Referees have got an increasingly difficult job, because the game has become faster and every decision they make can be scrutinised by multiple camera angles. However, I don't think there is much capacity for technology to improve officiating during the course of a game other than goal line technology. Technology should be used retrospectively to correct obvious mistakes though.
There are 5 main areas I would change to hopefully improve the quality of officiating. The cost would make them viable only for the professional game, but I think they would definitely improve on the current situation:
- Introduce goal-line technology. It may not be 100% accurate, but it should help reduce the errors made in this area significantly.
-Extra Officials - I don't agree with Platini's idea of extra officials behind the goal as I have yet to see them be a positive influence on the decision making in the games that I have seen with them present. However, I would put 2 extra linesman to help split the workload and allow them to concentrate on specific duties. Out of the four linesmen, 2 would be responsible for monitoring the offsides, while the other two would aid the referee in the policing of other infringements.
- Simplify the Offside Rule - I don't agree with this current active vs passive stance as it confusing and open to abuse. I would go back to the old system whereby everything beyond the last defender is offside.
- Change on field punishments - The penalty for incidents should fit the crime and allow a reasonable advantage to the offended team. I would introduce sin-bins as a means of penalising teams in the same game rather than allowing another team to benefit from the effect later on.
Red cards should be used exclusively to punish very dangerous behaviour, and also be used when the same player tots up 2 yellows. The red would not be used for professional fouls denying a clear goal-scoring chance. As far as I know FIFA is already looking at changes to the potential triple whammy of red card offences for professional fouls (intentional or not) whereby a team can be hit by player expulsion, penalty kick conceded and subsequent player suspension.
Yellow cards should result in a 10min departure for the guilty player. This will benefit the opposing team. As a result, the threshold to recieve a yellow card should be much higher. i.e. bad (but not red card) challenges and cynical fouls would be covered by yellow cards.
Ordinary fouls would be penalised by a simple free-kick, but dissent and other non-game offences would be penalised by appropriate fines. Severe dissent could be penalised by a yellow card though.
- Retrospective Punishments - apart from covering the obvious mistakes, certain behaviour should be targeted within reason even if the evidence is not 100% conclusive. For example, instances where diving is heavily suspected to have gained a significant advantage should be targeted with an appropriate penalty to act as a deterrent. This would mean on-field referees may find it easier if players realise that efforts to dupe the referee could have further consequences and thus act accordingly. This is probably the most difficult to put into practice, but common agreement between clubs and managers with the FAs should allow a suitable framework to work with and enforce.
One other thing that might help as well in terms of keeping the game flowing and reducing abuse of the system is to ban substitutions in injury time while making all injured players be treated off the field, unless it would jeopardise their health to do so. That way managers cannot use subs to time-waste after a certain point and players feigning injury in the later stages may leave their team a man short.
Hopefully all these would help improve the quality of officiating by a combination of rule changes, increased referee coverage and altering player behaviour.
