Gary Cahill is not the first, and certainly won’t be the last, player to complain about refereeing decisions. Andre Marriner’s call not to stop play for a foul on the defender immediately before Leroy Fer scored for Swansea was strange, and Cahill was right to be annoyed, but unless referees get some help it is unfair to criticise them so extensively.

Clearly, referees make mistakes – they are only human – but there is no intention on their behalf to do wrong. Marriner, just like any other referee, tries to make the right decisions, but that sometimes is not possible.

Perhaps the biggest issue is that managers always claim that referees are biased against them, and fans and in particular young players jump on the bandwagon. Jose Mourinho has claimed of ‘agendas’ and ‘campaigns’ against his teams before, whilst already this season Mark Hughes has claimed that referees are always harsher against his Stoke City than any other team – the fact that Stoke took one point from a possible 15 cannot purely be down to referees, can it?

Football is an emotional sport, and long may that continue, but until referees receive more help through technology, it is not right that they get nothing but criticism. That’s not to say the criticism will soon stop – nothing so far has suggested a change is nigh – but until it does the problem will only grow.

Technology cannot be implemented at all levels of the game, but at least having it at the top level would reduce errors, and therefore high-profile criticism too, and mean that the examples of poor behaviour as a result of perceived injustices would disappear. It would take time, but helping top referees would reduce dissent, abuse and media scrutiny, and that would filter down to grassroots level over a period.

If Match of the Day featured less discussion about referees and focussed more on the game itself, players at youth level would follow their lead. Pundits often get the benefit of replays from several angles, in slow-motion, so until referees do too, why should pundits be allowed to criticise someone who saw an incident once, in real time? That is not a level playing field.

Continuing to ignore the possibility of using technology will only lead to the problems increasing. Mark Hughes will get a touchline ban off the back of his actions last week, but that won’t stop him saying something similar in the future – improving the quality of officiating by having video replays or the like available would: more correct decisions would be made, and with more time to make calls as a team of officials, subjectivity would reduce too.

Until such a time that referees get some help, constant criticism will only make the situation worse. There is already a shortage of officials, and without them, football cannot continue. Without getting more help with decisions, and receiving less abuse in the process, referees will become a dying breed. They are already well on the way to extinction as it is. The only way to encourage more people to take up refereeing is to make it more appealing, and that has to start at the top.

Now is the time to act before it is too late.

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