‎Do referee officials always have a fair advantage?

[Emeraldo]

I wanted to know if you have ever seen it the same way that indeed, referee officials have a fair advantage in any game or tournament which of course always favor their favorite team to win or you have a better opinion on the matter?
‎

Referees are supposed to officiate without being biased, and any referee who has a connection with any playing team should not be the one officiating to remove the temptation of favouring one particular team over the other.

In just the concluded At AFCON, the Ghanaian referee who officiated the finals between Morocco and Senegal was said to have taken a bribe from the host nation (Morocco) because of how things were obviously going on the field; it was pretty obvious that he was against Senegal players.

A referee is expected to completely stay out of favor to any team as such he or she is supposed to be neutral any attempt to favor one team and leaving the other, the game is already a messed up game and will not be interesting to watch again. For the referee that officiated against the Senegal team in the just concluded afcon final, if it is confirmed true that he actually was bribed to favour the host nation Morocco then he has just messed up his career because it's a height discipline and cross misconduct to take a bribe just to favour one team when the game was supposed to be a free and fair game.

[Dunamisx]

Any referee in a football match that act in an abnormal way will have to face the sanction of whatsoever that is worth the measure of the atrocity committed, because football is not a game that can be easily manipulated, when other viewers around the world are watching and I also believed they wouldn't want to jeopardize with their profession, because that is what they are being trained for, to apply justice on every situation accordingly, not being partial or develop fair advantage over one and against the other.

[Fiatless]

‎I wanted to know if you have ever seen it the same way that indeed, referee officials have a fair advantage in any game or tournament which of course always favor their favorite team to win or you have a better opinion on the matter?

Humans can easily build emotional attachment. These referees might not have been bribed or are fans of any team, but they might just develop a liking for one team. I have officiated in some football games and at some point, I might start liking a player or the team. This will begin to influence my decisions. My experince might be because I am not well trained.

I think officials should be fair and remove every form of likeness or other connections with any team in a match. 

[Africolo]

 
‎I have thought about this from top to bottom and I still come to a biased conclusion based on football and other major league tournaments I have seen live and how a particular team just seems to be spotless and the other one is the scapegoat, maybe due to less star players or because they are not as big or popular as the former.
‎
‎Refereeing as an officiate duty is supposed to be objective even with the initiative of VAR/relay technology to make it more efficient and accurate as possible, but we can't rule out the human psychology and systemic factors that can create a perceived advantage.
‎It is strictly forbidden for a referee to consciously favor any team as it could mean the end of the career of such a referee found wanting, still, a well documented scientific researched phenomenon, doesn't rule out the subconscious bias which can interfere in a referee's decision and create the perceived advantage I am talking about.
‎
‎I wanted to know if you have ever seen it the same way that indeed, referee officials have a fair advantage in any game or tournament which of course always favor their favorite team to win or you have a better opinion on the matter?
‎

Referees officiating football matches are supposed to be free and unbiased when it comes to officiating games but most times they seem to favor a particular team than the other and it now looks as if they have been Bride behind doors, now let's look at what happened in the just concluded African Cup of Nations where Morocco were the host, it was very obvious that the referee were officiating in their favor even when  a Nigerian player was fouled by a Moroccan player the Nigerian player was given a yellow card and even in the finals as the referee biasedly awarded a penalty in favor of the morrocans we all saw what happened that the Senegalese Coach ordered his players to go off the pitch for over 15 minutes and that was embarrassing.

So while officiating the referee shouldn't be biased he should be fair in all decisions making on both teams than favouring one over the other in other not to tarnish his image and the profession he represents.

[Woodie]

Fair advantage I don't know, maybe unfair advantage because they can choose to ruin a good game or officiating a sports game in the best interests of both teams that game goes smoothly.. but unfortunately with gambling in the picture, match fixing, fan pressure , betting mafias and all that...honestly their jobs get tougher even with technologies like VAR which never gets to help the ref especially in 50/50 challenges.

