I COULD hardly believe my eyes when refereeing governing body, the PGMOL, waded into the controversy over Wes Brown’s sending off on Saturday evening.

The whole thing was nothing short of shambolic. I mean, how on earth are we supposed to get a fair appeals process when they are releasing statements before their referee has even had a chance to sit down at home and watch the DVD again?

For the uninitiated, Sunderland defender Wes Brown was wrongfully given a red card by referee Roger East for a foul on Manchester United’s Radamel Falcao. It was a case of mistaken identity, and the punishment should have gone to John O’Shea.

Had the PGMOL not made a statement on Saturday night, denying there had been a case of mistaken identity, then the suspension would have been passed on – correctly – to O’Shea.

A red card can only be overturned if the FA panel believe there has been a clear and obvious error. Once Brown was named in the statement, that door is shut completely. Both players escaped and we’re all left scratching our heads in disbelief.

Roger East lives in Salisbury, so after driving home from Manchester he should have got a chance to sit down in the armchair, look at the game again, and say: “Hey, I watched the incident again and having initially given a red card to Wes Brown for denying a goalscoring opportunity. I have seen an obvious error and I should have sent off O’Shea instead.”

Nobody could have had a complaint, it would have been all nice and tidy. Instead, the FA have to allow both players off, or otherwise they take away the credibility of the PGMOL.

It was a complete and utter mess-up.

Everything seems all at sea at the moment. You have Maynor Figueroa getting away scot free after a terrible tackle on Stephen Ireland.

I don’t know how on earth Neil Swarbrick didn’t deal with it there and then. He was looking straight at it – but Figueroa got away without punishment on the day, and because the referee and his assistant had seen it, the Football Association chose to take no further action.

Last week Ashley Barnes walked away without punishment for his actions in the Chelsea game, which were no less dangerous.

And yet Crystal Palace’s Mile Jedinak has been pulled up for an elbow on West Ham’s Diafra Sakho and given a charge of violent conduct.

It all seems a bit random and confusing.

Howard Webb says the referees are taking the recent criticism to heart – well I just hope that applies to everyone at the PGMOL too.

Are referees getting the correct leadership? I would say no.

You can throw numbers around and say ‘we’re getting 98 per cent of decisions correct’ but we all know you can make statistics say anything what you want.

I want to see the real numbers – and that means key match decisions, not corners, or throw-ins. The stuff we end up discussing week in, week out.

If referees are taking what is being said about them personally then let’s do something about it. Let’s look at ways we can improve instead of trying to cloud things with figures that do not tell the complete story.

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TO be the best, you’ve got to beat the best in football, so why isn’t that the case with referees?

Right now I’m struggling to think of a handful of obvious candidates from the Football League who are ready to make the jump up into the top flight.

I think we need them. There will be gaps to fill soon when some of our more experienced top-flight officials decide to call it a day.

But who is ready? I’m not so sure.

The inconsistency in the Football League is frightening, just ask Neil Lennon, but half the problem is that there is no established second tier of officials behind our elite ones, ready to make the next move.

Too often you find refs in charge of a Championship game one week and then back down to League One the next. I don’t understand how that is meant to improve the standards?

We need to breed top referees by promoting them through the system in a more structured way.

I’ve said before that it’s a frustration the Championship gets short-changed on the standard of their officials, considering the money that is at stake. The play-off final is the single richest game on the planet.

That’s why our best young referees should be schooled exclusively in that division. Their development is absolutely vital to the Premier League, where standards have slipped in my view, and a few referees are now struggling under the physical exertion of the game at the highest level.

Time waits for no man, and it happened to me. But the worry is that the next generation of referees hasn’t got enough experience in the Championship, let alone the top level.

It’s only when you referee games played at that higher pace that your recognition and game management improves – you know what’s reckless, careless or excessive.

If you are good enough at Championship level then you get promoted. It’s no different to a football team or a good player making his way through the game.