English Refereeing: Racism
What if I told you that all of the weekly hilarious refereeing scandals you see in the Premier League aren't even the worst part about refereeing in the Premier League? What if I told you that something more sinister has been happening to ensure that a specific type of people makes it out to become referees in the top levels of refereeing in England?
Uriah Rennie
That is the name of the last black referee in the Premier League. His last time officiating a matpreviousn the Premier League was all the way back in 2008. Currently, out of 40 referees officiating in the top 4 professional flights in the Premier League, only 4 are BAME (black, Asian, and minority ethnic). Joel Mannix is one of those 4 referees.
Mannix is the leader of BAME Referees Support, a group aimed to support BAME referees. He said, "Levels 3 and 4 are known as the ‘black man’s graveyard". He says that because the observers whose job is to recommend who gets promoted to levels 2 and 1 are “old, white males”.
Since 2008, the English Football Association started an interracial integration committee, the committee is made up of fourteen ex-referees, none is black, Asian, or of minor ethnicity. They're all simply old, white men.
The comedy doesn't stop there.
This committee, aimed at integrating minority referees I remind you, is headed by David Elleray. You may have heard that name before in 2014 when he was sanctioned for making racist comments to another official. I am not even kidding. That is literally what happened.
Mannix also said that during one of the meetings of the committee, they needed to meet a certain percentage of black referees. One of the committee members suggested that in case they don't find anyone, they could recruit from among people leaving prison.
“You lot can all run fast, but that’s all you are good for.” said one of the observers in one incident. “If you want to progress, you need to cut your dreadlocks.” said another observer to a black referee. There's also another comment which included throwing a banana which I am not comfortable enough to mention in detail.
These aren't rumors. Everything mentioned so far is part of official reports that went to the English Football Association. There's a reason why we don't, and maybe won't ever see a black or Asian referee in the English Premier League.
This Is The Premier League
A system that creates bias, unfit, and unqualified referees who get exceptions every year despite reaching retirement age. All of that and people want to pretend like bias doesn't exist even though we have referees, observers, and officials who wouldn't have gotten their jobs if it weren't for the existence of racism and bias. The job security of a white English referee is amazing as anyone criticizing them will be punished and nothing can be pointed out to them. They could never be held accountable.
That attitude is expanding actually to post-match analysis and even commentary which is the weakest of English football.
Now we hear the phrase "This is the Premier League" used to justify any decision referees make after they make it by commentators who only exist to agree with the referees.
So, Darwin Núñez could get a red card because "This is the Premier League" and you can't expect to get away with those actions. If Núñez got punched and no card was drawn then it is also because "This is the Premier League". Kieran Gibbs could get a red card due to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's handball because "This is the Premier League".
Nothing but a brand name hiding disgusting layers of nepotism, incompetence, bias, and racism. Because "This is the Premier League" and no black, Asian or any minor ethnicity referee could ever do what Mike Dean, Simon Hooper, Chris Kavanagh, and all the remaining white referees could do that made the English Premier League the worst league in terms of officiating among the top 5 leagues.
In conclusion
This is the Premier League. A league that is overprotective of referees who cannot be criticized or questioned in any shape or form and of a system that requires mainly one category: being white.
Sources
Below are the sources for this post as well as the previous one about English refereeing.
The only people biased in the referee debate are us fans
Why The Standard Of Refereeing Is So Poor In The Premier League, What Needs To Be Done To Improve It, And How We Can Learn From The Euros
Manchester United v Arsenal: Pizzagate revisited - 10 years on
Most biased referees for top teams in the Premier League
Mike Dean admits he got West Brom penalty wrong that led to Arsenal draw and Arsene Wenger ban
https://twitter.com/AmerTheAwesome1/status/1568586395026874371
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @amirtheawesome2 ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Football in one side lifts the true spirit of humanity, when all the world faces the challenges of dealing with racism, the cases unfolding as that many incidents hold the unjustifiable fact that, race violation and attitude brings up to discrimination between two party involved.
Yeah,thats very true that, one party getting the privilege for how they look like and in modern Britains prime league, the symptoms rise far. Yet, I feel the FIFA authorities show their effort in bringing down Apartheid and the likey causes, saying no to such attitude.