Otherwise like they say to err is to human , so refs are not perfect and mistake and bad calls are bound to happen.

[nimogsm]

This is a good topic for discussion. In fact, I agree that referees should be as impartial as possible towards both teams so that the game is fair to them. But today, with so much money involved in the world of sports, I sometimes have doubts that matches and events in them may be rigged. For example, in soccer, the referee can issue yellow cards or ignore them, which creates an opportunity for speculation.In the top leagues, this is hardly possible, but in the second or third divisions, I think the referees are not always honest.

[Furious 7]

‎
‎I wanted to know if you have ever seen it the same way that indeed, referee officials have a fair advantage in any game or tournament which of course always favor their favorite team to win or you have a better opinion on the matter?
‎

I don't want to lead an opinion for the current referees because indeed for me there must be a professional level that must be carried out but in this case including for referees whose job is to uphold justice with sportsmanship in the end there are always a lot of things that are not really expected including for bribery and other problems.
But that's only a handful of the many that happen because there are so many capable referees today who do not take sides and do their job well even though there are some that might be considered as wrong decision making in some moments.
It's just that for those who make the wrong decision it will be much better than those who pawn the trust of many people for a sum of money and until now there are still those like that where they use their power for personal gain.

[Byebyebtc]

Naturally a referee is fair and has no support for any team, but presently from some matches I watch referees are sometimes one sided, I noticed this also in the recent AFCON that just passes,
In multiple games referee always seems to support a particular country, probably they have bribed him/her, but this is a very bad situation because you will cost the other team to play too careful there fore making them have to loose the match.

In the world we are today, alot of referee's fall for bribery, if any of this is noticed they must be kicked out of referring forever

[Ishicryptic]

Any referee in a football match that act in an abnormal way will have to face the sanction of whatsoever that is worth the measure of the atrocity committed, because football is not a game that can be easily manipulated, when other viewers around the world are watching and I also believed they wouldn't want to jeopardize with their profession, because that is what they are being trained for, to apply justice on every situation accordingly, not being partial or develop fair advantage over one and against the other.

A referee in a game must be professional and unbiased even when they are secretly supporting a team, it is a job that they are given therefore they shouldn't add any sentiments when carrying out their duties. Modern refereeing has made the job of referees to be more transparent with the introduction of VAR they now have the chance to review their decisions. Any referee that is found to have officiated biasefully should be sanctioned and it should be made public to deter others from officiating unfairly. Despite these measures to curb bad and unfair officiating by referees we still see cases that are very glaring that a referee was clearly very biased, the solution is for organizers to be investigating such cases and give appropriate punishments to such referees

[arwin100]

Fair advantage I don't know, maybe unfair advantage because they can choose to ruin a good game or officiating a sports game in the best interests of both teams that game goes smoothly.. but unfortunately with gambling in the picture, match fixing, fan pressure , betting mafias and all that...honestly their jobs get tougher even with technologies like VAR which never gets to help the ref especially in 50/50 challenges.

Otherwise like they say to err is to human , so refs are not perfect and mistake and bad calls are bound to happen.

If there's controversial situation happened for sure many people will notice it and for sure there's investigation going, but if there's just a miss calls we cannot assume immediately that those referee is taking advantage on their position since just like what you have said they are humans and probe to errors.

I remember some controversy happening on NBA and I see this on some content of social media page on where a referee is engage on game fixing here it is https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/law/nba-referee-tim-donaghy-sentenced-prison-betting-games

So chances for same situation might happen on other sports or games and authorities need to investigate it if there's some reported cheating happened.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

Any referee in a football match that act in an abnormal way will have to face the sanction of whatsoever that is worth the measure of the atrocity committed, because football is not a game that can be easily manipulated, when other viewers around the world are watching and I also believed they wouldn't want to jeopardize with their profession, because that is what they are being trained for, to apply justice on every situation accordingly, not being partial or develop fair advantage over one and against the other.

