Premier League refs "lazy" and 'not good enough' in brutal assessment

26 October 2023 , 08:25

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The standard of refereeing has been questioned (Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)

Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett believes the current generation of officials are not up to standard.

His time in the middle lasted more than two decades and since then he's seen the next crop of referees come through. However, the new group has copped major criticism, particularly this season, with Hackett suggesting they've become lazy.

The game has continued to move on with new rules, interpretations and, crucially, the introduction of VAR all changing the landscape. In recent weeks the PGMOL had to come out and accept mistakes have been made, some glaringly obvious, which has called the standard into question.

Hackett said on the Fair Game's We Love You Football, We Do podcast : “What we have seen over the years is a decline in the standards of refereeing. They’ve lost some of the required management skills, the good communication skills between players and referees.

“There are some referees that have reached the dizzying heights [of the Premier League] who have shortfalls in capability and I don’t think they are good enough.”

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VAR's role in the modern game has, according to Hackett, made the current referees lazy, knowing they can back out of making a big call in the knowledge their colleagues at Stockley Park can review the decision and often allow the on-field official to view it on a monitor.

However, the process is far from error-free, as Liverpool found out when they had a perfectly good goal ruled out for offside before a VAR clanger failed to reverse the decision.

The PGMOL has admitted several errors this season (Javier Garcia/REX/Shutterstock)

“There is a lack of basic law knowledge,” Hackett said. “VAR protocol says if there is a serious missed incident, the game can be stopped. Referees are practitioners of the law and if they’re not studying the law on a regular basis, we’re not going to advance refereeing.

“Referees get into trouble these days because they are lazy. Nigel Owens, the top-class rugby referee, warned me that the danger you have with VAR is it will promote lazy refereeing. And it has done that. I see referees hesitating on what is clearly a penalty.

“Is it fear that they don’t want to make an error or is it that they are waiting for the decision to come from the stop department? The role of the referee has to be to make the decision and then VAR to come in and help.”

Samuel Meade