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PR1 Blog- Nick Golding

Research question: Does a football team’s decisions affect their fans’ passion?

Hypothesis: A football club’s decision does affect fans’ passion.

Intro – Doeke Dobma

Good morning and welcome to our presentation on Research Methods. This morning we are going to critically analyse two different papers. Our research question is ‘Does a football club’s decision affect their fans’ passion?’. Our hypothesis is ‘Football teams decisions do affect the loyalty of fans to their supported clubs’.

The qualitative paper that we found and therefore chose to analyse to find out different factors that affect fans’ passion with Football Clubs decision was written by Cayolla and Loureiro. And the paper is called, ‘Consequences of being deeply in love: The fan football club relationship’.

The quantitative paper that we chose to analyse to find out different factors that affect fans’ passion with Football Clubs decisions was written by Martin, Toleda, Palos-Sanchez. The paper is called, ‘How deep is your love? Brand love analysis applied to football teams’.

Summary of quantitative – Nick Golding

The quantitative paper which we have critically analysed is called “How deep is your love? Brand love analysis applied to football teams” by (Martin et al 2020). This paper is solely primary research with the objective of determining the main components of a brand that becomes “beloved” in the minds of consumers, specifically to this paper the brand in question was football teams. The paper falls under the top-down deductive theory, unlike the bottom up inductive theory, as it starts with a theory, followed by a hypothesis, an observation and then confirmation or rejection of the theory. Not only this but the paper is also ontology-based research due to the objectivism approach to the theory. As identified by the researchers, this is the first attempt at establishing a model of how brand love works with regards to football teams. However, researchers such as (Popp et al, 2016) have investigated how the relationship between the brand and the consumer can be strengthened. Martin et al’s paper could prove to support the findings of this previous paper. Furthermore, showing the importance and value this paper holds in publishing a proven model for ‘brand love’ which could support and provide opportunity for future secondary research based around these papers, the quantifiable data gathered could prove instrumental to future studies.

The authors carried out the primary quantitative research using an online questionnaire with a sample of exactly 824 participants, there is no mention of the sampling method however we can safely predict a form of random sampling was used. The quantitative casual study used partial least squares (PLS). Considering this paper was published during the first wave of the ongoing pandemic, an online questionnaire due to its ease and allowing participants to take part from their home would have been the only possible method of gathering a wide sample of quantifiable data. Not only this but it is important to take into consideration that the majority of the world was under lockdown during this period. PLS is a regression method that is used when the number of independent variables is larger than the number of data points. Margins of error are also measured so this method is robust, traditionally it is used to develop predictive models, which the authors are (Ng, 2013).

The authors findings were that Brand Love is a construct made up of five dimensions: passion, connection with the brand, intrinsic rewards, emotional attachment and thinking and frequent use. The paper also concludes that when framing the model specifically for football teams the consequences of brand love are loyalty, the willingness to invest and word of mouth communication. The findings can be supported by (Papadimitriou et al, 2019), where a questionnaire based on assessing brand personality and loyalty was answered by 724 Greek football fans. Their results showed that brand personality influences the fans positivity, loyalty, attractiveness and attitude towards them. This would support our hypothesis of a team’s decision affecting loyalty. An example would be a manager sacking causing a disconnection with fans. This paper replicated (Blank et al 2013, 2018). (Martin et al, 2020) proves the importance of a correct marketing strategy to build a long-term emotional relationship.

Summary of qualitative – Jamie Carr

The qualitative paper which we chose to analyse to find out the effect of football teams’ decisions on their fans was by Cayolla and Loureiro (2013). It mainly looks at the authenticity of football fans by exploring their personality and other parts of their background which prompts the question, what are the consequences of being in love with your club?

Research that’s been done since by behavioural economist Dr George Mackerron (2018) suggests that “football makes fans less happy”. However, in this case study Kayolla and Lureiro take a look at why that may be, with their primary research examining what the causes for consequence are on fans.

The methodology used by Cayolla and Loureiro (2013) for this paper was a long series of 28 structured interviews that were in depth and lasted around 30-70 minutes. The participants were picked from a list of 97 potential respondents between the ages of 22-70 and were 85% men, with a wide variety of working class jobs. They made sure everyone remained anonymous and allowed for a wide variation in ages. This was to give a better understanding of the ‘socio-cultural’ aspects that drive relationship behaviours regarding a club and its brand.

The 28 selected were contacted in line with the procedures of a snowballing sample type which started with personal contacts and then led on to create a list of 97 which Cayolla and Loureiro (2013) then selectively picked from for the final participants. This non probability method also falls right under the Grounded Theory as the data uncovered things such as social relationships and behaviours of groups. Previous studies of this theory by Ian Dey (2004) suggest it used to be an ‘alternative methodology’ however, as this case now shows, it’s clearly common.

When carrying out these methods through the interviews, before they started, they would request for consent to record and then later transcribe so there were no ethical problems. Transcription was used for later analysis and to help this process Cayolla and Loureiro (2013) used Nvivo, a computer software made to help qualitative researchers find insight and organise qualitative or unstructured data (Mcniff, November 9th, 2016) like these interviews.

