Referee farms, do they or don't they ?

[cosmicway 1,323]

Foul refereeing is perhaps more ancient than the ancient profession yet there are some people who will strenuously deny. I mean to look into the facts of the situation and strive to work out an explanation. I will approach it from a number of different angles.

1st the technology angle

I 've been through that one in another thread already:

http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/14791-refereeing-technology/page-2?hl=olympiakos#entry860576

2nd the how to catch a thief angle

That's a difficult one. You have to be Scotland Yard - Surete nationale and then again you have to make a trap so it's difficult.

3d the media angle

The media are diabolical. I got involved in a radio phone in program once and the producer confronted me as follows:

- we don't look into the past, it's not football
- your team must be good enough to beat the ref as well

Deep down I believe he relished in the bunter taking place. What ratings was he going to get if everything was quiet that night ??

But anyway I go with what the official national tv network says. We have in our "match of the day" equivalent the referee professor who analyzes the controversial decisions. So I stick with him.

4th the statistics angle

This is where I came across some serious pro-Foy argument.

Bloke says "Listen mate. Team X -the strong guys- visit their opponents penalty area A times during the match. Team Y -the weak guys- visit their opponents area B times. It's going to be A > B, or even A >> B. So if a random refereeing mistake takes place who gets the penalty decision ? A gets it with probability A /{A+B} > 0.5".
That imho goes some way towards explaining Liverpool type situations of this world and I tend to subscribe.
But it's not only penalties of course ...

At the end of the day only by the keeping of statistical records, appropriately weighted for possession could we arrive at a firm conclusion w.r. which teams are referees pets and which teams are not.
But the Beano reader-journalist will insist "we never look into the past ...".