Innovative solutions needed for referees in the PSL

Week-in, week-out, we, the United Social Networkers of the nation, are bombarded with a stream of tweets and status updates loaded with abusive, insulting and offensive language (referees know I am referring to Law 12) directed at the Premier Soccer League's referees.

On Saturday, we saw some of this oft-seen abusive language we read on our smart-phones turn into actual physical abuse in the match between Golden Arrows and table-toppers Kaizer Chiefs. A Chiefs supporter ran more than a hundred meters into the field and hit referee, Lwandile Mfiki, with the infamous vuvuzela.  The fan's distress seemed to have been caused by Mfiki's decision to give Chief's midfield kingpin, Reneilwe “Yeye” Letsholonyane a red card in the 33^rd minute.

This type of behaviour is embarrassing almost serves to emphasize the notion that our PSL is indeed “a joke” (as a classmate recently stated in a class discussion).

If the standard of refereeing is a problem and looks amateurish, then why is it that we, errrm, still have amateur referees?  And I mean amateur in the literal sense. This is because a lot of referees have normal day jobs outside of their duties with the whistle.

Being a referee myself (at youth level), I know how demanding it can be to stay in shape and be up to date with the laws. Life of a referee isn't easy, and even when you plan for things and study time, life happens.  It is extremely difficult.  But that's my simple, limited view, as an amateur.But I am getting sidetracked.  I believe it is time to start talking about solutions instead of merely complaining.

Many have provided their own solutions to the problem on twitter and I hope many more will offer their ideas on how we can deal with referee issues in PSL.  Some will say refs should be banned or dropped to lower divisions, other will say refs should have their salaries cut, and the less-logical among us will say that we should moer them with a vuvuzela for costly mistakes.

I just cant help but wonder if some of that Q-Innovation money could have been diverted to one aspect that directly contributes to the enjoyment of the game by fans - refereeing.  We currently have a tight title-finish coming up and instead of discussions revolving around the actual football being played, discussions mainly revolved around the referee, offside decisions and the like.  Television pundits are probably becoming more accustomed with the FIFA Laws of the Game than tactical innovations in football.

The Q-Innovation idea was supposed to generate excitement and I presume, attract even more fans to the PSL games.  It was supposed to make every game important and keep supporters interested.  I am not a fan of the idea (as usual, I put my feelings in words).  Why was the extra R6 million (R1.5 million multiplied by four) not rather redirected to improving referees or specifically, their salaries?

The powers that be were more than ready to “innovate” and introduce quarterly prizes in the league.  Why weren't “innovative” methods introduced to not improve referees performance, and more specifically, their salaries?  This could gradually evolve to having a full-time panel of dedicated referees.  Becoming a member of the PSL referees panel could eventually end up being viewed as “hitting the big-time” for qualified referees.  With a lot more money to lose for poor performance, this could also have the positive effect of increasing accountability should they be dropped to lower levels.

At the moment, the PSL does not even have a review system in place to look at poor decision made in games.  So, shocking decisions that may arise are not even corrected. In the recent case, Stuart Baxter will just have to accept the suspension of his key player and get on with it/f*** off (delete as appropriate, hehehe).

With five or so games remaining in the league for most teams.  What impact will referees have on who wins the title and who get relegated?  Will the poor referees receive better pay next season?  Will the likes of Mfiki be suspended in the coming weeks and months?  Do we have better referees waiting in the lower divisions?

I do not claim to know all the answers but I am pretty certain that the PSL now needs a solution.  An intervention of some sorts...   An innovation!

I only have one “Q” to ask, when will the men in charge introduce some sort of R-Innovation?

Thomas Monyepao

Please make use of T-Innovation and follow me on twitter @Tom_18Yards.

A finish that City Kun't have imagined!

This post originally appeared on the Sport24.co.za site.


At this very moment – for most of you reading this piece – it is a Monday morning and you’ve just about made sense of the crazy events that occurred yesterday in the Barclays English Premier League (EPL). Goals, goalkeeping errors, flying elbows, coaching masterstrokes, and loads of drama. What more can you ask for? What a finish from the man they call Kun, and what an end to the season.

You could not have scripted this better. The commentators repeated this statement often. Every time they said that, the harder it became to believe what was happening on my small TV set. One does not need high definition large screens to experience the breath-taking drama which one was exposed to last night. Most soccer fans and “experts” predicted victories for both Manchester United and Manchester City in their respective games but anybody who predicted that finish before kickoff would have been labeled “insane” or “ambitious” at best. But, what we got from the EPL last night not only reminded us all why we love the league so much, it also reminded us why we love the game of football so much.