The results of this analysis showed six main themes arise from the data; personal, financial, family, life planning, jobs and friends. These were all noticeable factors collected in the individual interviews which were then put into a table for a better understanding. The table showed that Personal was the most spoken about factor with 54% referring to it. This then caused Caylolla and Lureiro (2013) to make a subcategory for it, focusing on the positives and negatives in the relevant issues.

The positives show the joy of victory being very influential on their happiness whilst the negatives show that there are a lot of physical risks that can happen or have been suffered due to a lack of football security. Ultimately, because Personal was most referenced, these factors can be labelled the most impactful and furthermore meant the value of these two aspects were established to be equal.

Advantages of quantitative- Nick Golding

With reference to the advantages of the quantitative methods used by the authors, many factors of a positive nature can be drawn from the paper. Firstly, the use of Partial Least Squares allows the ability to handle more variables robustly, which when investigating an area of research where several different outcomes are possible is a real positive in regard to data collection and handling, there is also a much lower risk of chance correlation (Cramer, 1993). With the research being open to multiple answers, which was the case with the five dimensions, the use of PLS helps to improve the accuracy and legibility of the results.

The authors study is most definitely quantifiable due to the methods used, it is also clearly simple to understand and compare data to as I previously mentioned on how this new model can be used to support other studies as well as our hypothesis. The findings will be a particular advantage to sports clubs, not just football alone and particularly their marketing teams as the conclusions made from this paper can be used for clubs/ teams respective marketing strategies in the future. A further advantage to the methods used is that it has allowed a greater psychological understanding of how fans behave as consumers to their team of preference.

With regards to the method used for sample collection, it can be assumed a method of random probability sampling was used as an online questionnaire was used specifically for football fans, which is the target population in this paper. Random probability sampling eliminates sampling bias as the researcher isn’t picking the sample from personal preference, and when done properly the study can be well controlled, which when considering the paper was done during a pandemic, being in control is imperative for respectable results. As well as the samples safety, the sample being able to take part from the safety of their homes is reassuring for all involved.

Disadvantages of quantitative- Jack Devonport

When looking in more depth at the quantitative data in the study disadvantages become noticeable. In general quantitative datas main flaw is that it is very limited in how much of an understanding you can gain and what conclusions you can draw from it. Because quantitative data comes in the form of figures or multiple choice questioning it is difficult to probe deeper into answers and understand the thought process behind the answers that participants might give you unlike with qualitative data where you can ask open follow up questions to help with this understanding.

In this particular study a problem with the quantitative data is that there might be a lack of accuracy. One of the questions in the questionnaire asks how long the participant has been a football fan however being a fan is down to personal opinion. Some people see being a football fan as a casual affair so may say they have been a fan since they first watched the team on television while others may say you are not a fan until you attend a game live. This should have been set out in the questionnaire brief as this would have increased the accuracy of the quantitative results by removing the chance of them being altered solely by a difference in opinion between participants (The Social Research Centre, 2008).

In this paper the authors used a Partial Least Square method to analyse the quantitative data gathered by the questionnaire and the disadvantage to this is that although it can help show relations between multiple variables it offers very little explanation for those relations. The Partial Least Square method is a good way to present the data but it has difficulty interpreting the results in a way in which you can develop an understanding and draw conclusions (Pirouz, 2006). With these weaknesses considered, the main drawback for this study is that when quantitative research methods are used it is very difficult to interpret the data in a manner that allows conclusions to be drawn, no matter how large the sample size.

Advantages of qualitative- Jamie Carr

In the Kayolla and Lureiro (2013) case you can clearly see from their purposeful sampling that it benefitted and that having participants with better expertise boosted their results. The 28 that were selected were hopefully more aware of pros and cons involved with having this passion for their team, and therefore it allowed them to give a well rounded conclusion to the debate. Furthermore, rather than straight numbers or hard facts, having this greater knowledge or experience certainly meant the respondents chosen would have given a more detailed answer than what quantitative research could have produced. For example, fan ‘AS’ said “I take a part of my salary to follow the team”, “As we had no money, we slept in the airport” clearly showing the financial struggles the team causes them.

Some of the answers to the questions in the interviews were ‘coded’ using an inductive coding approach. The use of both axial and open coding was useful to the findings as it allowed Kayolla and Lureiero (2013) to categorise their results, in particular their ‘personal’ section, which then helped find the conclusion. For example, an assumption came from the research when a fan said “Even among friends there are many discussions, conflicts of ideas and interests” and this was then a connection in the results with the quote “Often it depends on where we are, we can not have our own opinions”. This could be due to the fact they are both implying there is tension when watching football with friends who support different sides, only a perspective that could be distinguished using qualitative research.

Qualitative research also has an advantage because its opinionated results are always analysed to find a conclusion. This is beneficial because it carries out in depth research when trying to establish a different stance on the variable. An example of this would be when fan ‘JO’ said “to be a member of my club (paying monthly) and go to the games I made many sacrifices” implying that the clubs prices required them to make life changes. This shows that the analysis can spot a change of view and ultimately find another consequence of being in love with your team.

