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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barry Glendenning

FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Crossing a new refereeing rubicon with help from michael owen - Caught on Camera

Howard Webb and some air quotes.
Howard Webb getting his air quotes on. Photograph: Ryan Browne/Shutterstock

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LOOK AT REFS

While you could be forgiven for thinking there are few aspects of football more mind-numbingly tedious than longwinded discussions about the excruciating minutiae of refereeing decisions, they are a thriving industry. The first port of call for lazy TV presenters and pundits, they also provide endless hours of cheap content for sports radio stations … and tea-time football emails. In the UK, Sky Sports and TNT both employ their own in-house former referees to pass their verdicts on the verdicts of their former colleagues. Occasionally interesting but largely pointless, these conversations do little more than further fuel the flames of fan paranoia that prompted some bright TV exec to air them for those sweet, sweet engagement metrics in the first place.

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