Football FanCast columnist Aban Quaynor wonders if we can actually respect referees given some of the performances they put in.

With the amount of poor refereeing decisions seen so far this season it seems the new ‘respect' campaign is leading to poor officiating.

It's nothing new to criticise a refereeing performance but the new laws, which were designed to take the pressure off officials, have merely led to referees becoming less accountable for their decisions.

Take the Sunderland v Man City game last week for example. Chris Foy failed to even award free kicks for tackles that would have merited a booking even in the more brutal Sunday League football.

No one wants to see a repeat of the surrounding of refs, but players from both teams surely would have been within their rights to questions Foy's decisions. Yet if they had done this, I'm sure Foy would soon have reached for his notebook, when the real bookable offence went unpunished.

Even Roy Keane, who was renowned for his berating of officials as a player, chose not to criticise Foy's performance.

However if nobody involved in the game questions the referees then how are they going to know they've put in a poor performance?

It's okay the media or the average man in the street criticises an officials decisions, but it holds more gravitas if a Roy Keane or a Richard Dunne questions their performance.

To be fair to Foy it's not just referees who are making mistakes. Linesmen have the power to offer their advice or even overrule refs in certain cases and they're either not helping or making their own individual mistakes.

Take the West Ham v Blackburn game last week. The linesman actually had a major affect on the game and the overall result.

Matt Derbyshire's seemingly legitimate equaliser was ruled out for offside when he appeared to be level with the last defender. Not only would this goal have changed the score line but the whole outlook of the game, because Blackburn would have been on the ascendency having come from 2-0 behind.

So what can be done about the poor officiating? If the officials were forced to come out after every game and explain decisions then not only would it appease angry players, managers and fans, but it would also force the individual in question to look at their performance and realise where they can improve.

This is not a witch hunt. It's just the fact that the referee has so much power to affect a game and the end result and they can't afford to be sloppy or inconsistent. The money in the game now demands that referees don't make poor decisions because every point and every league place can affect a team's short-term and long-term future.

There is also the debate of using video technology to help officials in major decisions. While this would be a good thing to a certain extent, it should be limited to only the most controversial decisions. If it was used for every debatable call then it would take all the power away referees and then they really would have no respect.

It's only early in the season and I may have somewhat jumped the gun, but some already shocking officiating means that at the moment the officials are certainly not earning my respect that's for sure.

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