Football / Soccer / Calcio / Futebol / Fußball

They will tell you these are the best of the best when everyone with eyes can see they are incompetent. How are they where they are? Surely the process must be broken.

Oh wait - we actually have proof.

There was a big investigation endorsed by Kick it Out and the FA into the referee observer system, the pipeline that gives us refs from the grassroots to the top and it concluded that they were incredibly racist.

One observer is alleged to have told one referee: “You lot can all run fast, but that’s all you are good for.” Another is claimed to have said: “If you want to progress, you need to cut your dreadlocks.” Another made an offensive comment about throwing a banana

the FA’s 14-strong referee committee overseeing the diversity initiatives has no black, Asian or mixed heritage members. It is headed by David Elleray, a former referee who was sanctioned by the FA in 2014 after allegedly making racist comments to another official.

during one diversity meeting, a senior FA official had suggested that additional black referees could be recruited from among people leaving prison.

The fall out from this? They've "suspended" a whopping THREE assessors in two years.

With just two non-white referees in the professional game, John Davies, a current member of the FA Refereeing team responsible for refereeing observations, allegedly stunned colleagues during a session on anti-discrimination by saying: “I didn’t see any issues with the slave trade” and using the word “coloured” repeatedly.

Davies will serve 12 weeks with eight suspended for 12 months. He is the third referees’ assessor to be found guilty of racist conduct after the FA suspended another, Mick Ewen, for four months for similarly offensive language last summer.

And in January this year, another observer, Frank Smith, was suspended for just 42 days, told to complete an online education programme and fined £35 after he too was found to have used racially offensive language.

These assessors were not sacked. These assessors were not removed. The system saw no change. The fans need to speak up more if we want change.