Disadvantages of qualitative- Jack Devonport

From delving deeper into studies we also realised that there are disadvantages to using qualitative research techniques as a way of obtaining data to investigate this hypothesis. The major downside of qualitative data is that because the interviewee is free to express themselves in their answers they become very subjective. Although you can analyse an answer to draw a conclusion it is very difficult to compare multiple interviewee’s data to form a generalised conclusion because the answers will be completely subjective to the person. No matter how to form a sample group you will always see differences in how the subject represents the demographic because of their individual expressive answers to what are very open questions. Another disadvantage of qualitative data is that the skill set of the research group can heavily affect the quality of the data gathered. As previously mentioned the advantage of qualitative data is the ability to probe further into answers with open questions and follow up questions in the interview however if the researcher struggles to gain rapport with the interviewee it can severely limit the quality and the depth of the data acquired.

The problem with the qualitative data within this study is that participants were sampled using snowball sampling starting from personal acquaintances and although this means that the researchers will likely have good rapport with the interviewees it will be difficult to apply data to a larger group of people as well as opening the door to potential research bias. In the conclusion of the study the researchers state that all the interviews were acquired with only one club, in one country and this is because of the snowball method. The participants were gathered via personal acquaintance and this is why the data all revolves around one club. This means the qualitative data in this study is effectively invalidated when generally applying the findings. Any conclusions drawn are limited to the specific club used in the study unless the method is repeated by other research groups in other areas. To counter this the study could have used volunteer sampling which is where a study brief is put out to the public and anyone who feels like they fit the criteria for the demographic required can volunteer to participate in an interview (Morse, 1991). This would help this study in particular because it allows participants to be from all over the world, supporting all different clubs while still allowing the researchers to ensure the qualitative data is valid by making sure the participants are football fans. They do this by mentioning in the brief that volunteers should be football supporters

Summary of research, conclusion- Doeke Dobma

In Conclusion, both papers show positives and negatives to the argument. The qualitative paper uses 28 in depth interviews which is a good way of finding more in-depth results. However considering the amount of fans there are in the world, 28 is only a small minority and you would need more fans to partake in the interviews to get more reliable and trustworthy results to answer our research question. However despite the small number of fans partaking in the interview, the age range was very broad as were the professions and jobs of the 28 fans, which could help us find out whether age and type profession you have could affect your love for a football club. Even though the interviews were all of different backgrounds it would have made the result more clearer if they used more types of subjects for example, what country they’re from and what clubs they support. However most themes used in this paper would in an ideal world help us find our final result. Participants to the interview were only being asked regarding one football club, so if they supported different clubs that could be performing well or performing poorly we could have had more reliable and a wider range of trustworthy results to conclude to our research question. Overall the qualitative paper did not help us find out our answer to our question as it was only based around one club so we couldn’t see if another football club’s decision could affect fans’ passion. However the results from the qualitative paper were clear to see that the fans were always passionate towards the club no matter what decision but there weren’t enough themes and data to help us answer or question. This paper would give us an inductive answer where we could only get a theory instead of a straight up clear answer, this paper needed more samples.

The quantitative paper had 824 participants using an online questionnaire as primary source of research. This already would have helped us find an answer to our question better than the qualitative paper purely because there are more participants involved helping us to see a clearer and more reliable correlation on how football clubs’ decisions affect fans. Because the quantitative paper uses more participants for its primary research it will give us a deductive answer which means it gives us confirmation to our question and will back up our hypothesis or will prove our hypothesis wrong. In the quantitative paper it gives us statistical analysis where as previously said can give us a clear visual correlation between football clubs’ decisions and the change in passion and loyalty by fans. Although this quantitative paper does make it difficult to notice the themes they used considering the qualitative paper used multiple to give us a broad and convenient idea that people from that different backgrounds were asked. If there were noticeable themes involved in the quantitative paper it would have been more helpful for us to find out whether our hypothesis was correct or not. However overall we believe that the quantitative paper added more security to giving us an answer to our research question and helped us understand if our hypothesis was correct. This is because the number of samples was much greater than that of the qualitative paper. The qualitative paper would have had to use a much larger focus group for us to find a clear correlation with our research question and hypothesis. The quantitative paper helped us notice this clear correlation. So overall the quantitative paper was of better use for us.

If we were to research our question we would use a quantitative approach this way we could get a variety of different people and a larger sample to be able to find out a more transparent correlation. As well as there will be more people being used as samples compared to a qualitative approach. Thank you for listening.

References

Cayolla, Ricardo & Loureiro, Sandra. 2013. Consequences of Being Deeply in Love: the Fan-football Club Relationship – https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277475053_Consequences_of_Being_Deeply_in_Love_the_Fan-football_Club_Relationship

Cramer, R.D. 1993. Partial Least Squares (PLS): Its strengths and limitations. Perspectives in Drug Discovery and Design 1, 269–278.