A few heart attacks, strokes, tears, screams of jubilation and frustration, and maybe some broken chairs in few people’s homes – all of this within the space of a mere 90 minutes. The cricket and rugby executives must be wondering how and when (if ever) they will match the drama and viewership that only football can generate. Even the shortened cricket version of T20 – great innovation, it must be said – has not managed to come close to matching the drama and various scenarios that can occur within less than 2 hours in football.

Anyway, today is City’s day and I have to congratulate the whole City team for their attitude, for never giving up (even when there was an eight-point deficit), and for the beautiful football they dished out (the Old Trafford special being my favourite pick as Arsenal fan!) and their self-belief and never-say die attitude in that memorable final league match of the season.   Even Roberto Mancini, the City head coach, admitted after the game that he himself had lost belief that they could snatch victory. In the age that we live in, where managers are fired within the blink of an eye, one has to give credit to the suits at the Etihad Stadium who did no pull the trigger as soon as the ship hit stormy waters. They let the captain of the ship handle his business. He did what needed to be done. He “recasted the outcasts” (Tevez and Balotelli), dealt with various egos within the team, and for us neutrals, he unleashed great attacking brilliance from the likes of Sergio “Kun” Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez, Adam Johnson, David Silva and former Arsenal darling, Samir Nasri on poor Premier League defences. It has been a great season and when the going got tough, the mind games got going. Since City can now be called Champions, can we agree that his there was a certain science behind his sometimes mad quotes and mind games?  Well, that might be a topic for another day.

Jose Mourinho gets a lot of respect, deservedly, for winning trophies wherever he goes, however, Mancini also deserves credit for taking this team to the top despite the various personalities he had to deal with. Let us not forget that he won three Serie A titles on the trot, thereby laying the foundation for Mourinho’s success later on at Inter Milan.

It must have made the victory even sweeter for City fans when you look at how the scene unfolded on this Sunday evening. Manchester United players and supporters alike thought they had the title wrapped up before Kun stole it back dramatically in injury time. Manchester City may be referred to as the noisy neighbours but go to most countries and you will realize how loud and arrogant Manchester United supporters are (and you will find any of them, trust me). City fans have every right to brag and be in your ear all week long. They suffered 44 years of banter and teasing from their neighbours.

I, for one, cannot wait for next season. Let’s hope the PSL, this coming weekend, can also provide more drama. And, guess what? After the PSL finale, we still have Euro 2012 in Polkraine to look forward to next month! It sure is great to be football fun, huh?
That’s all from me. ‘Til next time.


Thomas Monyepao
Follow me on  twitter for more football debates, @Tom_18yards.

PSL Twars - Bird warfare

 

 















Now, I have already posted my bi-weekly piece for the 18 Yards blog.   But after some rather comical hurling of insults from the official Moroka Swallows twitter account, I could not help but share this rather weird experience. 

Some of you might already have noticed the irony of "the birds" tweeting/ twarring, I can compare it to "Love and Peace" supporters being violent on Saturday night.

Let’s  begin with what actually sparked this mini war-of-words between me (@Tom_18Yards) and  @MorokaSwallows (let’s refer to the guy on the keyboard as “Mr Invisible”).  Mr Invisible decided to wage war over what was, in my opinion, an innocent comment. I am still being bombarded with verbal missiles as I type! It is rough on these twitter streets!  It is actually hilarious when one looks at the tweet that brought on this whole guerilla warfare (or Bird warfare in this case). I am guilty of mentioning my views on twitter (I thought that’s what normal people do? Is it just me?)




  This opinion is based on my personal experience as a PSL fan.  I tweeted that [it is] “rare to find Swallows supporters below the age of 40.”  That little comment seemed to send alarm bells of Israel-Palestine proportions in the Bird’s nest and the mighty Mr Invisible fired the first missile and replied to my tweet by saying “jealousy stinks”.  BOOM!   Whoa! I still don’t understand how that comment came about. 