Hopefully, things curb down extensively.,👍
Fifa is kinda busy pushing their new World Cup formula and doesn't want to enter direct conflicts. I wouldn't hold my breath for their interference. Besides, I don't think many people really care about referees.
yeah, thats a case. 👍
So English and sadly not confined to the Premier League.
Leaving aside the unacceptable comments and behaviours of members of the interracial integration committee, it has been shown that mechanisms such as equality, inclusion and diversity policies (and their accompanying monitoring) do very little to change anything about structural racism.
I get that. However, the issue isn't that BAME people aren't being encouraged to become referees and we need to lighten the standards, it is that they can't get in because they're being blocked. When a referee is told by an observer (That's the person who recommends whether they get promoted to higher divisions or not) that they won't go up in their career without cutting their dreadlocks, you have to see that the issue.
Elleray was the head of the FA's referee committee just last year before he resigned due to the FA starting an investigation for, you guessed it, racism allegation directed at him.
English refereeing is among the worst in Europe despite having literal replays to watch before making decisions. There are referees in Turkey ranked higher. Racism is only a part of why English refereeing is so bad.
I understand. Forgive me, I wasn't clear.
I think you are pushing it a bit with this story. Racism is not the problem as everyone seems to raise this issue all the time trying to blame racism. I am not ignorant saying it doesn't exist but this is not the case here. If you are good enough you will make it and cannot blame that on the color of your skin. Those instances you mentioned were most likely true and they are wrong but you don't give up and should show them you are bigger than that by the standard you referee. When I refereed rugby there was or very few black referees around and this is still the same story. Many may point a finger and call that racist, but it takes effort and personal time to achieve which many don't do. I do not know what the numbers are but guarantee you will be shocked at how many non white referees are reffing in the lower levels of the sport. I don't think this is a racist problem ,but more of individuals who are just incompetent due to no competition. Many lower league games don't even have official referees as nearly 1/3 rd of all games do not have an official. In South Africa they have tried to push black referees into the spotlight and they are just not good enough with other test nations rejecting those from officiating their games. Standards have to be met and if they are not there you cannot turn a blind eye. Over time there will be some that make the grade, but it cannot be forced.
I am not certain what you mean by this. It's a part series about the problems with English refereeing which includes racism as I am pointing out here. Although I should point out that the quality of refereeing would have been a good argument if the Premier League's refereeing quality wasn't as horrible as it is. The Premier League has referees that literally can't watch the VAR screen.
The examples I gave were of people who make the decision whether referees get promoted or not. Those are the people who were racist. A committee for inclusion where members made racist remarks in front of the remaining members and it was okay. If I start a committee dedicated to fighting animal abuse and include at least three members who kick a cat WHILE they're in the committee with the rest doing nothing, would you trust the committee to take care of your pet?
So, yes, racism is part of the system. Just because I showed 4 examples in official reports doesn't mean I don't have more. Quality is low as we saw this season literally every week so I don't know what I am "pushing" here. I am simply saying that in case any wondering why English refereeing is so bad then these factos, collectively, are the reason behind it. Racism was just the cherry on top.
I just don't see the racism as why there aren't any black referees around and wish there were as all sport needs top officials and skin color has nothing to do with it. The refereeing is sub standard for football and partially to blame is the ex players for not wanting to get involved. I do think the entire officiating system needs to be looked at as it is not acceptable as it stands currently. The VAR is a joke as this is meant to over ride the on field ref if something is called incorrectly and the ones behind the screen do not want to over rule the ref on field. The company behind the VAR is an ex referee and that is where the problem lies as it does smack of a buddy system in place.
If you can't see it then you can't see it I guess. The only thing missing is committee members saying "we're racist". As for the rest, yeah I agree.
But Premier league is still the most watch league in the world despite the fact that the referees are always bias, they have the club they detest and the ones they love. You have reason for that?
It's kinda answered here:
It's branding. Thanks to strong media, anything done in the Premier League is counted as positive. If you are an avid watcher you would at some point see a fight break out and where the ref gives everyone involved a red card or none of them, the media would spin it as positive. I could dive deeper into soon. But it comes down to branding in the end.