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#Post#: 106429--------------------------------------------------
A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: DublinRef
Date: May 20, 2026, 9:25 am
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With this season drawing to a close, and leaving many
controversies behind it, I thought it might be interesting to
explore what the PGMOL really needs to improve on next season.
I’d have three things I’d wish for.
1. Dissent - I think Webb probably has reduced dissent from its
peak a few seasons ago, but there is a long long way to go. Like
so many other issues, the PGMOL doesn’t really treat dissent as
an actual law. They seem far more interested in context and
avoiding controversy. But dissent by action in particular is
clear in how it must be dealt with. Waving imaginary cards,
throwing one’s arms in the air or even at the referee are, or
should be, automatic yellow cards. This is not enforced
properly. Many if not most managers spend a great deal of time
outside the technical area, berating the officials. So often
this is ‘managed’ as the PGMOL would say, I say it’s simply
ignored. Allowing a player to scream at you, while remaining
composed, is not good man management - it’s a dereliction of
duty. Has there been one straight red card for dissent this
season? I can’t recall, but I’d wager in many many matches,
there are offences that warrant such action. Referees must be
allowed and implored to enforce dissent laws.
2. Refereeing by numbers - This needs to stop. Every decision
seems to be filtered through an interpretive process with steps
including ‘what football wants’, how do we have least impact and
then maybe as a footnote - what does the law say. Referees need
to return to being on field judges who see an incident, judge it
with respect to the relevant law, and using common sense and
experience, apply the correct sanction. SFP and handball are the
best examples of this. In order to achieve a desired outcome the
PGMOL have employed strained even atextual readings of the law
to the point of absolute farce. Talented referees should have a
simple process, read the laws, apply them. Sure, use your
experience and common sense to not be too rigid, but just let
referees do their job as conventionally intended.
3. VAR - Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay. For me the PGMOL
should just follow whatever it is UEFA does. Ok, they have
access to a wide pool of top referees, but their VAR processes
and standards for intervention cause far far less controversy in
my opinion and reach far far fewer farcical outcomes.
I’d be interested what everyone else thinks!
#Post#: 106430--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: rustyref
Date: May 20, 2026, 9:37 am
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For point 2, refereeing by numbers came about because of the
constant clamour by everyone in the game for consistent
decisions. You don't get consistent decisions if referees are
able to use common sense and experience, hence why they now
effectively have playbooks to deal with every situation. If
people want characters and mavericks as referees they will need
to accept that there won't be consistency of decisions.
Agree on VAR, it certainly seems to work better in UEFA
competitions, but we'd then have a lot more handball penalties
and I suspect we'd then be seeing complaints about penalties
being given where the defender really couldn't do a lot about
it.
#Post#: 106436--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: Ancientref
Date: May 20, 2026, 11:05 am
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i remember in the 60’s we were told to “read the ref” if we
didn’t already know his likes and dislikes.
We knew that all referees were different and had different
styles but we accepted it and adapted to what he wanted. Nobody
ever criticised a referee for his approach to refereeing and
certainly we never expected them all to be the same.
Let’s go back to the referee running the game his way in
accordance with the laws and not being concerned about keeping
22 players on the pitch.
Finally I’m not sure if it is still the case but players in the
past had a right of appeal against a sending off but the FA
could do nothing about a failure to send off by means of a
suspension for the player….we have had some instances recently
and I believe the copout is that in most cases the referee has
only given a yellow card, so the matter has been seen and dealt
with. In equity it should work both ways, so no appeal against a
red card or a right of appeal against a failure to send off. Of
course the clubs won’t like it and I may be wrong on the current
situation,
#Post#: 106443--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: TA_Ref
Date: May 20, 2026, 12:48 pm
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A wish list for next season… how many words am I allowed to
type! 😁
For me, the most important thing is to abandon the phrases ‘what
football expects’ and ‘what the game wants’ and let the PGMO
start the basis for officiating by the Laws of the Game and the
LOTG only.
I want to see more officials refereeing with authority and
confidence and for them to actually show a bit of character on
the pitch. Player power is ever growing in football whether it’s
on or off the pitch and the officials need to be the characters
that they are to allow the, to have full confidence in their own
officiating.
In terms of decision making, the top 3 things that irritate me
are probably holding offences, SFP and actions of dissent. All 3
need a thorough review in the summer and once again the PGMO
need to give the confidence to our officials to accurately
punish these offences as according to the LOTG. We need to see
more penalties for holding. We need to see officials evaluating
SFP accurately. We want to see dissent punished. Instead of
ignoring it, tackle it head on and we might solve a few of a
wide range of issues that football currently has.
Sometimes as officials, you have to be prepared to step into the
limelight and you might be the focus of controversy for a couple
of days. Take Tom Kirk for example in Everton vs Wolves and the
courage he showed to show Jack Grealish a 2YC for dissent by
sarcastic applause. It was a brilliant decision. No fear in
making a big decision which was unanimously backed by everyone
on here. Was the social media outcry positive? Of course it
wasn’t. But Tom was 100% correct to do so. As was Simon Hooper
when he showed a 2YC for dissent to Shea Lacey in the 3rd Round
of the FA Cup (Man Utd vs Brighton). This is the type of
standard I want to see when it comes to managing dissent rather
than blatantly ignoring it. It creates a stain on the game that
no one wants to see. In Howard Webb’s terms, football doesn’t
want players to be sent off for dissent - that’s why it is so
few and far between. But dissent is a caution, it is a basic law
that you learn in the first workshop when you become a referee.
