PGMOL REBRAND MASKS NOTHING
Can’t believe the World Cup we just witnessed. New tech, new rules, no-name refs because I never had to google them. What did PGMOL do? Rebranded to Pro Ref.
It’s actual satire.
The most toxic brand in football just changed its name.
What was the big push? More transparency. This is their COO.
Our new name signifies these changes and progress, giving us a more modern, professional and relevant identity which is more representative of the organisation we are now and want to be in the future.
This is the worst CEO in the game having his say.
We’re modernising our structures, better supporting referees and making our pathways more dynamic to recognise high-performing and talented officials — something we believe will stand us and the game in good stead now and in the future.
An environment focused on high performance is fundamental to enhancing refereeing standards whilst a clearer and more contemporary representation of professional refereeing in England is vital to support the ongoing development in our area of the game, attracting the best people to fulfil the integral role officials play each and every week.
You couldn’t make it up. Instead of making fundamental changes to how they operate, they rebranded.
Same package of refs.
Same diabolical on-field disasters.
Same outcome for the viewing experience…
Total inadequacy and we’re barely 4 games into the Premier League season.
How bad does it have to be for an Arsenal fan to be furious at the treatment of Manchester United… a team PGMOL refs said this of under Fergie.
He does not like losing, he never has. He gets prickly. But he is wrong to suggest there is an aura around United that sees them given favourable decisions. There used to be when Fergie was there, but that has eased massively since he left.
I am the only referee to give three penalties to the opposition at Old Trafford, and that was for Liverpool, of all teams, in 2014.
The job is impartiality and you have one of the big names of reffing, Mark Clattenburg, bragging he was one of the few refs to give a penalty at Old Trafford to a team that wasn’t Man United.
One of the big innovations for Pro Ref is the quick apology. Pro Ref will work faster than the VAR refs to get an apology and an explanation for the failure out faster than ever before.
But what is the point? Why is Howard Webb more concerned about PR 101 than root cause analysis of why his talent always seems to be mired in the hell of disappointing fans up and down the country.
Simon Jordan, a man whose opinion I admire, said something to the effect of ‘the complainers don’t have better ideas’ and he is absolutely wrong. You cannot face down a problem like Pro Ref and pretend that this is the way because no one can think of short and long term ways to improve the quality.
Here are some of the ideas we should be exploring.
Independent Auditors
There needs to be an independent professional group of auditors hired to assess processes, training, remedial actions, and closely monitor the data so we don’t run into patterns of behavior that look like bias… and we’re looking ahead so we don’t run into blatant conflicts of interest. We also need to understand the hiring and firing process. How do you make it to the top? And why do certain underperformers stay there?
Let’s also be clear: refs’ freelancing activities need to be monitored, and anyone caught taking on jobs from nation states should NEVER be allowed to ref those teams in the future.
Recruitment
We’ve seen enough. It is clear as day that the training and recruitment of referees needs to expand and the pool of talent the Premier League looks at needs to broaden. If I can pay £90 to see the best players in the world, representing 67 countries, I am pretty sure we can find a way to have referees from more than just England and Australia.
The Premier League deserves the best refs. I want decisions based on data. We need to see refs in our league who make consistently correct decisions, at speed, with a minimum of drama. It’s not that hard, because we see Collina do it every 4 years at the World Cup.
Why not just hire Collina to run Pro Ref? Galactico reffing hire? I like it.
Split VAR and On-field Into Seperate Orgs
They are two different skill sets, and they require different management. You could easily hire rules nerds for the VAR roles. If you know the rules, have a quick mind, and you’re decisive, why couldn’t you be in that role? Perfect for gamer types. You ever met a hardcore World of Warcraft person? The things they retain… who are the football rules version of that? Find them. It’s not who sits in the room right now, that’s for sure. If you think it’s silly for me to mention this… tell me how many data nerds in football were excellent players. Look at the playing careers of the best analysts. This snobby idea that you have to be Sunday League-ing to be good at VAR just doesn’t measure up to how the wider game has developed with non-playing passionate experts.
Right now, it’s too cozy. We need checks and balances. Currently, we have VAR that covers for refs because they empathize with the job. We need VAR held accountable for great decisions, and we need to hire folk who can do that job.
It is mad that on-field refs who do a bad job are moved to the VAR room as a punishment. Think about that as a concept; now think about what it says about the hierarchical structure of the org. It’s baffling.
