It is a difficult balancing act though. I really don't want the idea of the referee as the final arbiter on incidents in the game taken away, except in exceptional circumstances. My massive concern is that the retrospective action system has fucked it up. Referee makes a mistake, and he is demoted. They are terrified of that, and so will do anything to worm out of admitting an error, which then leads to nonsense like this. Roger East hasn't admitted the mistake, and has made up a load of bollocks about it. He has been found out and demoted. It would be FAR FAR better, if the retrospective action committee, whomever they may be, would say "refereeing mistake - we have asked the referees association to discuss it with the official, he stays on the premier league list" unless there is a succession of rubbish. Then at least a referee could feel he didn't have to doctor his report to stay on the premier league list.
Further to that, if a referee was making regular woeful decisions (I am looking at you, Jones) he should NOT be demoted. He should be removed until he passes some form of training and satisfies the refereeing authorities he is up to the task of top flight work. Being shit should never mean you are simply allowed to be shit to less "important" teams away from the Sky and MOTD scrutiny.
