Referees

Accrington Stanley scored against Wimbledon right at the end of the first half. But that was the problem. It was the end of the half. The half was over. The referee had blown his whistle.

The referee had blown his whistle literally a moment before the ball crossed the line, nullifying the goal. The Accrington Stanley players were understandably pissed.

Chelsea FC are no strangers to controversy and accusations of foul play, whether it's kicking ball boys, wasting time, anything Diego Costa does, racist fans...we could go on forever. Yet in their game against Norwich, Gary Cahill played a back pass to Courtois who picked it up so blatantly, it defies belief.

I'm going to come right out and say it: Andy Halliday is a bad person.

The Rangers midfielder scored a goal in Rangers' 2-0 victory over Morton, and then did something so horrible the ref had no choice but to toss Halliday out of the game.

Imagine playing a game of soccer and all of the sudden thinking to yourself, “I think the referee is having more fun than me.” Would this be a question that challenged your perception of life? Would you all of the sudden wonder, maybe I should have taken that dance class is high school? Would you declare that yes, you can wear that pink blazer that you’ve always been to afraid to wear? It is certainly a thought that has never passed through my mind, but then again, I have never played in a game officiated by Clésio Moreira dos Santos, a.k.a. Margarida.

I want to believe in the integrity of the game. I really do. I want to believe that players go out every game with the intention of winning, that managers select players with the same intention, and that referees call a fair game. Sadly I know that this is not always the case, that across the world there have been numerous confirmed instances of bribery, match-fixing, and general corrupt behavior on and off the field. But this, this is on a whole different level. You are about to watch what might be the worst referee decision ever.

The European lower leagues are full of drunken lunatics, a phenomenon that was on display recently in an incident between a fan who ran on the field and an assistant referee who happened to be a woman. We'll just come out and say it: a fan in Spain ran onto the pitch during a game between CD Abes and Gabia CF and attempted to slap a female assistant referee with his penis.

Here is the synopsis of what happened in a Costa Rican second division game: the announcer at this game was criticizing the ref so the ref stopped the game and had the broadcaster thrown out. Seriously, we did not know the ref even had the power to do this, but obviously this ref is not having any of our crap.

Football’s refusal to enter the 21st Century – and seeming willingness remain in the dark ages – continues to baffle viewers of the beautiful game. The shameful Diego Costa versus Gabriel incident at Stamford Bridge resurfaced tensions on the role video technology in football can play, a topic that divides supporters like few others. People love football because of its simplicity, but time and again the television viewer is more informed than the man employed to make on-field assessments. How can this be the case?

When we were strapping young youth soccer players, our coaches would tell us not to argue with the ref. They were adamant about this: no arguing with the ref, under any cicumstances. No matter how bad the call was, no matter how wronged we thought we had been, we were not allowed to argue with the ref.

Now, we know why. Our coaches probably thought they were teaching us about sportsmanship or something, but they were really teaching us not to get shot, which, we think, is at least as valuable if, not more.