Pink Ball wrote:Andre, I think you may have a decision to make. You're young, but not so young that you can't make your own calls. You know far more about snooker refereeing than I do. If you don't think your posting will affect your prospects, I trust you on that, and I'd be delighted to see you keep up your posting. If you think about it and come to the conclusion that it will affect your prospects, you should perhaps consider leaving the forum and have all your past posts deleted. I'd be sad to see you go and have no trace left of your excellent and fair posting, and I'm sure most if not all here would agree with me on that point. But I, for one, would understand that decision and wish you well.
Again, it's up to you. But while I'd prefer if you took the former decision, I suspect the latter is the way to go. For whatever my opinion is worth.
I agree with pretty much everything in your post, Pink Ball. This last part is essentially what I was getting at. It just seems very harsh (probably even more so for me as a new member) to suggest that someone should leave a forum and delete all their posts. I do, however, agree with Pink Ball that it just seems like the right thing to do for someone who aspires to be a top referee.
I certainly wasn't trying to suggest that Andre would be a particularly untrustworthy referee or that he should give that up, just that there is a conflict between his refereeing aspirations and his presence on this forum. I'm sure most referees and umpires in any sport have their favourites, especially growing up. However, once you reach a level where you officiate in the same competitions your faves (and your least faves) play in, I do believe there should be no public record of who you support/dislike, or at least you should do your best to try and ensure you're not contributing to it. I would say that about anyone, in any sport.
A snooker match may well be less susceptible to being influenced by the referee than most other sporting events that have referees or umpires, but it is not 100% immune to it. Therefore, I think a certain "code of conduct" (can't think of a better term right now) off the table needs to be in place in order to maximise the trust in the ref in the eyes of both players and fans, and to minimise the possibility of controversy or doubts over his/her impartiality, integrity and fairness. I have no idea if World Snooker have any clear guidelines regarding these things, but they should.
I know I started by saying I thought it would be wrong for Andre to get to ref O'Sullivan. To be honest, there is just something uncomfortable about the thought, even if I don't consider him untrustworthy. It's about the removal of all possible doubt, I suppose. I don't WANT to know who any referee's favourite and least favourite players are, and I don't think viewers should know that.
Even if there was (and quite possibly is) reason to give snooker referees a bit more credit in the integrity/fairness department than, say, football referees, I do believe it matters if there is written evidence of support and other opinions on players all over an internet forum, and not just posted by other people but by the ref in question. Unfortunate as it may be for someone who clearly enjoys posting here.