Saturday 7 April 2012

What does the PGMOL and Premier League have to hide?

These simple questions have been sent to the Premier League and PGMOL repeatedly.  These authorities have not even sent a response to these questions, not even a statement saying that they cannot answer the questions despite their silence making it very clear that they have something to hide.  Here are the simple 8 questions that the Premier League refuse to answer:


"1. Would it be possible to see the template scoring systems (for both match assessor and match delegate) used for assessing the performance of referees at games?  Obviously I do no expect to see specific scored but would like to see the blank marking sheets to see what they are scored on for each game.

2. Are referees routinely scored based on the review of match videos after games?

3. If the answer to 3 is yes, then are they scored for their technical performance ie whether specific decisions were right or wrong in games?

4. The figure quoted by Mike Riley is that 99% of assistant referee decisions on offside are correct.  Where does this data come from, it is based on video review of the decisions or some other form of review (match assessors or delegates)?

5. Does the PGMO think that the region of the country from which a referee originates may result in some unconscious decision making bias?

6. Does the PGMO agree with the substantive body of research that shows referees will tend to unconsciously favour the home side with decisions?

7. Are you able to give me some basic details of who makes up the PGMO?

8.  Are you able to give me any details on how referees are selected? ie how often are the meetings and who is involved?"



The geographic skew of Premier League officials is a massive source of subconscious bias in isolation, but given how many other potential flaws there are in the refereeing process it may just be the small tip of the iceberg.


The Premier League and PGMOL are behaving like a corrupt 3rd world dictatorship.  They are acting like they have something to hide.  The fact that such a massive multi-billion pound industry operate so unaccountably and behind closed doors is rather scary, especially when they appear to be completely unregulated by anyone independent.  I will not give up repeating my questions but do not hold out much hope for any kind of meaningful answer.  The Premier League knows that the best tactic is silence when their hidden and shady world is threatened with exposure. 

2 comments:

ClockEndRider said...

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

there is an article on the Football League website by David Allison on How Officials are appointed and I would Guess Premier League Officials are Appointed the same way except of course that Premier League Referees have been full time for 10 years or so.