Some football matches are actually manipulated by the referee without consequences. I've watched a couple of them and would give you two popular examples.

• The semifinal March of UEFA champions League between Chelsea and Barcelona in Stamford bridge in 2009 was heavily manipulated by Tom Henning Øvrebø who was the officiating referee. I can't remember any consequences to his actions and he was later smuggled out of England by the police when he received multiple death threats.
• The final match between Morocco and Senegal in the AFCON was a clear referee manipulation but until now there's no disciplinary action against him either by CAF or FIFA.

These obvious manipulation cannot be mistaken for officiating errors because there were many occasions of it. It's crazy that those manipulations are very obvious but governing bodies keep silent on it. Maybe there's their own definition of manipulation that isn't known to us.

[Mpamaegbu]

‎It is strictly forbidden for a referee to consciously favor any team as it could mean the end of the career of such a referee found wanting, still, a well documented scientific researched phenomenon, doesn't rule out the subconscious bias which can interfere in a referee's decision and create the perceived advantage I am talking about.

Yes, while it's forbidden for referees to tilt to a team; I don't think these referees do get their due punishment when they derail, especially those from Africa. I don't think Africa has institutions with the will to melt out deserving punishment on these erring referees like their European counterparts do. Just look at the recently concluded AFCON and what nearly became of it with bad officiating. If we didn't pick out any bad ones, at least the last match with Morocco and Senegal was very glaring. The centre referee, Jean-Jacques Ndala, nearly left a bad taste in the mouth of everyone; so to say. I won't be surprised if he doesn't get punished or sanctioned for his bad officiating. It has almost been like that with the AFCON.

[Mr. Magkaisa]

Referee should call fair to both teams as they are the one to officiate the game and to balance it to make sure that both teams will have a fair match.
But sometimes they cant see the right call or some refs doing it on purpose. I wish every game is fair and no refs woould ruin a game.
Football and Basketball are mostly called unfair.

[casey15]

As well as it is common knowledge that referees should be neutral, many times I've seen referee been biased and nothing was done. Most times it is spectators that take things into their hands, buy going to the social media pages of the referees to complain or at the football federation.
In games like FIFA or AFCON, the referee of a game between two countries are always from other countries so that there should be fairness, if the ref is taken from one of the competing countries, they will surely be biased and favour their home country.
I think there should be more consequences given to referee for being Biased. We haven't really seen enough of or maybe they are being overlooked by the regulating body

[danherbias07]

There will always be a biased decision. They are human, and I highly doubt they don't have a favorite team or a player. There will always be one. But according to their rules, as much as possible, they will eliminate having one, although it will be a tough thing to do.
Some referees are fair, but that's only when they are officiating teams or players that do not care about. But these referees are also updated on the sport that they are working because they need that to see changes, mistakes, and how they will come up with solutions to be better referees.

That's why I am really thankful for the NBA giving coaches a chance to coaches to challenge a referee's decision. They are not perfect, and there will be mistakes, which I think is cool because it proves they are human. Still, some mistakes can change the pace of the game or decide a winning team, so there's hatred that comes out many times on the court.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

The referees have their own code of conduct in which they must not play outside this policies guiding them, if they want to have good records and also be well noticed for excellence, this is all about their own career also, they wouldn't want to risk it for anything that does not even concern them, so why should there be fair advantage over one and against the other when they all have equal chances for winning or survival.

