Football analysis: Is specialisation in football refereeing a good idea?

With increasing demands and a trend among modern sports for referees to be specialised in certain areas of their role, the question of whether football should follow those steps is becoming more prevalent. 

But is such a change feasible, says Sports Blitz Writer Uchenna Haq.

We’ve all gone to school or worked at some busy hospitality company, right? In those companies, people aren’t hired to be the manager, work front of house, work back of house, be the teacher, and be the dinner lady. 

So why should officiating in professional football be any different?

In recent years, calls for specialised officials have become more frequent from all areas of football.

The problem

After numerous controversies in recent seasons, particularly in the Premier League, specialised officials look more appealing. 

Referees face high demands; out in the middle one week, sitting in a room with screens the next. 

Demands constantly shift. How are referees expected to do each role without minute influences from other roles?

Whether conscious or subconscious, this potentially affects game flow and results; some may argue it has in the past.

Fans are tired of waiting minutes for a decision they could diagnose within thirty seconds. Precision is key, yes, but it’s causing disruption to the game’s nature and increased travel time for fans.

By the end of March this year, the Premier League’s Key Match Incident (KMI) panel added four refereeing errors, bringing the total tally 54 by the end of Matchweek 31.

While improving upon previous years, particularly the problematic 2023/24 season, there is a slight increase from the numbers at the same point last season.

Worrying given the new Semi-Automated Offside Technology and in-stadium VAR announcements, part of the Premier League’s ‘VAR Improvement Plan.’ 

Rotation: Real or ruining

Managers across the league have called for reforms to how officials partner and operate.

If officials worked in set teams, working together over multiple weeks, the chance for chemistry, communication and consistency can drastically improve. 

Working in differing roles with different teams each week offers no comfort, cohesion and chance to acclimatise to making confident decisions weekly.

Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) argue that rotations of officials help maintain their sharpness. Within English Football, there is a preference for officials to be sufficient in every aspect of the job.

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Is specialised officiating realistic?

If your school or workplace, which we all have commonly experienced, saw someone doing multiple roles, can we agree it was likely because of staff shortages?

That’s a problem our top leagues face. 

Rising through the refereeing ranks is a lengthy and demanding task. 

From Level 9 as a trainee referee to Level 1 working at professional national levels, years of mastering skills and resisting abuse and insecurity await referees before their final two stages of Group Two (Championship) and Group One (Premier League) refereeing. 

Rates of referees reaching elite-level refereeing are far slower than the trickling number of senior referees retiring. 

Young people have no incentive to become referees.

Torrents of abuse, whether at the local park or in The Emirates, a level system that takes countless years to reach the top, and rewards easily surpassed elsewhere. 

Refereeing is in trouble, especially if we want to consider specialising officials. 

What about other sports?

Across sports today, specialised officiating has helped to keep matches well-managed. Football appears to be one of the few sports seeking to maintain the ‘traditional referee’ look - sufficient in every role. 

Cricket has on-field umpires managing dedicated sections of the pitch, a similarity to assistant referees. 

A major difference is the Third Umpire, compared to VAR, who is specialised in that role to help with trickier calls, the faster and closer calls. 

The International Cricket Council may specially appoint certain officials for Internationals and Test matches that they know will be heavily reviewed and are of significance.

Rugby Union similarly shares the referee and assistant referee mainframe, but it’s the specialisation of video reviewing referees, the Television Match Official (TMO), that shows Rugby to boast better officiating standards.

TMO’s are specially trained for video reviewing, and while they can rotate positions across the season, there is informal rigidity within officiating in rugby, a sport where respect towards match officials is much more commonly displayed.

Sports face growing pressure to breed perfect officiating. Game pace is quicker, rules are more complex, mistakes are more widely broadcast, financial risk to the viewer, and the owner is increased. 

It is not for these reasons that the burden should be loaded onto officials already under immense stress. 

Programs for new referees need improvement, the system needs to be quicker so referees available at the top echelons are not rarities. 

Specialisation improves productivity. A narrower focus can allow more energy to be put into one place. 

It’s not the fault of the officials, but the rigidity of the footballing system that is preventing fairer officiation.

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