It has to be applied at the top level. The same goes for the
other types of offences I’ve listed (SFP and holding). If you
see it (even if you think it), show the red card or point to the
penalty spot. And if you’ve made an error, no worries because
VAR can step in and help you out. That’s why it is there.
Also, I would quite like to see even more officials spread
across some of the better games in every gameweek. Generally, I
think the spread has been pretty good this year but even still,
I think some officials aren’t being used to their maximum
potential. Tom Bramall has had such a good season but I don’t
feel as if he’s ever had a standout game when I think he totally
deserves one. Same with Tony Harrington before he got injured. I
felt a top 6 game was always within his capabilities but he
hasn’t received one as of yet.
VAR, as DublinRef said, is here to stay. The clubs will keep
voting for it. The boards will keep voting for it so we have to
keep going. Personally, VAR only needs small tweaks for it to be
a good system but while some officials are still scared to
intervene in certain moments, it’s still not being used to its
full purpose. If only everyone can get a teaching lesson off of
Paul Howard and then our VAR standards might dramatically
increase across the board.
I don’t think anyone would particularly say it’s been a good
season for officials in this country. It’s been fairly
substandard, especially as we’ve reached the latter end of the
season. There are very few who can come out of the season with
their head held high - Michael Oliver, Anthony Taylor, Chris
Kavanagh, Thomas Bramall, Tony Harrington and Peter Bankes. I
think we need a greater level of consistency from the others and
hopefully we can have a good season next year. Whether Howard
Webb will be leading our officials into next season, that is a
totally different question.
Edit - wow… that was longer than I thought it was! 😅
#Post#: 106444--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: El Referee
Date: May 20, 2026, 12:52 pm
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1- Howard Webb to resign
I never really thought I’d say the above. I truly thought he
would be a really good head of refereeing. But there have been
far too many clangers, directives, change of directives &
apologies
2- Deal with set pieces shenanigans
Stop mollycoddling players and blowing the whistle just before
the ball is kicked to warn the players to stop wrestling. Let
them wrestle and then award the relevant sanction
3- open mic referee and VAR discussions when the referee is at
the monitor (not sure if IFAB currently allow this or not)
#Post#: 106446--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: Joecphillips
Date: May 20, 2026, 1:09 pm
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Can I have every decision go the way that will make me happy no
matter if right in law?
My real want is crack down on time wasting, book players who do
even if they are already booked.
Also go back to enforcing the laws rather than having
interpretations of this that is so far removed from that in
favour of "what the game wants/expects" a good 99% of people
want the laws enforced by the book.
#Post#: 106448--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: Adam
Date: May 20, 2026, 1:45 pm
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1. Get rid of PGMOL and have a new independent body oversee
officiating.
2. Put bmb in charge of the new body.
3. Ban the rag colored shirts and have plenty of pink and purple
on display weekly.
4. Promote Hallam, Kirk, Lewis Smith, Josh Smith and Kitchen as
they along with Bramall and Barrott have the potential to be the
faces of English refereeing in 10 years time.
5. Without naming names as I dont want to be mean, move some
officials down from the FIFA list to make way for others and
move some out of SG1 as a whole.
#Post#: 106454--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: bmb
Date: May 20, 2026, 5:11 pm
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--- Quote from: Adam link ---
>
> 1. Get rid of PGMOL and have a new independent body oversee
officiating.
>
> 2. Put bmb in charge of the new body.
>
> 3. Ban the rag colored shirts and have plenty of pink and
purple on display weekly.
>
> 4. Promote Hallam, Kirk, Lewis Smith, Josh Smith and Kitchen
as they along with Bramall and Barrott have the potential to be
the faces of English refereeing in 10 years time.
>
> 5. Without naming names as I dont want to be mean, move some
officials down from the FIFA list to make way for others and
move some out of SG1 as a whole.
>
--- End Quote ---
2 & 3 go without saying! [emoji23]
#Post#: 106458--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: Claretman
Date: May 20, 2026, 5:22 pm
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Kitchen cant be promoted now Burnley have been relegated.
Totally agree on adams point two and three.
Think the head of pgmol should be sacked not resign.
The game to be refereed to the laws of the game and fewer of
these guidelines to try to suit what the game wants.
Pink and purple only colurs to be worn by team ref at Dean Court
#Post#: 106461--------------------------------------------------
Re: A PGMOL Wishlist for Next Season
DIR By: Semi Retired
Date: May 21, 2026, 1:22 am
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My biggest wish would be to change the ownership structure of
PGMOL and make it fully independent.
It’s easy to say that referees should do x, Howard Webb should
do y, etc.
Where the Premier League (and thus the clubs) have a large stake
in funding the officials, there’s always going to be a large
sway towards how the clubs want to be officiated as opposed to
how they should be.
I’m not of the school of thought that Howard Webb should go…
we’ve had multiple leaders of PGMOL, none of whom are bad
people/leaders but all have had an absolutely impossible job.
This is the conversation that I often land in at the pub -
people saying refereeing is worse than ever, or there are more
clangers than ever. I don’t think there are; but I do think the
top level game now is virtually “unrefereeable”. There’s no
tolerance that we can’t have perfect decisions, yet an
unbearable pressure on the officials to do exactly that. There’s
a scrutiny beyond any reasonable position, and frankly it feels
like whatever they do they’re damned.
I always thought I’d have wanted to referee at the top level but
frankly I look at it now, and absolutely no thanks (not that I’d
have been good enough anyway!).
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