TOM GILL shares his views on refereeing matters...

Recent weeks have seen the major issue of Match Official consistency raised throughout the world of football.

With high-profile mistakes being made, many teams, players and managers are feeling 'hard done by'. The question being posed is how and when will this be resolved?

UEFA have made the first steps to resolving the problem by introducing an additional two officials stationed behind the goals, but to the disappointment of many it has yet to have the impact originally desired. Mistakes are still continuously being made but at least an attempt has been made to rectify the ongoing problem.

I personally feel that this is a step in the right decision because surely extra eyes will help the referee make the correct decision. The issue has seen many people feel that a video ref, which is successfully used in rugby and cricket, is the only way to fully resolve the problem but my feeling is that it will take the fun and excitement away from the sport.

Even though I feel hard done by when an incorrect decision is given against my side, I think ironing out all the problems would make football rather 'boring'. Controversy is a key factor in any sport. Also, along with it being a factor in the sport it would make the surrounding media, including my job, extremely dull.

One of my main concerns is not so much the incorrect decisions but it's the consistency of the decisions being made. For example lets compare two of last weekends major decisions, firstly Juliano Belletti conceded a penalty and as a result had a red card produced, whereas in the Carling Cup Final Nemanja Vidic deliberately tripped Aston Villa's Gabby Agbonlahor and never got a booking.

The two tackles were very similar but one went unpunished and in essence gave an undeserved advantage to one team. Another issue is that it doesn't seem that the match officials work as a team. On many occasions this season I have witnessed the assistant referees wait for the referee to make the call on simple decisions like throw-ins and corners, even though they are closer to the incidents.If these officials can't make easy decisions what are they doing on the sidelines?

The F.A, UEFA and FIFA need to come up with a solution to disable this problem soon or the World Cup could be marred with costly mistakes. All we need to take a look at is the Thierry Henry handball that cost the Republic Of Ireland their precious place in South Africa, to see what these incorrect decisions can do.

TOM GILL