LCM would like to draw your attentions to a few hypothetical situations and discuss the possible outcomes. I appreciate that its not entirely football related at the moment but please stay with me because I am working towards something.
Imagine the scene, a house down your road is on fire and up in the window there is a small child crying out to be rescued. The fire engine comes screeching down your street with its lights flashing full of honourable fire-fighters ready to save lives. The engine pulls up and the fire fighters all stay sat in their cab eating burgers as the house is burned to the ground. What do you suppose would happen to those firemen? Do you think they'd be back out the next week bravely sitting around whilst fire ravaged the country?
I'll move on to my second scenario. A bank manager is involved in a meeting with a prospective money borrower. The client is a financial risk that even the dodgiest loan sharks wouldn't consider loaning money to, and so the bank manager declines the loan. A day later the same guy comes in again, and much to his surprise the bank manager this time offers to lend him the money. He obviously feels very bad about declining the loan the previous day and so has no hesitation in awarding the loan to the walking credit risk. Do you think the bank manager would be allowed to award loans again in the future?
You may see where I'm going with this but for those who don't here is another scenario for you to mull over. A security guard attends an incident in which a large group of people are attempting to gain entry to a warehouse in order to steal its stock. The guard arrives on the scene and his obvious instinct is to stop the gang from committing their crime. Once he gets there the gang all jeer and cajole him and he bows to the pressure, saunters over to the gate and lets the men in. He then wanders back to his hut and waits until the robbers go. Once again would he be allowed back on duty the next night?
Finally what if I'd submitted a completely blank article for this website? Would I have been able to add another blank article today? What if I submitted a blank article every week from now until the end of the year, staining your Lincoln City Mad experience with a blank page and sabotaging the excellent website you have chosen to view with open empty spaces?
The answer to all the questions I've posed is no, and as you all may have spotted the incidents are all examples of people not doing their job properly. Anybody who is employed to do a job should surely be expected to perform his tasks to the best of his abilities and if he fails to satisfactorily fill the role or seems unable to grasp the basic principle of his employment he would be let go. I wonder if somebody could possibly relay this notion to the Football Association.
I am clearly getting at matchday referees, who once again have come under scrutiny this week. I think Rob Stiles penalty incident was probably the most high profile, and Stuart Attwells awarding of a goal in the Watford and Reading game the most bizarre, but I also refer to Keith Hills performance at Sincil Bank on Saturday.
Anyhow there is no comment, no big debate and nothing really to discuss. The standard of refereeing is abysmal, everyone knows it and at any other level it wouldn't be tolerated. The suggested punishment for Rob Styles inability to do his job? To spend a week in Legaue Two, as if we are second class citizens. The premier league and FA are so far out of touch its unreal.