas, close thread.

Is the correct answer.

 

[tommytowne]

Clive Thomas, close thread.

His story should be told to your children when they are old enough to understand.
Should never be allowed to be forgotten.

 

[Papa Shango]

The best ref ever was Roger Kirkpatrick for those old enough and that run of his hahaha.

I always had Keith Cooper right up there as one of the best too.

 

[chrismpw]

I simply don't believe England can't produce competent officials.

So their apparent incompetence must be hiding corruption. That i can believe. And Clattenburg was by far and away the worst at being discreet at it so that's who I voted for.

 

[bcblue1878]

Mike Riley was notoriously bad.

Special mentions to Peter Walton and Lee Mason.

So bad in fact I think he’s now in charge of VAR, which pretty much says it all!

 

[bcblue1878]

Thomas - for just being a cheat.
Clattenburg - for being corrupt.
Mason - for simply being incompetent.

The rest on the list are all awful as well ?!

 

[ToffeeTim]

There are a lack of good refs in the league. No point singling anyone out.

 

[wandyr79]

There are a lack of good refs in the league. No point singling anyone out.

This is easily the worst it has ever been, in the past even the worst refs made some very good decisions now and again. Now they are just incompetent beyond belief.

Players, managers & fans have just lost any respect for refs, in the past I think the phrase 'they do have a tough job' came out in their defence and correctly so, but when we have technology to make their life a bit easier and to get more decisions right, reducing the absolute howlers, they have somehow managed to get worse.

 

[ToffeeDan]

No need to debate all the lousy refs we have suffered - most of those were bad (though Collina, Thomas at least had something of an excuse to make it up/guess), Clattenberg in that Derby was so biased it wasn't true (at least six incidents) and as for Atkinson I have no word for his red card given to Rodwell. Stomping on the ball with Suarez swan diving in agony about 2 seconds after the ball was played - you really couldn't make it up.

But Lee Mason was surely the most incompetent of them all. Never mind that he was capable of doing almost anything that seemed unbelievable. Concerning us I recall Leighton Baines being karate chopped in the penalty area by Tchoyi - resulting in... no, not a penalty and a red card but Arteta red card for exacting revenge. I recall Saha scoring and an Arsenal equaliser (yep, we lost 2-1) both about 3 yards offside but maybe he was only responsible for the equaliser to correct his assistants incompetence. I recall 3 penalties at Blackburn (all three were terrible calls, Blackburn missed both of theirs, Arteta scored with the last kick 1-0 to us, his final game for us).

I remember him being fooled by an opponent screaming in agony (from a fair challenge) behind his back. He gave a free kick for something he didn't see.

I do know that whenever he reffed a game you never knew who was going to benefit from his incompetence. Far better he was never around.

 

[BNJ1878]

Collina.

Retired.

Came out of retirement for ONE game with explicit instructions that only 4 English teams are able to compete in CL.

His 'reputation' meant any decision made would be tough to question.

Baldy [Poor language removed].

 

[EverTheOptimist]

So bad in fact I think he’s now in charge of VAR, which pretty much says it all!

He's the head of PGMOL, but the directives of VAR are his, no wonder it's so bad and no other countries have no issues and inconsistencies like the PL every week with or without VAR, Riley was a terrible referee.

Pawson is terrible.
Taylor somehow gets the biggest games of the season, he must have something on Riley.
Tierney is the worst of the lot, every week he botches or bottles a big game defining decision.

Atkinson and Marriner are over 50 and it shows, they should not be reffing games at that age.
Moss is so overweight, watch any game and see how far away he is from the action, another one who's gets big decisions wrong consistently.

It's simply the worst era of refereeing in my lifetime, no surprise when Riley is the head of refs, when he was installed in the position the first thing he did was scrap assessors who monitored ref performances, any controversially bad games they dropped down to EFL for a few weeks until their performances improved under previous PGMOL boss Keith Hackett, there was a promotion and relegation of PL refs every season as well under Hackett.

Time to have Refs left accountable, with post match interviews explaining decisions they have made in matches, it happens in other Leagues in Europe but PL doesn't.

 

[Dancing Pat]

Deffo Thomas for me, but there’s too many bad ones and biased ones to have a ‘winner’.

 

[Dancing Pat]

This…https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...g-moments-clive-thomas-denies-zico-and-brazil

 

[jonesey10]

Kevin (F***ing nobody's) friend