Eugene McGee, former Football Review Committee chairman, has said he believes it is time for the GAA to hire 12 full-time referees in an effort to improve the standards of refereeing.
McGee told the Irish Examiner that their role would include teaching part-time referees how to ref the game in order to improve consistency across the board.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, the man who helped bring the black card to pass says, "Personally, I favour the GAA having 12 full-time referees. It could almost be insisted, then, that all referees referee games the same way.
“If that were done at county level, it would set a standard around the country.
“As well as that, those referees could take a sabbatical from their work, do it for three, four or five years, get properly paid for it and in the time between matches coach other referees around the country.
“There is no point in talking and saying ‘why don’t we do this and that’. Let’s do something now. It would be a good investment preaching the same dogma of consistency.”
This comes on the back of two very harsh black cards in the first half of the Ulster final and further discussion over the rule when a Diarmuid Connolly locked horns with Westmeath's James Dolan after goading by the latter, which should have resulted in a black card but didn't.
Alex Ferguson championed for full-time referees in the Premier League due to the fact that he believed there was not enough importance being placed on the person in the middle of the field who could ultimately decide a game with the blow of a whistle.
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