Ask the Blogger #4: Andrew Gibney (French Football Weekly)

In part four of our new feature, “Ask The Blogger”, we speak to Andrew Gibney, former host of the legendary Gib Football Show and editor of French Football Weekly, a football blog that covers everything Ligue 1. He also co-hosts the French Football Weekly pod cast, which is, without doubt, the best pod cast available covering foreign football of any kind, get downloading.

Hi Andrew. First up, what is your general opinion of refereeing in the league/country you watch most often?

I think that there is a pretty high standard in France. You have your characters like you do any league. Tony Chapron is one of the better known. Distinguished by his bald head, he is never far away from controversy.

He was once accused of telling Valenciennes defender Rafael Schmitz, ”You’re not up to playing at this level, we’re going to do all we can to get you relegated to Ligue 2. We’re going to fuck you over in the second half.”

On the other hand you have Clement Turpin. The 29-year old became the first referee under 30 to take charge of the Coupe de France final between PSG and Lille OSC last year. He also made his debut in the Europa League last season.

His displays have generally been very good, hopefully it can bring in a new batch of excellent referee’s in Ligue 1. There are bad decisions like every league and some hot head managers that like to scream and shout, but overall it’s pretty good.

There tend to be two lines of thought and they usually depend on whether the decision has gone for or against your team, either the referees aren’t up to standard and need better training/wages or they have an incredibly difficult job and we should feel sorry for them. Which do you think is the main cause of poor refereeing decisions?

Honestly I think the main reason for bad decisions comes down to the fact that referees and linesman are only human. The speed the game is played at these days makes it increasingly difficult to get every decision correct.

The problem then comes when they are not allowed to explain themselves. Amongst writers, bloggers, etc there is a certain level of respect from someone being honest and either admitting they don’t know or didn’t see something.

How refreshing would it be to have a referee come out and say; “At the time of the incident it looked like a clear penalty. I’ve seen it again and I got it wrong….”

The more referees got to explain their decisions the more I think fans would respect them. Not everyone but hopefully the majority would.

We’ve all read about the various features that might help improve the game e.g. goal-line technology, sin bins, hawk-eye etc, but if you had the option to introduce just one system that you felt would help what would it be and why?

I would like to see a challenges system similar to the one used in American Football. Managers are allowed to challenge any call the referee has made twice a game, but only once the play has stopped. Be it goal line decisions, penalties given, not given.

The referee or video ref watches various replays and then gives the decision. It would hopefully rule out some controversial decisions but it would also keep that talking point element that we all love. Not every decision would be covered, and you would have to use your challenges at the right time. It would perhaps add a different twist to games.

The “Respect” campaign hasn’t been a success, what do you think should be done to change the culture of referee intimidation and lack of respect for officials in football?

Similar to my above point. Perhaps during the summer all the club captains in the football league should be made to take referee course and take charge of some games, maybe with this increase in awareness and knowledge they would think differently to how they approach the referees and just maybe respect them a little more.

If you could change one rule, that you feel currently adversely affects the game, which would it be and why?

Sometimes I think the penalty for a goalkeeper bringing down an attacker, when he’s the last man. The opposition already get a penalty and the chance to take the lead, the goalkeeper is sent off and then the opposition also have to remove an outfield player to bring on another goalkeeper.

Unfortunately the only way to solve this is to rely on the referee’s judgement and interpretation, and we all know how well that has worked so far.

There are times when a goalkeeper is the last man, clips the attacker, no worse than the tackles that don’t even get a booking in the middle of the park. The goalie sees red and his team’s punishment is three-fold. It seems harsh to me.

One solution could be to show the keeper a yellow card, unless it is a Schumacher like tackle which of course should remain a red. Or the goalie has to go off but the sub goalie is allowed to come on, you are then still losing an important part of your team.

Would you ever consider training to be a referee at a lower level?

Eh no…well not completely. I think it would be very interesting and a window into the game. Unfortunately I’m not fit enough to run up and down a pitch for 90 minutes.

It would be an interesting project and I think anyone that was critical of referees would look at them in a different light if they had to walk in their shoes so to speak.

Maybe some managers who are overly critical should be made to go on a course and referee a few games, just to see if it’s as easy as they make it out to be.

I’m not sure refereeing is something you would ever know you had a natural flair for so it’s only through studying and hard work that you would become skilled at. Not for me I don’t think.

Finally, a quick quiz question. A defender is taking a free kick outside his own area, he plays the ball back towards his keeper not realising that the keeper is standing to one side of the area and isn’t guarding the net. The ball rolls towards goal and the same defender races back to stop it crossing the line, he slices his clearance and the ball crosses the line, much to the delight of the opposition. What should the referee do and why?

Oh that’s a good one. I am thinking that the referee needs to give an in-direct free kick from the spot the defender kicks the ball. After taking the free-kick someone else in his time needs to touch the ball before he touches it again. If the ball went straight in then it’s a goal but because he sliced it into the net it has to be a free-kick to the opposition.

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I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Andrew for taking part, it was great to get some insight into his view on officials, the job they do and the obstacles they face, also to thank him for giving me reason to watch some French football and come to enjoy a league I had never really given a second thought before.You can follow Andrew on Twitter, @AGibneyftbl and visit the blog

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