Blackburn Rovers boss: Referees must face bans for poor decisions

1:40pm Monday 6th October 2008

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By Andy Cryer »

ROVERS boss Paul Ince has called for referees to start paying for their actions after slamming Steve Bennett’s display in Saturday night’s Manchester United defeat.

Bennett’s clanger gifted Wes Brown an opener in United’s 2-0 victory at Ewood Park and left Ince urging tougher sanctions on officials who are getting key decisions wrong.

Nemanja Vidic’s elbow clearly hindered goalkeeper Jason Brown to allow Wes Brown to head United ahead on 31 minutes, leaving a furious Ince remonstrating with Bennett at the break.

While not using the decision as an excuse for his side’s comprehensive defeat, with Wayne Rooney later adding a sublime second, Ince was adamant the time has come for the men in the black to be held accountable.

He also insisted the ‘big sides do get the big decisions’, claiming he benefited from officials’ decision during his Old Trafford spell on numerous occasions.

He said: “I think if it’s major decisions they’re getting wrong there’s got to be a deterrent where they should get longer bans, not just be demoted for a game.

“I’m not saying all officials should be banned (if they make a mistake), but players get banned for being sent off and things like that. Referees are on professional contracts as well so why not?

“You don’t need technology to see that a centre half who is six foot five elbowed someone in the head.”

The unfortunate Brown otherwise starred for Ince’s men as he admirably stood in for the injured Paul Robinson on only his second-ever Premier League start.

Saves from Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Ryan Giggs saved his side from a real hammering but Ince was still seething about the goal that should never have stood.

“I spoke to him at half-time and he [Bennett] said he didn’t see it, but that’s too much of a cop out,” said Ince.

“If we got beat four or five nil, you guys would be asking me questions and I’d have to explain why we lost four or five nil and it should be exactly the same thing for him. It’s easy for him to say he didn’t see it.

“I'm not saying we’d have won the game because they’re an awesome outfit, that's why they’re European champions, but you look to referees to get those kind of decisions right and the first goal is always the most important goal.”

Having been on right end of another highly controversial decision against Bolton last weekend, Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United have been living a charmed life in recent weeks - but Ince insists it is more than coincidence.

He said: “You think to yourself is it because it's one of the top four? You can see from history that they seem to get more decisions than lesser teams like we do.

“I think the bigger teams do get the bigger decisions. I’m not just saying it because of what happened today, but I played for Man United so I know, I’ve had it happen to me.

“But I just think when it's a clear cut decisions like that they can’t possibly get it wrong. You can understand if it's 50-50 but when it’s so blatant and they're getting it wrong still, they wonder why we go mad and start telling us ‘Well, you've got to respect the referees’, but if they make the right decisions we’ll start respecting them.

“It's a joke to be fair. You've got to be careful what you say nowadays for obvious reasons but when you go to these referees meetings and Keith Hackett says to you these referees are a lot fitter now and run so many metres and are getting themselves in the right positions to make the right decisions.

"It’s a load of rubbish if you ask me because if he [Bennett] can’t see that and the linesman can't see that they're not doing their job properly. “