 

Normally, I would ignore invitations to these “twars” but as a football blogger I can’t exactly be perceived as a “jealous” idiot, for obvious reasons.   So, I pulled out the spirit of Umkhonto weSizwe (don't laugh), I gathered weapons and promptly fired back a missile of my own. The missiles kept going back and forth. Between Meneer Invisible and I, I doubt my comment was more damaging to the Swallows brand than his sensitivity to a neutral PSL fan’s opinion. The subsequent hard-headedness that was to follow, when he failed to realize that I never actually said that Swallows had no fans under the age of 40 left me utterly bemused.  

As I type, I have just been told, “your tweets are damaging to the #Swallows brand, you referenced our account. It’s our job to protect it #FollowtheBirds”.  

Well, such a lack of understanding and such silly “twars” are not helping improve the image of the Swallows brand to other fans now are they, Mr Invisible?  I was also reprimanded by Mr Invisible and told that “you’re wrong to claim there’s no U40 #swallows fans. Plus what’s so wrong with a kid supporting their parent’s team?”  

Mr Invisible touches on two issues. Firstly, he accuses me of claiming there are no “under 40” Swallows fan.  My  short tweet contained the following words: “rare to find Swallows supporters below the age of 40.”  One fan, @Mpela3, clearly did not take issue with my tweet and even replied and tweeted “maybe I’m the rare type supporter”.  Now, was that tweet by @Mpela3 also “damaging to the Swallows brand” or is it alright in Mr Invisible’s mind once it is clear which side of the fence one is standing on.  Secondly, I briefly touched on the issue of why we South Africans support the teams we do two weeks ago.   One of my tweets clearly stated that “U cnt claim jealousy wen im stating wat Ive xperienced as a PSL fan.I hv neva met a SFC fan below de age of 40” to which I received an arrogant Bobby Motaung-esque reply from Mr Invisible as he tweeted the following, “Hahahaha you’re joking right?”  I got the feeling that Mr Invisible was under the idea that I was insulting the club instead of just expressing my views, and the more I tried talking sense the more missiles Mr Invisible kept firing.  It seemed to be a useless exercise trying to use logic to show that I am not the enemy, but then again I tend to get into a lot of these useless arguments with soccer fans almost everywhere I go. "When logic fails, anger prevails", is some people's philosophy.

Since “serving divorce papers” to Family Business FC, Swallows was always one of the teams that I was considering supporting, for simple reasons.  Firstly, they are the nearest team from where I live. Secondly, I like their brand of football - as I stated in my previous blog. Lastly, the club does not seem to have that many fans, and I'd honestly  prefer supporting the "smaller" teams in the PSL.  Less glory-hunters and plastic fans and I'd assume they appreciate their fans more than the bigger teams.  But if this is how Swallows and the rest of the other clubs want to communicate with ordinary fans with such arrogane and preferring to rather  argue over petty issues, they should not wonder why the stadiums are empty. 

Name-calling is really not necessary, least of all from a club with such poor match attendance figures. I have to be blunt about that.  However, I will put this immature twar behind me and continue enjoying the football that the Beautiful Birds dish out weekly as they compete with the big guns in an exciting PSL title race.


I must give a special shout-out to the three “under 40” fans of Moroka Swallows which I now know exist thanks to this twitter war -who said in war there are no victors, huh? @Mpela3, @iamMelu_C and @ohone1, I look forward to maybe meeting you guys in the stands so that I too can say I have met a Swallows fan under the age of 40. I can then be safe from twitter warfare from the Mr Invisible (and hopefully from the Kaizer Chefs fans who were hurling all sorts of objects this past weekend). 

 

To Mr Invisible (the guy behind the keyboard responsible for @MorokaSwallows’ tweets) I will repeat what I tweeted (in proper English this time): “You can’t claim jealousy when I’m stating what I’ve experienced as a PSL fan. I have never met a Swallows fan below the age of 40.”  You, Mr Invisible, cannot say “that’s unfound” and “a myth”. Your database has nothing to do with my personal experience. While we are on that topic, feel free to publish the official figures as far as club membership is concerned – here’s a better idea, tweet the figures, and I will happily retweet.

This piece was a bit informal and not my best work but I had to share this experience. I know twars are usually more vicious with more insults but since I don’t usually engage in them, this was a weird experience, especially as it was not with an actual person but with an official club account. 

I guess now would be a good time to say the magic words: “Don’t follow me, follow the Birds.”  If you prefer not to follow the Birds, well, you can just follow me on twitter (no twars, asseblief!).  

Follow me on twitter and let’s talk football.

'Til next time

Thomas Monyepao