Long Overdue!

In his 'Captains blog' in Tuesday night's programme our Gazza (Gary Haveron to the uninitiated), was holding forth about the disgraceful display of refereeing by our dear friend Alan Black at Coleraine. What Gazza had to say was very interesting, re- the decisions, but the point I'd like to pick up on was Gazza's query about the referee's accountability, or should I say the lack of it. When an English premier league referee makes a 'horlicks', which they do as they're only human, they are usually dropped from the premier league list for several weeks. In Norn Iron they are seemingly infallible, as they are not accountable and I've yet to hear of a referee being punished for getting decisions wrong.

We have a referee's assessor at every game, but as he is usually a retired referee, he just agrees with every decision the referee makes. This of course results in a 'whitewash' and in my book is a complete waste of time. Why bother having an assessor at all if he's just going to sanction everything the referee does, rightly or wrongly. We have had more than our fair share of poor decisions this season, with at least three men sent off, when they were in fact the victim of fouls. Not only is the referee not brought to book over his performances, the players have no avenue of appeal when they are suspended.

In most leagues a player can appeal against a caution or a sending off if he thinks he has been treated harshly by a referee. In Norn Iron I'm afraid a player has no right to appeal and must suffer the consequences of over-zealous officials. Surely it's time in this the 21st century, that our players had the same rights as most other players in the U.K. I wouldn't be surprised that it's illegal under European community rules, to not have a right of appeal. As for F.I.F.A. they are as single minded as the I.F.A. and appealing to them would only fall on deaf ears. We already have an example of their two-faced legislation re-the Gibson controversy and we know they can't be trusted.

Maybe the players will need to get together and threaten strike action or similar in order to get their point across. The alternative is to do nothing and suffer at the hands of the 'little Hitlers' like Alan Black. Approaching the I.F.A. would be a futile exercise as they believe they are right and everybody else is wrong and that is because they've been 'shafting' everybody for so long they actually believe they're right.I think the time has come for the players to stand up and be counted, otherwise the dictators have won!