If the lasting image of Euro 2020 is Denmark’s players forming a protective barrier around Christian Eriksen, its defining characteristic is surely referees gesturing dismissively with one hand for yet another player to get to his feet.
This isn’t an order, you understand, merely advice. You can feign injury all you like, but you aren’t getting a free kick. Stay down if you please while we all play on and see if your teammates appreciate you sitting this passage out.
The refereeing during this tournament has been excellent, by which I mean we haven’t noticed the referees much. Few controversies, little outrage, no game-defining errors and barely any lengthy VAR intrusions (and when VAR has been used the footage isn’t shown in frame-by-frame slow motion before the decision is conveyed). That last point represents a significant positive step. It always appeared ludicrous that, in the Premier League, the on-pitch referee effectively learns the final decision after the viewer at home.
As such, there is nobody having an easier Euro 2020 than Peter Walton. His remit consists of 1) Saying hello, 2) Remembering the commentator’s name and 3) Explaining to us why the decision that has clearly been given correctly has been given correctly. It’s the Christmas toy that every child wants: the Hasbro Peter Walton talking doll. Pull the string and listen to him say “He’s applied the rules correctly there” and nothing else.
There are two simple explanations for this perceived improvement in standards. Perhaps there has been a decree that officials should let the game flow. An 18 per cent decrease in fouls per game suggests as much – more advantages, slightly more leniency that works perfectly if the same standards are applied to both teams. With the vast majority of the audience watching from home and for pure entertainment, maximising the smooth flow of the game makes total sense.
Or perhaps we are merely witnessing the very best excel at what they do. Uefa appointed 19 sets of match officials (not including video match officials or support match officials) for this tournament (including one from outside Europe for the first time – Argentina’s Fernando Rapallini), the cream of their crop. For those who lament Premier League referees, England are one of only five countries with multiple sets of representatives.
But it’s also worth reflecting too on whether the refereeing has actually changed that much, or whether we have. Watch the televisual coverage of a Premier League match and, increasingly, there is more discussion of decisions than the actual football. During Euro 2020, that seems to have flipped on its head.
That’s entirely logical. These matches involve players, managers and systems that the layperson (and this is terrestrial coverage, remember) knows less about, so there is more benefit in providing insight and information than placing decisions under the microscope.
The Premier League refereeing treatment, conversely, allows outrage to fester. The more you debate something, the more you increase the scrutiny of it and the more you generate controversy where none may ordinarily exist. It also undermines the principle that once a decision is made it becomes history if you then return to it 30 minutes and 60 minutes later to pore over it at length.
But we have to look at ourselves too. Outrage sells because people feast upon it. The discourse surrounding Premier League refereeing roughly falls into two extremes: imperfect but doing their best and therefore reflecting human nature itself at one end, a cabal of corrupt and biased officials (coincidentally, they always seem to be biased against your favourite club). Somewhere in the middle are the they’re-not-corrupt-but-ers, who in some ways are just as unhelpful.
Those camps shift during a major tournament because our attitudes do too. When people watch Premier League football, they are beset by vested interests that increase or subside depending upon the two teams playing. You can rail against the microscoping coverage of decisions, but they merely reflect those interests. Every Premier League match attracts an audience in which some are predisposed to cry foul because their team is playing.
We watch major tournaments through a different lens. We are less obsessed with the destination (unless your country is playing) and more transfixed by the journey. Broadcasters know that, so we see goals and chances replayed more often than the infinitesimal analysis of whether Russia deserved a penalty or whether Sasa Kalajdzic used his hand. And when we are consuming a tournament through our screens, that shifts our perception of the officiating. Less over-analysis, less controversy, less criticism.
Which is to arrive at an unpleasant conclusion: don’t expect this glorious summer to last. The return of Premier League football will spark a return to refereeing outrage because major international tournaments exist in a distinct bubble in which supporters watch matches for pleasure rather than as a conduit to disappointment, anger and pain. We’ll meet again here in three months’ time as I plead that English referees are not “the worst in the world” and that your club isn’t the victim of an underground plot to stop you qualifying for the Europa League.
More from i on Euro 2020
- The football nomad who became a hero for his role in saving Eriksen’s life
- How Ronaldo’s Coca-Cola stunt could change the face of football sponsorship
- In praise of Emma Hayes, the best pundit at Euro 2020 so far
- Eriksen collapse has thrown a spotlight on football’s relentless thirst for more
- How to watch every Euro 2020 match on TV and online in the UK
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3xrEbxx
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