[hardgums]

OK, we were warned when we dropped down into this godforsaken league that the standard of refereeing would be poor. And yes, for the first two seasons of our stay in the National League it was certainly substandard. This season, however, it seems to have lurched towards the woeful. Perhaps it's just that live streaming provides us with a close-up view of the officials in action but boy, they are poor. Every game I watch the irrational nature of the referring is gobsmacking. Do National League referees have fewer hurdles to qualification than the Football League lot?

[Freddie]

The better referees get promoted up the leagues just like the players. There are going to be lots of young inexperienced referees in this league. Some will be good enough to get promoted to the Football League, but the vast majority will not.

Lower league, lower quality players, lower quality referees.

[azul]

What I don’t understand is that when I watch Matlock, in general the referees don’t seem too bad and you can hear them communicating well with the players.

I can only conclude that the referees are just not good enough to cope with the increased pressure and cynicism at NL level.

This post has been edited by azul: 31 January 2021 - 05:30 PM