Besides why is American football even coming up in this conversation? It’s about Italian referees.

In particolare gli arbitri avrebbero ipotizzato due forme di protesta: fermarsi e non scendere in campo o cominciare tutte le gare di campionato con 15′ di ritardo. La decisione definitiva verrà comunque presa nella riunione del prossimo 13 marzo. Se la linea dello sciopero dovesse effettivamente passare, la nona giornata di ritorno sarebbe dunque a rischio.

Because of all the attention to the referee calls recently, the refs are considering a strike. They will make a decision March 13. It may simply be that games will start 15 minutes late in one game, or they may not work on the ninth day of the return part of the season. (I guess that would be week 28, March 16)

http://controcampo.mediaset.it/articoli/articolo6500.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ75yZEHr04&feature=related

The FIGC and the AIA need to be independent bodies, and ideally, impartial ones. I think that if the FIGC really wants to clean up their shop, they should start with the accounting department and completely revamp how and from whom they receive sponsorship dollars. Perhaps putting a cap on the amount of money any one particular group is allowed to plug into their system?? It’s like a politician taking money from a lobby group. Even the superficial appearance of being in someone’s back pocket can be incredibly damaging to public perception. And when you combine this with the Italian culture of rampant conspiracy theories it’s a recipe for chaos – as this season bears witness.

Certainly more referee training is required and since human error is always going to happen, I like the idea of another official in the box and quite like the idea of video replay as well. It works in the NHL because they don’t stop to dissect every single play and so the flow of the game isn’t damaged. In fact, in most hockey games I’ve watched they rarely bother going upstairs for the second opinion – it’s just available if and when needed. But I still think these measures really only scratch at the surface of a problem that goes way beyond calico in Italian society. I think any truly meaningful solution has to involve breaking up the tangled web of monopolies, power, conflicts of interest, money and shady allegiances hiding behind the game and making the whole thing a lot more transparent.

The idea of having foreign refs misses a major fact, and that happens to be that across the world, the style of football differs ever so slightly from country to country.

Im in Scotland and grew up watching Scottish teams such as Rangers and Celtic, and also followed the EPL. These guys play a slightly more physical game than some of their European counterparts (Gattuso aside!) and as a result the refs tolerate a harsher level of physical contact. These refs may not be tolerated by calcio tifosi should they be flown over there to officate.

Im not sure that a ref from one country would be able to fully appreciate the nuances in the style of play in another league.

If any of u guys (or gals) watched the recent African Cup of Nations then you may have noticed that of all the matches played, there was possibly only one or two matches played that resulted in a nil-nil result. The teams were very good to watch as they all wanted to attack but some lacked the tactical need to defend (hence the very high goal count) and some of the tackles made ME wince.

It is generally agreed that the leagues in Spain & Italy are considered to be alot more technically proficient (you just have to look at the list of winners of CL and UEFA comps) than alot of other nations espec. in europe and the refs should be home grown regardless of country.

I do however agree with using video replays in football, especially for divers and even more, where a player fakes an injury (that REALLY pisses me off) when a guy hits the deck clutching his face etc, imagine being the player who gets red carded when you’ve not even touched the guy and he’s now on the ground screaming!! I think that the replays should be used for dubious goal clearances as well as shady offsides! (Even though this might make life harder for Super Pippo!)

As for wether or not the replays would kill the flow of the game, again, i cast doubt, as i have watched many a match where players are falling down faking or the ref breaks up the flow. But this is always usually made up for with added on time, the technology is at such a level now where the distruption could be minimised.

How many times have you seen a ref play advantage and then later go back and pick up a player for an incident? The same could be done with video replays no?

I done think we as tifosi should turn in on ourselves either, yes we’ve had a blow, but winning a world cup and the high number of italain teams in CL finals still says alot to the world, even though im not italian, i was sooooo proud to see the Azzuri lift that trophy, it was the perfect middle finger to the doubters imo.

Someone will have to correct me but im sure, that when Jaap Stam was sold to Lazio he was instantly caught out by a drugs test having literatly stepped off the plane from Manchester but i dont remember any of the press making anything out of it.

Anyone remember?