Dey, Ian. 2004 “Grounded Theory” Qualitative research practice, Chapter 5, pg 80, Sage Publications – https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vazvXmmq4hkC&oi=fnd&pg=PA80&dq=grounded+theory+research+paper&ots=praSjMMbuk&sig=qnq9FSYFGNTi7mTiPuKehaKeTSE#v=onepage&q=grounded%20theory%20research%20paper&f=false (accessed: 21/2/21)

Dr George Mackerron. 2013. Football makes fans less happy, University of Sussex – http://www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/44576 (accessed: 22/2/21)

Morse, J. 1991. Qualitative Nursing Research. Sage [accessed on 23/2/21] available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_-NyAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA127&dq=best+sampling+method+for+qualitative+research&ots=9Kmnc9feg9&sig=pcBfUIBkJ23MoZzfse_DS3ehYs4#v=onepage&q&f=false

Kath, Mcniff, 2016, “What is Qualitative Research?”, Nvivio – https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo-qualitative-data-analysis-software/resources/blog/what-is-qualitative-research (accessed: 21/2/21)

Ng, Kee Siong. 2013. “A simple explanation of Partial Least Squares” Available at: http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~kee/pls.pdf (webpage accessed: 21^st February 2021)

Papadimitriou, D., Kaplanidou, K., Alexandris, K. and Theodorakis, N. (2019), “The brand personality of professional football teams: A refined model based on the Greek professional football league”, Sport, Business and Management, Vol. 9 No. 5, pp. 443-459

Pirouz, D. 2006. An Overview of Partial Least Squares. Pp9 [accessed on 23/2/21] available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228296847_An_Overview_of_Partial_Least_Squares

Popp, B., Germelmann, C.C. and Jung, B. (2016), “We love to hate them! Social media-based anti-brand communities in professional football”, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 349-367.

Scribbr. 2020. “An Introduction to Quantitative Research” Available at: https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/quantitative-research/ (webpage accessed: 22^nd February 2021)

Stadler Blank, Ashley & Koenigstorfer, Joerg & Baumgartner, Hans. 2017. Sport team personality: It’s not all about winning!. Sport Management Review. 21.

The Social Research Centre, 2008. Football Passions. Pp4. Canon [accessed on 23/2/21] available at: http://www.sirc.org/football/football_passions.pdf

Velicia Martín, F., Toledo, L.D. and Palos-Sanchez, P. 2020, “How deep is your love? Brand love analysis applied to football teams”, International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 669-693.

My Individual Research:

About quantitative data
Quantitative research is the method of collecting and analysing numerical data.
Used to find patterns and averages or make predictions.
Results are generalised to a wider population.
Opposite of qualitative research, no non-numerical data is gathered.
Can be used for Descriptive, Correlational or Experimental research.
Aim/Methodology/Findings
Aim- Determine the components of a brand that becomes loved in the minds of its consumers. The brand being football teams and the consumer being their fans.
Method- Quantitative casual study using PLS.
Casual study is the investigation into a cause and effect relationship.
Sample of 824 participants who all did a online questionnaire.
Findings- Brand love is constructed from five areas, passion, connection, intrinsic rewards, emotional attachment and use.
Positives/Negatives
Consequences are loyalty, willingness to invest and word of mouth communication.
Greater emotional attachment results in greater investment.
First analysis of establishing a model between brand love and the consumer.
Supports Papadimitriou et al, 2019
Done during a pandemic, sample safety important
About PLS
PLS- is a regression model used when the number of independent variables used is greater than the number of data points.
PLS- allows robust handling of data

Verbal abuse, another issue with the game.

Verbal referee abuse isn’t something that just happens to me, giving my personal experiences and opinion on referee abuse is one thing, but listening to other referees and getting their views and experiences on the topic is another. Especially as everyone’s personal experience is likely to be different. By putting referees experiences of verbal abuse together, you can begin to get an outlook on what it is like and the severity of the situation.

So to get another opinion I had a discussion with an ex-grassroots referee, as it was grassroots football I wanted to focus on as I feel this is where there is a large problem with referee abuse, especially as I have previously experienced it myself.

My discussion was with Jed, who was a grassroots referee for only a year, but in this year he was at the centre of multiple incidents of being verbally abused. Like most referees, Jed wanted to become a referee to remain involved in the game and to understand what it was like to be a referee and control the game. He refereed multiple age ranges from U7 all the way to men’s football. Now like millions across the country, Jed wears glasses everyday for all situations. However he didn’t wear them when refereeing. During our discussion he discussed how he was afraid to wear them whilst refereeing as he didn’t want to be targeted by players, coaches and parents for having to wear them. He felt like wearing them wouldn’t put him at a high chance of being verbally abused as a parent may use the fact they wear glasses against them if they think that they got a decision wrong. He went on to say that actually he used to judge the referee based on what he looks like whilst he used to play himself, saying that this made him aware that he would receive the same treatment.

