IN two days, referees Patrick McPherson, Robert Lindsay, Melvin Reid and Donat McKinley will be eligible to return to officiating in football games; while a week later the foursome of Garfield Gardner, Jermaine Yee-Singh, Lenval Peart and Yakeeni Malcolm will also return from suspensions.

Both crews were involved in highly publicised mistakes in ISSA schoolboys’ football finals, a week apart earlier this month and were suspended by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) on the recommendation of the Jamaica Football Federation’s Referees Committee (JFFRC).

In the first incident the McPherson led crew missed a hand ball by Rusea’s High’s Anthony Walker in the final minute of the second period of extra time of an engrossing daCosta Cup final against Lennon High at Jarrett Park. Less than a week later the second crew missed what should have been an easy call on an obvious handball by Jamaica College’s Dominic James’ whose goal five minutes into the second period of extra time helped them retain the all-island Under 14 title, beating Cornwall College for the second straight year.

At the risk of beating a dead and decaying horse, the refs got it wrong and the JFFRC compounded their mistakes.

Of course the refs should have been punished but three weeks is hardly enough to send a message that unprofessional behavior would not be tolerated.

The remainder of the season off would have been a more effective punishment and would send the signal to the entire referee body they need to do better.

Referees are the only fully professionals who go out on the field every time, every game from Under 13, corner league to internationals.

While I would be able to identify McPherson and McKinley on the road, I can’t recall ever meeting any of the crew that took part in the Under 14 game, but I will bet that none of them went out of their way to be dishonest. I firmly believe mistakes were made but if that kind of mistake was made in some other setting, say medical, none of them would be able to set foot in that company or field again.

Referees nowadays are not the guys who could not play too well and decided to take up a whistle. Gone are the days when referees were balding, chain smoking, pot bellied guys who only exercised when they got to a game.

Today’s referees are highly trained professionals who are put through a variety of tests to ensure every time they step on the field they perform at their optimum.

In the past few years, FIFA, in conjunction with CONCACAF and the CFU, have pumped millions of dollars into retraining referees through the FUTURA programme to prevent the amateurish mistakes we saw in those games.

Today we have referee assessors at each Premier League game, who give out grades and point out mistakes; there are also well trained people who are responsible for ensuring referees are applying the laws as well as those who make sure referees are physically ready for the demands of the game.

Kudos to McPherson who has apologised – publicly acknowledging his error in the daCosta game. In a letter to the JFFRC McPherson said he made “a crucial mistake” because he failed to “adhere to the established principles of concentration for the duration of play and failing to adopt a good viewing angle as well as staying in close contact …”.

We are still to hear from Gardner.

Both infringements should have been spotted, if not by the referee then at least by the number one assistant and/or the fourth official who should have been watching the game.

In the Under 14 game, based on what we saw on television replays, the first assistant should be made to start all over again after serving a full season away from the game.

If he was in line with the last defender, he could not have missed the youngster catching the ball with both hands.

I think McPherson left out one vital aspect of what led to his not being able to keep up with the game and which may have affected the team in the other game.

They may have been tired. The pace of the game at Jarrett Pak was torrid and for the first 60 minutes the teams kept the referees on their toes and it is my impression they ran out of steam and were unable to keep up.

Bad things happen to good people and I am sure the referees will bounce back from two horrible stains to the game.

Hopefully the other referees would have learned from these mistakes and we won’t have a repeat any time soon.