[swogerino]

 
‎I have thought about this from top to bottom and I still come to a biased conclusion based on football and other major league tournaments I have seen live and how a particular team just seems to be spotless and the other one is the scapegoat, maybe due to less star players or because they are not as big or popular as the former.
‎
‎Refereeing as an officiate duty is supposed to be objective even with the initiative of VAR/relay technology to make it more efficient and accurate as possible, but we can't rule out the human psychology and systemic factors that can create a perceived advantage.
‎It is strictly forbidden for a referee to consciously favor any team as it could mean the end of the career of such a referee found wanting, still, a well documented scientific researched phenomenon, doesn't rule out the subconscious bias which can interfere in a referee's decision and create the perceived advantage I am talking about.
‎
‎I wanted to know if you have ever seen it the same way that indeed, referee officials have a fair advantage in any game or tournament which of course always favor their favorite team to win or you have a better opinion on the matter?
‎

Not only that but referees have full power over the event they are judging. How many times we have seen the so called surprise results which happen commonly nowadays every weekend. For me referees have a lot to do with such results as I have rarely seen a referee judging in an extremely fair way, usually any arbitration they make is full of errors or at least some errors in the decisive moments of a certain game. I have seen many such cases to totally not believe in their honesty yet I am surprised that very few of them get punished. Most do not get any punishment so not only they can impact their favorite team to win but any team to any result that they want.

[LogitechMouse]

---
‎

Referees are supposed to officiate without being biased, and any referee who has a connection with any playing team should not be the one officiating to remove the temptation of favouring one particular team over the other.

In just the concluded At AFCON, the Ghanaian referee who officiated the finals between Morocco and Senegal was said to have taken a bribe from the host nation (Morocco) because of how things were obviously going on the field; it was pretty obvious that he was against Senegal players.

Well, that's what's supposed to be, but unfortunately, there will always be referees out there that can't remove their biasness towards one team for whatever reason it would be. We've seen referees in the past where they are being criticized on how they're officiating games, and there are a few referees as well that are also involved in some betting scandals. Not related to officiating, but we can conclude that there are some referees where they're biased in officiating because they might already put a bet on that team.

While there are referees out there that are bias when it comes to officiating, there are also referees that are making wrong calls especially in Basketball, and while they are professional referees, they're still humans, and they're making wrong calls as well. Referees are supposed to officiate with a "FAIR" advantage, but not all referees can apply it.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

This is common thinking in our local league with the sport of basketball. Fans are calling it as a cooking show whenever the referees are calling not based on what it should be. They're giving favoritism and sometimes, the fans are right with it. Can't blame those fans that are calling out the referees when they should do their part and chose not to do it. And so, they're accused by being paid by the team they are favoring.

In local leagues, I feel the referees can be easily bribed to favour a team more than the other team because you would see the obvious reaction of the referee while the match is on and if you can not catch it, just rewatch the match and you will figure it out. In international leagues I do feel that there's also some partial judgement by the ref but not as much as it is on locals and we can tell that locals can be easily corrupt but international is hard to get through. But if the refs staked on the game secretly we can not tell and that might also influence their decision.

[pawanjain]

 
‎I have thought about this from top to bottom and I still come to a biased conclusion based on football and other major league tournaments I have seen live and how a particular team just seems to be spotless and the other one is the scapegoat, maybe due to less star players or because they are not as big or popular as the former.
‎
‎Refereeing as an officiate duty is supposed to be objective even with the initiative of VAR/relay technology to make it more efficient and accurate as possible, but we can't rule out the human psychology and systemic factors that can create a perceived advantage.
‎It is strictly forbidden for a referee to consciously favor any team as it could mean the end of the career of such a referee found wanting, still, a well documented scientific researched phenomenon, doesn't rule out the subconscious bias which can interfere in a referee's decision and create the perceived advantage I am talking about.
‎
‎I wanted to know if you have ever seen it the same way that indeed, referee officials have a fair advantage in any game or tournament which of course always favor their favorite team to win or you have a better opinion on the matter?
‎

Its obvious that a referee's prime duty is to be responsible enough to give unbiased decisions during the game.
But there are some of them who don't do that and do give out biased decisions giving an unfair advantage to the favored team.
I won't say that it happens frequently are too many referee's do it but its just few of them who do this.
It can be more seen in local matches which are region based and where they don't point out the referee for such wrong doings.