Football fans the world over complain about refereeing decisions and we all understand that a referee has the thankless task of using his judgement to interpret the rules. We know that referees are subject to review and their performances are scrutinised by an observer subjectively using their experience and knowledge but also, objectively, using statistics to analyse decisions. If the review is done on a match per match basis and the overall, cumulative, statistics are not taken into consideration then particular decisions, which may, on review, have been seen to be wrong, might be dismissed as judgement call errors on the day or excused away but statistical evidence over a longer period should not be discounted. Presumably, if a referee were to consistently be seen to make mistakes in his judgement then something would be done to correct this situation. If it is the case that, when the statistics are taken into account, a bias is highlighted, then at what point does this trigger some kind of investigation?
...