Let me draw your attention to the football game this week between Southampton and Newcastle in the Carabao cup (for the incident fwd to 7mins 40 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TFfnELi-s4&t=497s) which involved an “inadvertent hand” of Southampton’s Adam Armstong. Trailing by a goal to nil, Southampton equalised and were awarded the goal until VAR intercepted the decision. The eagle eyed reviewers in their booth quite rightly spotted contact with the player’s hand. By the letter of the law, the officials disallowed the goal and the travelling Newcastle fans could breathe again. This is what it’s come to? A game dictacted to us by analysts in a video booth miles away from the action… There was not a player on the field appealing for the decision and nobody in the stands would have had a clue either. Surely this is a case of technology gone wrong?

Let me draw an analogy that I experienced this week. In collecting a hire car I drove my annual trip to glentress mountain bike centre of Scotland with some postgraduate students for an away day. As I was driving along I suddenly felt the car pull to the left, and was forced to correct the steering, thinking “oh no I must have a flat tyre” but as I continued the problem stopped. Moments later the same happened again and i noticed a light illuminating on the dashboard – the image of a car swerving… “ahh it must be the anti-lock braking”, I thought. But no, I wasn’t braking. It was only at that point that I noticed the “Driver Assistance” light was activitated and realised it was the auto-sensors steering my away from the lines on the road. So this safety measure, designed to protect me from danger was in fact threatening the safety of me and my passengers. What’s more disturbing is that this “assistive technology” appears to be set as the default, thus rendering the next passenger who has not encountered driver assistance before, equally at its peril.

Technology does not understand context

It strikes me that this is what is happening with VAR, which led me to thinking about defenders placing their hands behind their back so as not to incur a handball when the attacker shoots past them. This clearly unnatural position for the arms, then renders the defender vulnerable to a handball if they are struck with the ball as their arms are clearly not in a natural position. So what do i do as a defender have my arms at my side balancing my movement in a natural position but risk getting a contact that could look awkward and deemed a handball or try to hide them and equally risk giving away a free-kick for handball… This is absolutely bonkers. I think more power needs to be given to the onfield players (the captain) to contest when they think a wrong-doing has occurred (to the naked eye) rather then being dictated to by an unknown in a studio in Stockley park who feels obliged to find fault and enforce the letter of the law which nobody wants! Time for a rethink…

Are we really creating an effective environment to recruit, retain and develop match officials? In a study conducted by Edinburgh Napier University student Niamh Westwood, surveying over 10% of Scotland’s soccer match officials, 96% of the respondents indicated that they had experienced verbal abuse whilst officiating. This probably comes as no surprise, but perhaps more alarmingly, when provided with definitions of types of abuse…

Physical abuse: “the intentional use of physical contact in an aggressive manner, and can involve hitting, kicking, biting and spitting”

Verbal abuse: “the raising of voices and name calling and can be done in an aggressive manner”

Online abuse: ” is termed as “insulting and abusive language directed towards an individual across all form of online communications, including social media”

25% of the 220 respondents highlighted that they had suffered from physical abuse. A quarter of our officiating population have been physically assaulted whilst performing their duties. Imagine if that was your workplace. Clearly this is not acceptable, but what is anyone doing about it?

Commentators Fuel the Fire

A recent Linkedin post by Premiership Rugby and 6-Nations match official Christophe Ridley highlighted the extent of the problem. Following England men’s soccer team’s exit in the world cup quarter final 2022 pundit Gary Neville Tweeted “Ref’s a Joke”. Adopting a more considered response Christophe posted the following

“The ripple effect of this tweet impacts refereeing standards in the long term. Even for those who do pick up a whistle, in the end all you’re left with is the referees that are able to tolerate and survive … not the actual best referees! Unknowingly this damages the game.”

Absolutely spot on. So called pundits are damaging the game. Those in positions of power should assume responsiblity for preserving the integrity of our game instead of de-humanising this most important individuals who give up there time to allow the game to continue #norefsnogame.

27% of our soccer referees surveyed had also experienced online abuse. Given the population were largely community level referees, it is highly likely that the higher profile officials are likely to have experienced even higher levels. So, ask yourself. If you love your game – what are you doing to help it’s growth in the right direction?

