Pulis calls for referee rating system

Soccer:Stoke boss Tony Pulis believes a system of promotion and relegation for referees will help to ensure that bigger clubs are not favoured in the Premier League.

Pulis has been angered by a number of key decisions that have gone against Stoke in recent weeks and feels the standard of officiating detracts from an otherwise thrilling division.

The Potters were denied a penalty against Sunderland at the weekend when Lee Cattermole clearly handled the ball on the line, which would have also resulted in the Black Cats midfielder being sent off if it had been spotted by referee Martin Atkinson.

Pulis was also unhappy that Ryan Shawcross was later sent off for two bookable offences as Stoke went down to a 2-0 defeat, while a couple of weeks ago Manchester United's Gary Neville escaped a red card with the game still in the balance.

The manager thinks smaller clubs in the Premier League are too often on the wrong end of major calls and insists it is now time to make changes.

"It cannot be right that these decisions consistently go on without being addressed," said Pulis ahead of the clash with Birmingham on Tuesday.

"Don't kid yourself that this hasn't happened in the first two years that we were in the Premier League. We've had decisions that have been absolutely abysmal but we have kept our grace and just got on with things.

"We know we are not going to get certain decisions that other clubs are going to get. I think that has been made blatantly obvious over the past few games, but there comes a point where you have to stand up and say 'this is not right'.

"The last thing I want to do is be sat here the day before a game talking about referees but I have to say the treatment this football club has had with respect to the decisions has been appalling."

Pulis believes the best way to be fair to every club would be to introduce a ratings system for referees, with the weakest officials dropping down to the second tier.

He explained: "Over the weekend I have thought about it and I want to be constructive, so I think we should put in place a system where every Premier League club has a vote at the end of the season on referees, and the bottom three referees should be relegated to the Championship and the top three referees from the Championship should be promoted.

"And you can mark referees at the end of a game."

Pulis does not think there is any consistency in how referees are dealt with following poor performances, highlighting Mark Clattenburg's recent decision to allow Nani's controversial goal to stand for Manchester United against Tottenham.

"Clattenburg misses a game because of bad decisions he made in the game between Manchester United and Tottenham but the three bad decisions we have had against us, which have been as big for our club, those referees have refereed the next week," he said.

"How can that be right? So not only are we not getting the same decisions on the football pitch, i.e. Gary Neville's two challenges and Ryan Shawcross' two challenges, we are also not being treated right in respect of the ways the referees are being treated.

"So if you give everyone a vote and the opportunity to mark referees after every game, the perception is that referees can't help but at times go for the bigger clubs because of the power and the status and everything.

"If you get 14 clubs voting against those referees that might take away a little bit of their perception because if they keep performing to a level where they are more subservient to the bigger clubs, 14 clubs will vote them out of the Premier League."