Wigan Athletic manager, Roberto Martinez, says that the Premier League is spoiled by idiotic and laughable refereeing decisions on a weekly basis.

Martinez is speaking after his Wigan side have not had the run of the green in many Premier League games over recent weeks.

He does make a good point that every single week there seems to be something major happening in a game that everyone but the referee can focus on and see while the match is still unfolding.

This stops many teams from reaching their full potential as many rely on the referee for added protection and help when they come to face the bigger sides in the league.

He said: “We all know how difficult it is to be a referee and to get the decisions right. When you get a close call I am the first one to understand that.”

“But for me it is hard to explain how you can get that decision wrong. I think it was a big call. Until then it was nothing of a game, nobody had any real chances. I think it devalues the Premier League when you get actions like that. It is not even a close call and it makes you wonder. You have got a player that is two yards offside.”

“I cannot explain how the best league in the world has got people that can get those decisions wrong. When you are looking at it from abroad, I think it is laughable stock. It is the best league in the world, you cannot get decisions like that wrong.”

“There is nothing we can do, we just hope we can change and have a little more luck. You hope you are going to get these sort of bad decisions going your way throughout the campaign, but at the moment I can’t remember having these sort of decisions.”

Martinez’s comments will add weight to many people in the game who have said that it is way past the point where technology should be introduced into the game in order to get more decisions right.

However, referee blunders are and always have been a talking point of the game. Humans are prone to making mistakes and if a referee or linesman takes his eye away from an area for a second then he will miss what has gone on and potentially make the wrong call.

It is easy for managers to criticise the authority structure in football when things are not going in favour of their club. The point is that everyone comes out now and then to make comments that echo the sort of things that Martinez stresses.

If you tallied up the number of times that Sir Alex Ferguson blasted referees for making poor decisions then you would quickly run out of space on the page because it just happens so often and will not change any time soon. Referees are trusted and most of the time they do get it right.

Wigan Athletic chairman, Dave Whelan, has called for the Football League to curb the current spending habits of top clubs in order to reduce the chances of debt.

Clubs all over the country, in the top and bottom leagues, are struggling financially and the situation has meant that many teams have gone into administration and been docked points.

Whelan is among the group that want the Football League to step in at an earlier stage and penalise clubs when they are clearly spending money that they do not have. This will reduce the risk of massive debts and point deductions.

He said: “I sent a letter to the Premier League, saying, ‘Can we have an agreement that we can only borrow 25 per cent of our individual club’s turnover?’ There should be a limit on borrowings — not as a set amount, but as a percentage of turnover. They have to do something about it.”

“What has gone on at Portsmouth United is a crying shame for football and for their loyal band of supporters. It just comes down to desperation to stay in the Premier League.”

“Some of the salaries I’ve read about — whether the figures are accurate or not — make you cringe. It’s not easy for clubs, but the ones that take the risks sometimes come a cropper.”

Needless to say but a salary cap would probably bring with it a tremendous amount of opposition from players and clubs alike. This move could see the best players left in the Premier League leave for the shores of Spain and the rest of Europe.

Add to this the fact that tax restricitions in other European countries are more relaxed and the chance to move could become very appealing to many players.

Too many clubs are on the verge of ruin and stand the chance of being run completely out of business. This would mean that their club and league position would become void. This would generate a whole host of problems for league organisers and it would reduce the quality of English leagues over the long run.

The simple solution is for a club to work out the budget they need and to stick to it. This budget should be used to keep the club in the black, any spending that would take the club into the red needs to be blocked by the football leagues.

Whelan is an experienced person in the game who just does not want to see clubs he admires go under. Portsmouth are one of the biggest and most traditional clubs in the country but they stand the chance of being dissolved. At current, Pompey have had more owners than centre forwards this season.

Limits will stop accumulating debts and this will keep more clubs afloat. This may annoy the big clubs but it is something that is going to happen at some point soon down the line whether they like it or not.