Why Rob Styles needs to shut up
Rob Styles made more than one bad call Sunday in the Liverpool Chelsea match. It wasn’t a penalty, and we all know that thanks to the benefit of replay after replay from 15 different angles. But by going public with it and forcing the league to punish him by sending him down to the lower league is not the way to fix it.
Let’s face it, officials are human. They make errors. They have bad days, and we supporters have all known instances where calls have gone for us as well as against us. Bad calls happen, and officials need to stick to them and know that they have the unwavering support of the league behind them.
Officials need to know that the judgment calls they make in the heat of the moment are going to be upheld by the very organization they represent. If not, then it calls into question, at a much higher level than simple fan griping, the credibility of any call any official makes, and I think it will make every official think twice before putting whistle to lips on questionable calls.
Styles should have simply said that he made the best possible call under the circumstances. End of story. In his opinion, from the angle he was at, it was the best call to make. By going back after and saying it was wrong now makes penalties debatable after the fact. And if the league believes Styles made the wrong decision, then what is to stop the next logical step from happening and having goals overturned, or results modified? Should Chelsea lose the goal, then losing the point and Liverpool get the 3? As happy as that would make me in the short term, the long term implications are not so pleasent to think about.
I’m not advocating that the league ignore the incident completely. They can’t. Styles has forced them into it. And I do think he has to be held accountable for calling a truly dreadful game. But I really don’t like this kind of stuff being done in the public eye. I think it is better that officials and leagues deal with it behind closed doors, rather than cast a shadow over all officials and set up the scenario where every player, manager and team goes running to the league and demands that bad calls be punished after the fact. Leave the shadow casting to the fans and the managers in post game interviews and analysis and stand by your officials.
And Rob Styles, the next time you think you made a bad call, shut up.
I can’t pretend to hide my disgust at the call and I can’t pretend to hide why. In this case I am bias plain and simple. My admission, I hate Chelsea and I love Liverpool.
BUT, all of that aside, I am glad he said he screwed up. Bravo, no heat of the moment, no best of my abilities. I blew it and cost a team a VERY important game.
He ruined a perfectly good Sunday with that call. Man U had already lost, things were looking up. The least he could have done was said he blew it, and bravo for doing it. I guess the real problem is that his admission does nothing for Liverpool except give us sour grapes. Given his admission, the premiership should have given Liverpool a second point as a booby prize and then maybe there could have been justice. Dreaming I know.
I understand your point, but I am glad, for once, somebody stated the obvious.