The few times he got verbally abused he mentioned that it arose because of a decision he made, and that the abuse he received was based around his vision, or lack of it. When I asked if he felt like he knew who he could speak to regarding verbal abuse, and if he was aware of the support networks, he wasn’t. He felt like the county FA didn’t give him enough guidance on who he can speak to for help and support. I can relate to this when I started refereeing, I was completely unaware of what support networks there were for me to speak to. It’s only recently that I have become aware of who I can speak to regarding verbal abuse, and the biggest reason for that is that I am now part of the team in my FA that deals with these issues. Now considering that I’ve been a grassroots referee for almost six years now, it is worrying that it is only recently that I’ve learnt who I can speak to. This is definitely an issue at grassroots level because myself and Jed both know referees that also don’t know who they can talk to.

I was very interested by just how much pressure Jed felt about wearing his glasses, to the point where he didn’t wear them. I don’t understand why people not only in football, but in society in general get verbally abused for wearing them. What is the reason/need to do this. From what Jed said he thinks it’s because its a way to target someone for being different. I think it’s because it’s a stigma, it’s essentially a label that someone who wears glasses is likely to have someone make a comment to them about it, which is completely unfair.

In the final part of our discussion, we spoke about where the abuse is coming from. Jed said that on the whole he never had an issue with managers or players, but it was actually the parents where it was coming from. This is such a big issue. As Jed says, at the younger age groups the kids are there to have fun and play football, to the parents they want their kids to win. I’ve refereed an U7’s game before and received an abuse. I remember at the time thinking these kids are seven years old, and here I am being sworn at by parents for awarding a penalty. We both agreed that more needs to be on controlling parents, and actually educating them on the way to behave whilst watching grassroots football. This is something you wouldn’t think you’d need to teach, but in actual fact, it is a massive issue that only gets worse as the players get older.

It was is disappointing to hear that Jed doesn’t think abuse can ever be completely eliminated from grassroots football, I completely agree with this, which actually is something I feel sad saying because no one referee should arrive thinking that it could happen. It also shows what is wrong with the world, there is much more important things to be concerned about at the moment than verbally abusing a referee. For me it always goes back to the same old point with really football in general, if there isn’t a referee, the game can’t happen. People need to realise this sometimes. And more specifically to grassroots football, the majority of referees are under eighteen, they are kids! Would a parent speak to their child, the same way they may have spoke to a referee before. This is a point I want to get across to clubs under my FA, and with my role of being a referee mentor I am doing my upmost to make sure that not only new referees but younger ones as well, know who they can speak to. Refereeing is a lonely world, and yes things will go wrong and things will be said, it’s all about knowing how to cope with this and being aware of who can help. I am very grateful to Jed for accepting the interview and giving his view and personal experience, on referee abuse.

For the full interview click on the link below:

https://youtu.be/33dA9NDbKfk

Chelsea v West Ham: Match Report (0-1)

Hammers put a knock on rejuvenated Chelsea, in 1-0 shock win at Stamford Bridge. Aaron Cresswell’s brilliant solo goal just after the break gave West Ham their first win since September, and a first away win since August to ease the pressure on Manuel Pellegrini. Chelsea fell to back to back league defeats for the first time this season, as Olivier Giroud fails to make the most of his opportunity.

Yet again Chelsea were electric out of the blocks, the story of their season, dominating possession and having multiple early chances, Pulisic heading over the bar and Reece James’s cross hitting the post after deflecting off a defender. West Ham defended solidly, and they grew in confidence throughout the game, Antonio going closest in the first, seeing his diving header saved superbly by Kepa after Snodgrass scoped a cross between Emerson and Tomori. Seconds before the break Chelsea came inches from taking the lead, James with an amazing cross right over the six yard box, somehow missed by the heads of Pulisic again, and Giroud, who made his first league start of the season after Abraham was ruled out with an injury picked up against Valencia.

Despite this late chance for Chelsea, it was West Ham who had the first chance of the second half, Cresswell scoring with a brilliant solo goal, all on his own he dribbled down the left wing before cutting in on Reece James and curling the ball round an outstretched Arrizabalaga, nestling in the bottom right corner in the 48th minute. The goal only spurred West Ham on further, a corner headed top corner was somehow clawed out of the goal by Kepa, with an unbelievable top corner save, his best of the match. In what was a half where the game came to life, the pot was further stirred with a splash of VAR. Antonio fumbled the ball across the line for what he and the travelling West Ham fans thought was their second of the game, only to be ruled out correctly by VAR for handball. This wouldn’t prove to have any affect on the final result as late on Pulisic struck a brilliant opportunity wide. So West Ham end their seven game winless run, whereas Chelsea are left scratching their heads after a weak performance and now back to back defeats.

With Tammy Abraham out injured, Frank Lampard decided to give the nod to Giroud, in what was his first start of the season, perhaps a reward for his terrific performances for France as of late. However a terrific performance this was not, lacking movement and creativity he was brought off for Hudson-Odoi, who didn’t have enough time remaining to make enough of an impact. Mason Mount and Pedro were other returnees to the squad ahead of Kante and Willian, both dropped to the bench in what is a very important few weeks for club. Again though this rotation appeared to cost Chelsea, Pedro another player who lacked any flair in the game, seemingly going missing throughout. Captain Azpilicueta was another player dropped to the bench by Frank, with the rising star Reece James starting at right-back. It was another stellar performance by James, who caused trouble for West Ham all game, regularly making driving runs down the wing, the only thing missing was someone on the end of his crosses, all of which were brilliantly placed. For West Ham, 33 year old David Martin was between the posts, son of club legend Alvin Martin, for his first start for the Hammers, seeing Roberto dropped to the bench after a debatable performance against Tottenham last weekend. What a decision this was, Martin was brought to tears after the full time whistle in what was a man of the match performance, giving West Ham confidence at the back. Another player brought back into the squad was Antonio, who had it not been for the fact he handled the ball over the line, would’ve scored West Ham’s second.

