Football needs more referees like this.
Swedish referee Mohammed Al-Hakim has launched a Facebook page with the aim of clarifying the reasoning behind his decisions on the pitch.
Presently, referees are under no obligation to publicly justify their decisions, no matter how controversial. This opacity can breed frustration in many situations where referees do not seem to be held accountable for their mistakes.
Al-Hakim has broken the mould in that sense, taking it upon himself to use his Facebook page to admit and explain his mistakes.
There have been frequent calls for greater transparency when it comes to the rationale beneath refereeing decisions.
Only last weekend, Norwich City striker Cameron Jerome used his Twitter to express the need for refs to explain decisions like the one to disallow his overhead kick against Crystal Palace.
https://twitter.com/camjerome33/status/630065964940455937
The page was established after Al-Hakim failed to award a penalty in a game between IFK Norrkoping and AIK.
The young ref explained: “I should have given a penalty yesterday. Full stop. Now I have seen what you surely have seen already. I’ve seen the replays a few times and looked at stills and different angles. Because what it is about for me, is that I want to learn something and try to understand why I did what I did.”
An awful lot better than unapologetic silence, eh?
Hat-tip to The Guardian.
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