Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A-League Of Extraordinary Men? (and one woman!)

Okay - Whistler is at the Roar V Perth Glory game last week and the crowd is expressing their disapproval of the calls or lack there of being made by the ref. Comment from behind is something like, "They set up the A-League as a professional competition and they give us Z grade referees." So I wonder - is the A-League a truly professional competition? (For sure, it is a major upgrade of the NSL, but not all players are truly professional are they?)

Granted the match officials are "part time" and rely on a day job, but most of them wear FIFA badges, which means they have passed more than a fitness test. Quiet a few of them have had some kind of international experience, although this may be at youth level. What do we do? Pay a lot more to say we have full time refs? There's still only 4 games a week for them to develop their skills. We could pay heaps to get overseas refs, but one of the best EPL refs can't count to two and issues three yellow cards, before the red. (Actually that's another blog topic!!)

So what's the solution, or do we not need a solution?

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