It was a good performance from referee Jonathon Moss, getting the majority of decisions correct. He did well to control the East v West derby as well, something that couldn’t be said outside the stadium as multiple arrests were made in what was a highly policed game. VAR did much better as well, the decision was made a lot faster than some recent decisions, I timed the whole process in 2 minutes 47 seconds. This still felt too long though in what was a cagey game anyway. On the whole though it was a strong performance from all the officials in what was a game where they were always going to be disagreed with.

So for West Ham it is a time of celebration, whereas for Chelsea it is a time for reflection. Another inconsistent home performance leading some fans to wonder if it is too much pressure for the young players to play at Stamford Bridge. Pressure is a word that Pellegrini may not be feeling as much, in what was a much needed result to save him from getting hammered out of the West Ham job.

Dover Athletic v Maidenhead United Match Report (3-4)

Dover’s five game unbeaten streak came to a dramatic end in Andy Hessenthaler’s 200th game in charge of the Whites, as Maidenhead came back from one down to take all three points in a thriller at the Crabble. Joe Ellul’s 53rd minute strike ensured all three points went home with Maidenhead, as they picked up their first win of the month, leaving Dover’s first team coach “scratching his head” . There was drama late on as Sotiriou saw his penalty brilliantly saved by Chris Dunn in the Maidenhead goal, after Modeste was brought down in the box.

It was an electric start to the game, Sotiriou, on loan from Leyton Orient, giving the hosts an early lead in the fourth minute, after powerfully heading home from a well placed free-kick. Dover didn’t hold on long though as Maidenhead equalised six minutes later, Cassidy was put through on goal from a brilliant through ball, splitting Dover’s defence, placing the shot in the bottom left corner.

This only further increased the pace of the game, which was already being played at a frantic speed. The game remained level for only four minutes, Maidenhead failed to clear another Dover cross which fell to Sotiriou’s feet, who made no mistake and fired the ball past the keeper from close range, his second of the match. From the restart Maidenhead went straight back up the other end and would’ve pulled the game level if not for a brilliant save from Mersin, who despite this save, didn’t look confident in the Dover goal all game.

Maidenhead continued to apply the pressure, and on the 36th minute they were rewarded for their efforts, Ryan Upward hitting the ball out of Mersin’s reach to level the game again. There was more for the few travelling fans to cheer about as on the brink of half-time Jake Cassidy made the most of yet another mistake in the Dover defence to fire his side into the lead for the first time in the game. 3-2 to Maidenhead at the break.

*Dover keeper Mersin after conceding the third.*

The second half began in similar fashion to the first, with Joe Ellul scoring in the 53rd minute to double Maidenheads lead and send their fans into ecstasy. The high winds at the ground was causing both defences problems with the ball hanging in the air. Dunn did well to collect a tricky cross a few minutes after the goal. In the 65th minute the referee awarded the first yellow card of the game to scorer Ellul for a foul on Dover’s Rooney, a decision that would prove crucial to the match. Dover who have become known for scoring from set-pieces halved Maidenhead’s lead, as Rooney lived up to his surname to rise higher than everyone else from the free-kick, heading the ball into the top corner.

This brought Dover back to life, and after making a triple sub, striker Modeste used his fresh legs to get ahead of the Maidenhead centre-back, who subsequently brought Modeste down in the box. Penalty Dover in the 77th minute. Sotiriou was quick to take a firm hold off the ball as he hoped for his hat-trick. To the home fans demise Chris Dunn superbly saved the penalty to his right, a head in hands moment for Andy Hessenthaler who was in charge of his 200th Dover game. The referee would have further decisions to make in what was a fiery encounter, as Ellul was sent off with seconds to spare for a second bookable offence.

It was too late to effect the result, as Dover dropped further points on the play-off places and saw their unbeaten run end. Maidenhead on the other hand ensured that they end November on a positive, after losing every game in November before this. The win keeps Maidenhead in 17th place, but pushes them six points above relegation. Dover on the other hand slip down to 12th and now find themselves five points off the play-off places.

The result left Dover’s first team coach Darren Hare disappointed and struggling to work out what it was that lead to the poor performance, especially after a run of very strong results. During an interview after the game, Darren went on to mention Dover’s defending, calling it “very very poor, and sloppy defending”. he did mention Sotiriou’s brace as the only positive from a result he is obviously very disappointed with. He hopes that the team can use this weekends FA Cup match as an opportunity to right a few wrongs and give something back to the fans.

