Referees would find their jobs easier if they could understand the views of others.
Even the harshest critics of referees admit they have an unenviable job.
Yet sometimes the officials don’t help themselves, and they can be too precious for their own good. The so called ‘Grubgate’ affair involving whistler John McKendrick and Peterhead manager Jim McInally is a case in point.
McInally was trying to prevent a potential incident when he requested McKendrick and his assistants enjoy their after-match refreshments in an area away from the players after Peterhead had been hit by a last-minute East Stirling equaliser.
McInally feared his players would voice criticism of the ref and be overheard, leading to possible punishment. Instead it was McInally himself who ended up in trouble with the SFA!
McKendrick reported the Blue Toon boss for the manner in which the request was made, and McInally is now serving a two-game touchline ban. What does this do for the strained relationship between managers and referees? Surely the SFA should have noted McKendrick’s report, had a quiet word in McInally’s ear and left it at that? But this haste to do everything by the book rather than use commonsense is nothing new.
Exactly 25 years ago, bus tycoon Douglas Park, then a director of Hearts, was fined £1,000 for locking referee David Syme in his dressing-room at Tynecastle after a bruising contest against Rangers that the visitors won 2-1.
Park insisted, like McInally, he was acting in the best interests of the ref following that particularly contentious game. He wanted to buy time to allow tempers to cool and prevent a major incident.
Park also pointed out he returned the dressing-room key as soon as he felt the tension had been defused, and that Syme could then press the alarm bell inside his room to attract attention. Unfortunately, neither Syme nor the Scottish League Disciplinary Committee saw things that way, hence Park’s fine. Ironically, Park used to travel to many of Rangers’ away European ties as part of their official party!
Referees must accept many of their decisions will always be controversial. They must try and understand the views of others, too, particularly in the cases of McInally and Park, who were only trying to pre-empt possible trouble. Look at the good it did them!
These examples take the argument that the referee is always right to ridiculous extremes.
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