This blog was conceived after the Scottish Cup Final of 2004 when Celtic played Dunfermline. The idea was discussed in The Last Post pub in Paisley late at night as a means of allowing us to share news, opinions and post links of mutual interest. The date of the Final was 22 May.
Friday 30 December 2005
Should Referees Officiate in matches involving their own team?
I worked with Calum Murray at British Gas. A really nice bloke but a jambo through and through. Should he be allowed to take Hearts matches? But then I suppose if that rule was applied it would be hard to get someone for Rangers games.
I read over your blog and I found it inquisitive. Unfortunately it was marred by a very obvious oxymoron. A really nice bloke but a jambo through and through - self contradictory my man.
Anyway you must be very much mistaken. As directed I went to the appropriate web page and looked at the jambo's profile and found no mention of him being a Hearts supporter.
On the general question which you pose we can honestly say that there is nothing to be concerned about. People act completely impartially in these positions. Just look at the judiciary. Almost entirely (1) white - do black people get a raw deal or are they over represented in the prison population, (2) male - do women get a raw deal, are most men charged with rape acquitted, (3) English - is there a bias against any other nationality well for instance have any innocent Irish people been locked up and (4) upper class - are working class criminals more likely to be in prison than upper class ones. The answer to each is NO. So no need to worry about football.
This suggests that nobody can be impartial in these situations. That a referee will always favour the team he supports whether by intention or not. The logical answer to this is that we import our referees as they should not then be supporting one of the Scottish teams, but then we could say that there is their religion or politics (e.g. in Italy, some teams are split by politics). How many thai buddhist referees who do NOT support the thai royal family are we going to get to officiate at the next old firm game.
As a footnote, there are decent hearts supporters, they are not all gorgie huns. I am surrounded by hearts supporters in the village and almost to a man they dislike the old firm with rangers being the most disliked between the two. Not a scientific pole, but does suggest that stereotyping people is not limited to high court judges.
I read over your blog and I found it inquisitive. Unfortunately it was marred by a very obvious oxymoron. A really nice bloke but a jambo through and through - self contradictory my man.
ReplyDeleteAnyway you must be very much mistaken. As directed I went to the appropriate web page and looked at the jambo's profile and found no mention of him being a Hearts supporter.
On the general question which you pose we can honestly say that there is nothing to be concerned about. People act completely impartially in these positions. Just look at the judiciary. Almost entirely (1) white - do black people get a raw deal or are they over represented in the prison population, (2) male - do women get a raw deal, are most men charged with rape acquitted, (3) English - is there a bias against any other nationality well for instance have any innocent Irish people been locked up and (4) upper class - are working class criminals more likely to be in prison than upper class ones. The answer to each is NO. So no need to worry about football.
Just one thing Hearts 2 Celtic 3. Poor Callum.
This suggests that nobody can be impartial in these situations. That a referee will always favour the team he supports whether by intention or not.
ReplyDeleteThe logical answer to this is that we import our referees as they should not then be supporting one of the Scottish teams, but then we could say that there is their religion or politics (e.g. in Italy, some teams are split by politics). How many thai buddhist referees who do NOT support the thai royal family are we going to get to officiate at the next old firm game.
As a footnote, there are decent hearts supporters, they are not all gorgie huns. I am surrounded by hearts supporters in the village and almost to a man they dislike the old firm with rangers being the most disliked between the two. Not a scientific pole, but does suggest that stereotyping
people is not limited to high court judges.