I mean, I’m not saying that there was any corruption or explicit instruction to give them a penalty, but even the minor thought that a certain club’s state-owners might pay me/hire me more often can be incredibly enticing.
I mean, I’m not saying that there was any corruption or explicit instruction to give them a penalty, but even the minor thought that a certain club’s state-owners might pay me/hire me more often can be incredibly enticing.
I find it ridiculous how low (relatively speaking, compared to how much everyone else on the pitch and the manger make) they are paid. Apparently its something like 60k base + 2k/match. So they make like 100-120k/year. This is after years of officiating in lower leagues for less than half that salary.
If they are were paid something like 300-400k/year or even more, there would be no need for them to go to UAE and officiate games there. I also suspect it’d attract better referees - after all who wants to spend years referring for what like 30-40k in lower leagues and for a shot at 100-120k/year when they are will into middle age?
It’s not like the EPL can’t afford it. Just increase their salaries and ban them from moonlighting and you remove this conflict of interest.
They should definately get paid a lot more. Just the horrors their family members have to go trough from time to time as well.
If they are were paid something like 300-400k/year or even more, there would be no need for them to go to UAE and officiate games there
Just like there is no need for football players to go to Saudi to earn more after being millionaires in Europe.
I’m sorry but 120k a year to referee a couple of matches each week is a lot of money. 60k base is huge, for essentially doing nothing. It’s not like they’re athletes, some of them are outright out of shape, like, what the fuck do they do with their time? A couple of meetings to discuss refereeing shit? They’re essentially doing a relatively normal work out plan (the kind of thing plenty of people do as a hobby) and then running around for 90 minutes, and they’re collecting a massive salary for it, and then most of them still manage to do a terrible job.
They’re basically robbing the league blind at this point.
So would you become a premier league referee for £120k a year? Constant abuse from fans, name thrown everywhere if you get any decision wrong (which no matter how good you’re is going to happen because they’re human) being recognisable around the world and being likely to have a random have a go at you for a previous decision. Players swearing at you. You’re happy to do this for £120k?
Yes, 100%. This is what a lot of doctors/surgeons get paid and they have to do like a decade of study and have people’s lives in their hands, so yes. To jog around a bit, blow a whistle, and have the best view of football of literally any non-player, yes, 120k sounds like theft.
You can’t compare what football earns to what doctors and nurses get paid. We just go back to having a go at what everyone earns in football the and the non footballing fan saying that it’s a disgrace what footballers earn for kicking a ball around. Refs are an integral part of the football setup and should be paid accordingly.
I can and I will. You’re talking about risks and repercussions in work, there are many, many jobs where the risks are far worse than what a referee risks. Police, who get paid less, how much do they risk? There are mundane jobs where people don’t get paid much but the regulatory and compliance environment means they risk jail time if they mess up. Builders, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, all of these jobs, if they do something wrong they risk financially and legally. If you don’t fit a seatbelt or a tire or a break pad right as a mechanic and that ends up killing someone in an accident, you risk literal fucking jail time. So again, give me 120k to jog around for 180 odd minutes every week with a bunch of overpaid wankers and I’ll take it every day.
You wanted to talk about salaries and what the job is and now you don’t because you realised your argument was a bit dumb, but no, I’m sorry, they get paid plenty and looking at their performances I’d say they deserve less.
It’s not just about what they “deserve”. It’s staving off corruption, and also attracting top talent to the job. The weak talent pool we have for officials at the top level is clearly evidence of that. You can afford to pay someone shit wages in retail because you can always throw a new body in there when you burn out the others. Not so with refs, it takes years to train up a PL level ref.
And to be clear, I advocate for higher wages for the officials, but hand in hand with greater consequences for huge errors like we’ve seen.
The idea that higher wages prevents corruption is false. Only checks and balances will do that, and football has very few.
People do it for minimum wage mate what re you talking about you’ve clearly never worked retail.
Yea because working in retail and being a PL ref is comparable? How did you even come to that conclusion?
People do it in retail because they have no other choice. It just creates a self fulfilling circle where anyone competent in retail leaves so you only have incompetent people in retail who trigger angry abuse from customers.
Keep in mind that referees basically start at minimum wage too, refing kids games and Sunday leagues where they still get abuse despite the fact that these games have literally no stakes attached.
Yes I would, it is double what I am paid now and I feed 3 more people.
Yeah, sign me the fuck up.
You really do underestimate people’s greed. There should be no need for footballers earning hundreds of thousands a week to go play in Saudi for a bit more but it’s still happening.
you speak complete sense. its the same reason you get weirdos in power positions.
when the pay is low only dickheads apply, all of the sane and good people leave the profession.
same reason grass roots refs are maniacs with the abuse - the sane people leave.
basically pay more, better resources, and safer environment then better candidates will come
The pay isn’t even as much as that. It’s around £40k a year and then it’s around £850-£1200 for each game depending on what role you are. The top refs who do European and international games get topped up with more match fees so they can make £100k+ but it’s only a handful of them.
That’s ignoring that it takes the best part of a decade to get to that point and you spend a lot of years travelling around off your own money for about £20 officiating sunday league games.
If only Ronaldo had been paid well he would never have needed to go to SA.
He turned down Saudi in the summer to stay at United. He even shopped himself around pretty much every CL club and was close to joining Chelsea until Tuchel said no. Saudi was never his first option. He went to Saudi because he isn’t good enough to play for a top club anymore.