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The new football season is nearly upon us and the first set of Premier League and Football League appointments will soon be out. Come Saturday lunchtime, the Premier League will be getting underway at Old Trafford. But the start of the season inevitably means the start of controversy, and the debate that arises at the outset of every campaign is whether or not under fire referees should be allowed to explain their decisions to the media after the game. Would allowing referees to speak out really work though, or would it just cause more problems?
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Despite these apparent benefits, the PGMOL are reluctant to allow the Select Group of Referees to take interviews after a match and have guidelines in place that prevent them from doing so. Whilst some may question this policy, general manager Mike Riley and his team are perhaps very wise to have such restrictions in place. There are, in fact, a number of reasons why it would not be a good idea for Premier League officials to speak to the media. Firstly, the ultimate purpose of any outlet carrying out interviews is to create stories and shape debate that will get people to follow their coverage/analysis of a game or, indeed, buy their newspaper. Therefore, if interviewing a referee, there would always be the possibility of journalists to greatly exaggerate or expose referees who have not chosen their words carefully, or even potentially manipulate what they have said to create a big talking point or story. Obviously, this could see a large increase in the amount of scrutiny on match officials. There could be serious repercussions for an individual referee's credibility and fans perception of officials in general if comments made are revealed to contravene laws/protocol or if words are simply poorly chosen and become misunderstood.
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It is likely that television, radio and newspaper organisations would only want to give officials airtime in light of controversial decisions, when there is rarely anything to gain by the referee coming out to be interviewed and possibly even further unsympathetic press could follow. While, as mentioned, some people may gain respect for an official who has admitted their mistake, but for others it may only cause greater anger and even more confusion.
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