Ex-Fifa official: Liverpool handed major boost after confirmed referee news
Liverpool and the rest of the Premier League have been handed a major boost after Mike Riley confirmed he will leave his role as head of the PGMOL during the 2022-23 season.
That is the view of ex-Premier League and Fifa referee and Riley’s predecessor at the PGMOL Keith Hackett, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about Riley’s decision.
As relayed by the Athletic on Saturday (25 June), the 57-year-old confirmed his decision in a statement.
He spent 13 years in charge of the organisation after succeeding Hackett in 2009.
Asked whether he welcome Riley’s decision, Hackett told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley: “Absolutely.
“There are no doubts that the Premier League recognised a decline in standards in Premier League refereeing.
“Something needed to be done. Ultimately at the end of the day, you want referees to be world-class, they are operating in a world-class competition with world-class players so you want the very best.
“That’s why I’ve said for several years the overall standard of officiating at the top has narrowed.
“When I was there I was lucky I had 10 world-class referees.
“There are several areas. I’ve been concerned about the fitness. It’s Ok to be fit but you’ve got to apply that on the field of play.
“We’ve analysed decisions and compared them to Scottish referees who are not full-time professionals and we’re seeing the distance in terms of proximity to play and viewing angle. The decisions in Scotland have been achieved because of the motivation of the referee to get into the right area.
“Then we go back to the accountability of a referee. One of the errors that was made was ceasing to have observers or assessors at matches. When you look at the Fifa model they will always have ex-referees who are monitoring the performance of referees at the ground.
“Then they will talk to that referee and run through the performance at the end of the match. That was an error, to stop having assessors at the ground analysing performances.
“There are confidence issues here. A referee thinks he’s done really bad and an assessor can come in and raise the spirit of that individual.”
In other news, an expert has revealed a Liverpool plan is doomed to fail after a boardroom capitulation.