BBC SPORT | ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP | Former ref calls for changes

Former Fifa referee Clive Thomas tells BBC Sport that drastic improvements must be made in the way games are officiated.

The 14 red cards dished out in the Premiership on Saturday - one short of the record - showed the debate over referees still rages on.

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce was incensed by the decisions made at the Reebok Stadium, where three players got sent off by referee Mike Riley.

Blackburn manager Graeme Souness also voiced his anger after David Pugh refused to give Rovers a penalty when Craig Short was tripped in the box by Horacio Carbonari.

They are throwing the red cards like confetti now

Clive Thomas

But one critic on the other side of the fence is former Fifa referee Clive Thomas, who agrees that standards must dramatically improve.

Talking to BBC Radio Five Live on Sunday, Thomas said some of the officials in the Premiership are not good enough.

"We've got the wrong referees, I think the leadership is poor," he explained.

"Bar about three or four, I wouldn't put any of them in the Premier League."

Thomas acknowledged the pressures on referees, but insisted they had gone too far.

"What we're definitely lacking in the league is the way we go forward.

"They are throwing the red cards like confetti now."

But the referees are not the only ones at fault, according to Thomas, who says football's international governing body Fifa and the English Football Association also to blame.

Fifa and the Football Association may want to clamp down on "diving" and the so-called "professional foul", but both are difficult to interpret.

Clive Thomas in 1978
Thomas does not rate the current batch of officials highly
"Red cards for diving?" he said.

"How on earth are you going to choose what is diving and what is not diving?

"It's just like appealing. Are they going to give yellow cards to players who know it's a goal kick and are appealing for a corner?

"We don't give them yellow cards for that."

As for a solution, Thomas believes it is up to the referees to make a stand and bring about drastic changes themselves.

"The referees have got to get a grip. They've got to say: 'Hold on, this is not the right way to be instructed by the top and we don't think it's right to give red cards for this or that.'"

"But they are not taking a stand, because they're afraid to take a stand."

Action now

Thomas also had other strong opinions, including how referees should deal with goalkeepers who move off their line during penalties.

"I want to see New Year's resolutions. Goalkeepers moving off the goal-line should result in a retaken penalty, but they don't do it.

"So why have they got the linesman on the goal-line? To see if the goalkeeper moves? The goalkeeper moves every time. "

"Their New Year's resolution should be to stop it before the next set of games."

Thomas may want action now, but it is likely that the controversy over referees' decisions will bubble on for quite some time.


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