It was a good performance by the officials in a game which had plenty of fouls, something that Darren agreed on saying that “when you don’t notice the referee it usually means they’ve had a good game” The referee did well to remain on top of every incident, and despite some players feeling aggrieved with some of his decisions, he was correct every time. He did well to remain in control of the game, especially at certain points when fans and players shouted at him demonstrating their frustration. One of the linesman was particularly outstanding, notifying the referee of the foul that resulted in Dover’s penalty. Unfortunately he was subject to some abuse by the home fans when he awarded Maidenhead with a free-kick. A home fan shouted at the referee “I will buy you some stilettos so you are taller than the corner flag”. This was disappointing to hear during a game which was a brilliant advert for National League football. The linesmen in discussion here did not deserve to receive this comment, especially as he was excellent throughout. There is also no place for these types of comments in football in general, no matter the performance of an official. As the name states they are an ‘official’, they are in charge of the game, you wouldn’t even think of speaking like this to your boss, so why do it to someone in charge during a game?

Dover will be looking to bounce back from this disappointing result and cause a massive upset as they travel to Peterborough at the weekend in the FA Cup 2nd round. Maidenhead host Barrow as they look for back to back wins.

For the full audio interview with Darren Hare, click the link: https://youtu.be/qed3X7tw0B0

Dover Athletic v Maidenhead United Match Preview

Dover are looking tonight to take their unbeaten streak to six games this evening, against a Maidenhead side who have lost every game in November. A win for Dover will put them in great spirits ahead of their FA Cup clash with Peterborough next weekend and will also keep them in close nick with the play-off places. Maidenhead are looking to end November on a high after a string of recent defeats has seen them slip down the table, to just above the relegation places. The previous meeting between the sides earlier in the season ended 2-1 to Dover, providing extra motivation to Maidenhead to put and end to their poor spell.

Dover first team coach Darren Hare believes it will be a very difficult game tonight and that next weeks FA Cup game will not affect Dover’s performance, saying that the Peterborough trip is more of a ‘day out’. For the full interview click the link below.

https://youtu.be/Y5bYBpYzVr0

Live Match Updates:

VAR takes centre stage in the headlines again.

Offside, or not offside; penalty or no penalty, these were the words that dominated the Premier League at the weekend. And they were all linked to a small three letter word that is dividing football fans across the country, V-A-R.

Yet again VAR impacted the Premier League at the weekend, Crystal Palace having their goal ruled out, McBurnie’s goal being allowed despite potential handball. All decisions that could’ve had a massive impact on the weekends results. Would Liverpool’s unbeaten run have come to an end if Tomkins goal wasn’t disallowed? VAR had many interventions at the weekend, here are some of the key decisions and talking points that I have highlighted from the weekend:

Crystal Palace 1 – 2 Liverpool

In the 42nd Minute James Tomkins scored for Palace to give them the lead against a Liverpool side who were far from their best, however the goal got overturned after a VAR review ruled that Lovren had been pushed by Jordan Ayew moments before Tomkins headed into the net. Personally I believe it is a foul, the highlights of the incident clearly show that Lovren was shoved by Ayew who made no attempt to get the ball and therefore deserved the booking he received as well as Tomkins goal being disallowed. Some people do believe differently however. There is the argument that even if Lovren hadn’t been pushed, that he would never have reached the ball anyway as the cross was way above him, therefore the shove didn’t affect play. I can vaguely understand this argument because it is very clear that unless Lovren suddenly became 9ft tall, he would never have reached the ball. Having said that, Ayew did foul Lovren, and actually the incident happened in such close proximity to the goal, that a foul had to be awarded and the goal disallowed. Despite fans saying that Liverpool seem to get lucky with VAR, in my opinion VAR was spot on with this decision. The biggest problem with the whole incident though, was the length of time VAR took to review the decision. This is VAR’s biggest problem which needs improving fast, something it is not! The time between Tomkins scoring and Ayew being booked was four minutes. This length of stoppage can completely kill the flow of the game and the momentum a team may have, it also leaves fans getting restless and frustrated, which potentially makes them more likely to get on the referee’s back, something VAR is supposed to reduce. I believe the maximum amount of time it should take is one minute, possibly up to two minutes if a referee’s monitor is in use, which they never seem to be!

Manchester City 2-1 Chelsea

But should it have been 3? With only a few minutes remaining Sterling scored what everyone thought was City’s third goal of the match, VAR deemed it to be offside. Offsides or being more specific the margin a player is offside has been one of the biggest talking points and controversies of VAR this season. Those that watched the game or have seen the highlights will have seen just how small the margin he was offside by, millimetres at most. Now I am one who believes that at the end of the day, offside means offside, no matter how small or large the margin, if you are found to have been in an offside position and had intervened with play, then the opposition get a free-kick. Now to many a fans disgust, this is an area I think VAR as excelled in, because as we have learnt from football in the past, officials can’t see everything, or get every decision correct (everyone remembers THAT goal against Germany!). VAR is taking pressure off linesmen’s, if they aren’t sure about something they no longer have to go with their gut, they can leave their flag down and let VAR deal with it. Some offside decisions can’t be caught by the naked eye, but they can be made by VAR no matter how small the margin of offside is, surely the whole point of VAR is to reduce the number of errors in a game. So if a player scores from an offside position no matter how tight the margin, then why should it stand? Now there are many people who believe that when the decision is as tight as this that the goal should stand, I can to a certain extent understand their view, but I do believe there is one huge flaw in this. What margin do you go up to, do you allow goals that are up to 10cm offside, 15cm? It would open up a massive argument about the distance a player can be offside, but still be allowed to score a goal or be involved with play. It would virtually demolish the offside rule. Can you imagine the scenes if the rule didn’t exist? I just think this shows why what VAR are doing is the correct method to take with offside decisions, because if they are allowing no margin of error, then there can be no arguments.