‘Hey mate, you did a shit job, you can VAR for a bit’
VAR is an expertise; it should be given the same weight as on-field reffing.
Salary Check
I don’t want to diminish how much money I earn or you earn. But, I am going to say it, when you’re managing the outcomes for the Premier League, the UK’s most prestigious export outside the roast dinner… you have to have the best people. How do you get the best people? Same way the Premier League gets the best players. Pound notes. Stacked high.
Premier League refs can max out at about £200k a year. Good money, not great. Premier League clubs should chip in to double that. £500k makes intelligent people take note. It makes the job worth it. The prize is that you could retire if you did the job for 15 years. £200k to be a hate figure? Come on.
But let’s go further. In this new world of refereeing, let’s have a vision.
The Vision: To have the best refereeing product in world football.
The Mission: To make the best decisions, at speed, consistently… and not be noticed.
Oh my, what do we have here? A very simple model for assessing performance (refine it, I’m at an airport writing this). When you measure performance, you can incentivise the right things. When you incentivise the right things, you find out who is great, and who is not.
Referees should be scored by the auditors for the subjective decisions and scored by scouts or AI tools for the objective decisions. That score should allow them to accrue up to 50% of their salary in bonuses.
What are the incentives for refs right now? Middling salary at the end of their career that doesn’t allow them to retire… that means they have three career paths
Work for Pro Ref for a smaller salary.
Go into the media (Sky, Podcasts, Columns).
Write a book
Hit the podcast circuit.
Did I say three? I did. Just keeping you on your toes like good VAR.
How do you get to two, three and four? Main man behaviors. What are we learning in real time as Premier League fans? The more obnoxious and stand-out you are in your prime, the more likely you are to get the call from the media to talk about your career.
Charlie Munger once said, “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.”
He also said ‘Mike Dean is a wally.’
Ok, he didn’t say that last bit.
Real Transparency
This video is extraordinary. Jay Bothroyd challenging Dermot Gallagher… and he has no answers. Jay Bothroyd calling on Howard Webb to sit down in an unfriendly studio and answer HIS questions. It doesn’t happen. Howard Webb only goes to… Michael Owen or that journalist at the BBC who shills for Pro Ref. He wants transparency with people who won’t truly challenge him. It’s embarrassing and it makes things worse.
Officials should go on TV after the game and answer to the cameras. Explain the thinking. This works on a few levels… if you can’t coherently explain to the nation why you made a decision, then you are not fit for the role. Because that means you can’t explain it to the players. If you speak to the nation, and you’re not at the level, why are you in that position? Mike Dean, on podcasts, is an embarrassment, because he’s just not very sharp. I want my refs to be thinkers, great communicators, and confident enough to explain away the good, and to apologise for the bad.
Imagine hearing this from Mike Dean after a Chelsea game.
“I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had. Anthony, he is big and bald and ugly enough to know if he is going to the screen he is going to the screen for a reason. If someone pulls their hair now it’s dead easy. It’s just a brainwave by me, a really bad call by me, and it kind of affected me as VAR going forward.”
He’d be gone.
Accountability
If the vision is to have the best refs in the world, and the mission is to make the best decisions, at speed, consistently, and not be noticed… and one ref is getting noticed a lot for the bad decisions. Then get him out. Relegate him. Push him to the lower leagues.
We almost never sack referees. When we do, it’s for calling one of the Premier League greats a ‘c*nt’ on camera at an after-party, or it’s Lee Mason leaving by mutual consent, only to get his job back training refs. Yes, that really happened. A ref moved on for being terrible, got his job back 6 months later as a ref coach.
The old boys’ club has to end.
Accountability also works the other way. If the data points to someone young delivering officiating at world-class levels, then speed up their ascent. Put them in the big games. Give them the big money. Let’s show all the refs that your tenure means nothing. Everyone starts the season on a blank slate and if you dip, you’re out. If you’re incredible, you go right to the top.
Howard Webb talking about his high performance culture is outrageously Jake Humphrey. What did you do, Howard? It all looks the same bar sending out apologies. It’s the same refs, making the same errors, and it costs jobs and joy.
Time for change. Time for the Premier League to act. Time for the clubs to do their bit.
That’s my piece.
P.S. I’m back in the UK for a funeral this week, so content is going to be slim from me. Back next week. ALSO, I change the AI rules for the comments, hopefully that improves the moderation.
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