I’m really excited to be hosting a showcase of some of our students work on Friday 15th July 10am BST (GMT+1). The session will be live streamed on Facebook and on Linkedin.

Research conducted by Jack Birtwhistle (Masters student at Edinburgh University & Supervisor of Dr Amanda Martindale) in conjunction with colleagues at Edinburgh Napier University used eye-tracking glasses to test officiating expertise with 3 international touch rugby referees.

I’ll save you my ramblings on the theoretical contributions of the paper, but from an applied perspective it makes some significant findings. Given the complexity of officiating the touch and roll-ball in parallel to managing the offside line it appears that expert referees use their advanced knowledge of the game to predict and prevent infringements before they occur. This allows them to preload the defenders on where the eminent offside line will be by both communicating to them positioning themselves on that line before it comes into play.

Although this may not be groundbreaking news to those referees operating at this level, it is the first scientific study to use in-game footage with the addition of eye-tracking glasses to examine such cognitive challenges for match officials. The table below reveals the ordering system that helps referees to manage these demands.

The three referees in the study, each who have officiated over 50 international games of touch rugby, all cited the importance of teamwork, and how they rely on their sideline officials to manage other aspects of the game, so that they can remain focused on the more central players.

It is expected that the protocol employed here, using first-person, eye-tracked footage, together with postgame review (known as applied cognitive task analysis) will for the basis for future online digital training for sports officials across all sports.

Having developed a series of CPD modules for the ECB Association of Cricket Officials last year Tanya Aldred from Wisden Cricket Monthly contacted Duncan to find out more about the challenges of cricket umpiring. In December’s edition Duncan discusses different approaches to managing conflict and how a range of strategies can help umpires deal with difficult players.

Edinburgh Napier University is soon to launch its CPD platform for sports officials. You can learn strategies on how to enhance aspects of your game, including; verbal communication, non-verbal communication, understanding players, conflict management, coping with pressure, pre-game briefings, mental toughness, managing distractions and mental well-being. By condensing the latest research and drawing upon experts in the area, you can learn strategies to help you make more accurate decisions under pressure and communicate more effectively with players. Here’s a taster of what you can expect from our module on “Understanding Players”….

The brand new MSc Performance Enhancement in Sports Officiating is designed for national and international level referees/umpires. This part-time masters degree runs 100% online, so you can complete it in your own time, wherever you are!

Based at Edinburgh Napier University you will have checkpoints through the year designed to help share expertise with other national/international level officials. You will meet your tutors who will mentor you through your degree with ongoing online support and video based activities.

Course Structure:

Trimester 1 – Work Based Learning for Sports Officials: You will complete a 360 degree profile, including peer/coach/self-reflections to identify areas for your personal development.

Trimester 2 – Communication & Game Management: Through extensive use of video you will learn the different ways in which players try to influence you, your own typical conflict management style and how to enhance your verbal and non-verbal communication skills for developing more effective relationships.

Trimester 3 – Leadership and Organisational Management for Sports Officials: You will learn contemporary theories to relate to your own leadership capabilities and evaluate them in relation to effective organisational, team and game management.

After year one you have the option of exiting with a PG-Certificate Performance Enhancement in Sports Officiating, or you can continue to year 2:

Trimester 1 – High-Pressure Decision Making: Using theories developed in the military, fire-fighting and NASA space control you will learn about principles of decision training. Addressing a hot topic in your sport you will be guided through mechanisms to assess and train more accurate in-game decisions for you and your colleagues.

Trimester 2 & 3 – Independent Study: In this module you will be encouraged to research a practice-based problem, tailored to suit your own personal needs in your sporting context. The module is designed flexibly to develop your critical and reflective thinking in relation to your own professional needs.

After year two you have the option of exiting with a PG-Diploma Performance Enhancement in Sports Officiating, or you can continue to year 3:

Trimester’s 1, 2 & 3 (September to August) – Research Project: This module will require you to conduct a programme of independent research within your practice, led by a supervisor with expertise in the area.

Interested? Drop Duncan a line at d.mascarenhas@napier.ac.uk, or click here for information on Fees and to How to Apply.

#refereecpd  #science4refs