Go Ref.
Well I have just seen a rather exceptional incident involving a referee, and in this case its all good for the ref. Villa 5 – 1 Birmingham. Mark Clattenburg is more often in the press being criticised rather than praised, more often than not rightly so unfortunately, when hes in charge of a game the anticipation is train wreck. But in this case he did something really rather good, as well as ref the game as a whole well. There was an incident when two opposing players were giving it some of that forehead rubbing stupidity. Now normally I would expect the ref to come in, step between the players and move them apart gently, then have a little talk and maybe brandish a card, at worst he just not see the incident and it diffuses quickly. But that didn’t happen. What happened was quite extraordinary and funny too. Mark Clattenburg ran up to the two players (no I don’t remember who they were, I was too surprised by what he did) and pushed, and I mean really, properly, pushed the Birmingham player away and then ran on as he hadn’t stopped the game. The two players, and both teams somewhat surprisingly, also just carried on. Now this was exceptional for a couple of reasons, the first being the ref taking physical action (go ref) to separate players in such a manner and second the players just getting on with it. I have to applaud Clattenburg for this as he did what I have certainly felt about such pathetic posturing by players – do fuck off and get on with it. A card would have served no purpose as it was two players acting the arse rather than what a yellow card should be for.
Its a pity refs don’t deal with these situations in this way more often, but I guess this is difficult when harassed by the players for every decision. While I don’t think the refs are always right, or even up to the standard required every game, left alone and given the chance to do their job they can. Big kudos for Clattenburg for just pushing two petulant over paid tossers apart and getting on with it when he could have ruined the game by doing the yellow card toaster impression.
I don’t believe that Clattenburg has the universal respect of the players and managers in all teams, but in this game he seemed to. Whatever the reasons, it should and needs to happen more. The FA need to censure clubs, particularly managers but also players, for abusing and questioning the referee more as well. For their part the refs need to emphatically deal with incidents firmly as Clattenburg in this game.