Sheffield United 3-3 Manchester United

Did Oli McBurnie handle the ball, that is the question still on people’s lips. Nobody thought that Man Utd were going to come back to win from two goals down, yet they nearly did, in fact should they have done? After a review VAR believed that McBurnie’s goal was legal and therefore awarded in what was arguably the best game of the weekend, and one of the best of the season. However 24 hours later the result is still being heavily discussed, did McBurnie handle the ball? It is a very, very tight call to make, from the angles shown I do believe that it just missed his arm and actually hit his collarbone, it’s one of those calls that are so hard to decide and actually different camera angles can make you believe different things. It is so tight to decide, and i suppose in the end if their is no clear evidence which there wasn’t with the camera angles available, then VAR was correct to let the goal stand. To be honest it is the least Sheffield deserved after their performance!

So yet again VAR was controversial, isn’t that one of the reasons why everyone loves the Premier League, you never know what might happen. Last weekends games where another example of that, who would have thought that Sheffield who lets not forget are a newly promoted side, would come so close to defeating Man Utd, and that Palace almost took the lead against Anfield. It’s interesting to think what would have happened without VAR, Man City would have won 3-1, Liverpool would have been 1-0 down to Crystal Palace, who knows if they would’ve turned that around. VAR adds an extra ingredient to the Premier League to make it even more exciting than it already is.

Why be a Referee?

From grassroots to the Premier League, referees of all ages are faced with challenges every time they put on the kit. Whether that is receiving abuse on a Sunday morning from a kid’s parent, or being heckled by a stadium full of supporters, being a referee is no easy job. So why do it?

My name is Nick, and I am a first year student at UCFB studying Business & Sports Broadcasting. For an assignment I have been tasked with creating a blog based on a niche subject. This blog will be based around Refereeing in football and ultimately why people want to get into it.

Something I intend to do for this blog is to interview referees of mixed levels and managers, to get their views on topics like VAR and referee abuse. I also want to find out why people get into refereeing, and whether they intend to turn it into a career. This blog will include upcoming match reports based more around the referees performance rather than the players.

The topic of refereeing hits home for me, I have been a grassroots referee now for five years and ever since I started the role, the way I watch football has changed. Football as a sport has changed, technology is taking over the sport, whether that is goal-line technology or VAR. Not only players, but referees as well, are having to adjust to the changes to the game. Everyone has their own opinion on football, referees, and the technology used, this blog allows me to express my views on the game but more specifically the refereeing.

Every referee has their own reason for getting involved in the role, for me it was to remain in the game. I played as a Goalkeeper from U8’s all the way to U18’s for my local club. I always knew I wasn’t good enough to make it pro, I just loved the game and being a part of it, this is something I didn’t want to lose, hence becoming a referee. I also wanted to become more knowledgeable in the sport, and properly learn the rules, but the biggest reason was to give something back to the community. Knowing that I am helping young players develop their understanding of the game is one of the best feelings.

In the last couple of years football has changed dramatically, especially this year with VAR. Personally I am 100% pro VAR. There needed to be something put in place to support Premier League Referees. Yes VAR has had some teething problems and given pundits plenty to discuss, but what it has also done is offered referee’s a second chance to view a decision they may, or may not have made. Before VAR, referees only got one chance to make a decision, based on their positioning and line of sight. Pundits and fans through the media have access to multiple views of an incident, something that referees didn’t have before VAR. Everyone makes mistakes, including referees, so surely it’s a good thing that VAR has been brought in. With time it will improve, it’s just a case of giving it time to adjust to the Premier League.

It will also hopefully put a stop to abuse to referee’s. This is such a big issue in society today, and it is no different in football of all levels. The majority of people that have been to a game of any level, from U8’s to the Premier League will have heard abuse shouted at a ref, and some will have heard of the stories of teenage referees being assaulted during or after a game. I have been lucky enough to have very rarely been abused during a game, but it does happen. When that ref kit goes on, people seem to forget of the age of the referee, or the vulnerability of them. I remember being verbally abused in my first season of refereeing, I was 16 at the time and it terrified me, I froze. Would someone talk to somebody with the intent to abuse them at work or in public, if not then why does this change during a game of football.

So with all this change in football, and the stories of referees being abused and assaulted appearing in the news, why do people want to referee in the game that millions love, and is there enough support networks in place?