Ex-Premier League official: Liverpool may be at centre of ‘complete’ referee overhaul after development
Liverpool and the rest of the Premier League will undergo a “complete” overhaul of referee standards if Howard Webb replaces Mike Riley as head of the PGMOL.
That is the view of the organisation’s former head and ex-Premier League referee Keith Hackett, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the issue that could majorly affect Liverpool.
The Telegraph reported last week (1 June) that current referee chief Riley is fighting for his job and a possible solution is to bring Webb back into a senior position.
The 50-year-old, who officiated the 2014 World Cup final, hung up his whistle in 2014 and is currently in a similar role within MLS.
“I’m pretty clear that if he was to come in, it will be December because of his contract, he’s got to be given a complete licence in terms of a restructure,” Hackett told Football Insider‘s Connor Whitley.
“If he doesn’t restructure and just hangs on to what he’s already got then what’s the point?
“For me, it goes into various aspects. Firstly, it’s the management of the organisation. He’s got to have in place a structured management that can actually operate a £20million business.
“Is his time going to be eroded, in terms of availability, going into management issues around the budget rather than actually what is needed, the frontline stuff.
“What has to be looked at is the group of referees, are they good enough? Who needs to be retained? Who needs to be moved on? Following that, that applies to assistant referees in the same manner.
“Then select group two who are the championship referees. Are they referees who are going to fulfil the requirements for select group one in the future?
“If in two years those SG2 referees are not banging on the door of SG1 they shouldn’t be in that group. There’s got to be churn at the top and in SG2.
“How are those performances assessed and reviewed? I think they’ve got to step back into the Uefa convention model and that is assessors at every game, former referees who can actually analyse performance in detail.
“Get rid of the invigilator system, it’s not worked. That’s a group sitting around a table and it’s too comfortable.
“Then it’s onto referee coaches and mentors. Here they’ve been rubbish. Can he attract back into coaching referees? That’s going to be a fairly difficult task but if he does then he’s got to train them.”
In other news, Kieran Maguire has revealed Liverpool are to dodge Uefa ‘snipers’ as a £1billion deal is announced.