Paul Lewis: Please take advantage of the rule book

A memo to all sports bodies: When attracting/recruiting/training referees: Please spend more time on the theory and application of the advantage rule.

Referees, as we all know, have a stink job. Get it right and they are only doing what we expect of them and they get little or no thanks whatsoever. Get it wrong and they are pilloried - mean-spirited, with the IQ of an earthworm and the eyesight of Helen Keller.

All of this - and worse - was heaped on Norwegian referee Terje Hauge after his howling gaffe in that wonderful Champions League final between Barcelona and Arsenal. Mr Hauge saw Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann rocket out of goal to chop down threatening Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o.

Under the laws of football, if the last defender fouls an attacker when he is making for goal, it is a mandatory red card. Mr Hauge, at the stadium in Paris, gave such a blast on his whistle that it is understood there were avalanches in Oslo. Only problem was that the ball fell for another Barcelona player who promptly deposited it in the back of the Arsenal net. 1-0 to Barcelona.

Or it should have been. Mr Hauge's whistle meant that play had stopped. He rightly sent Lehmann off but had to rule out the Barcelona goal and give them a free kick - from which they did not score.

And all for a lack of adherence to the philosophy of advantage. Some of us - especially those who are Tottenham supporters (all right, stop laughing...) and who wished Arsenal ill simply because of Spurs' own lousy end to the season - got up from their chairs and shouted brutish words at the TV. And, again, when Arsenal scored a lucky goal after a free kick given by Mr Hauge when an Arsenal player fell to the ground as if he had been shot with a Kalashnikov when challenged by a defender. I've seen butterflies kick harder than the defender did. At that stage, Hauge was odds on for a Viking funeral.

Luckily, it didn't matter. Barcelona came back to win 2-1 and honour was satisfied.

Waiting to see what happens next is a wonderful piece of discretion for referees - to be cherished and maintained. Too much of life is governed by the rule book and bureaucracy these days. Mr Hauge's speed off the mark can be partly put down to understandable human error in the intense cauldron of one of the world's biggest football matches.

But, also, the area of advantage is one of the few where rugby can teach football something. To make an enormous generalisation, rugby is over-burdened with laws but is refereed pretty well, considering the nightmare areas involved.

Football, on the other hand, has much simpler rules but the pressure and the intensity often seem to get to officials - like Mr Hauge and the most common trigger-finger fault, the offside rule.

How many times, on replay, is the player ruled offside actually not?

Some rugby referees play a long advantage before halting play and bringing it back to the original infringement. I like these guys. So do spectators. So do players - who wants a scrum, when you can be scoring a try?

But, in all codes where advantage applies, many referees still take shelter in the rule book too quickly.

Think Clive Norling, the theatrical rugby referee of the 1970s and the tiny, tight shorts, the booming ringmaster's voice and bouffant hairstyle. A talented referee and player of advantage but self-importance got the better of him. Norling became a pedant, halting the game so he could give his explanation and flamboyant gestures when, in many cases, the right thing to do was what he used to do before his ego got in the way - let the game flow.

I was lucky enough to play in matches refereed by Paddy O'Brien, Colin Hawke and Frank McMullen and they remain at the top of my list of 'Best Referees'. Quick of mind and foot and fine appliers of advantage. I also played a few matches of Auckland club rugby under the whistle of J.V. Brown.

Known as 'Smiler' Brown, in those days a big cheese at the old Auckland Regional Authority, J.V. had the irritating habit of smiling whenever he made a decision and, particularly, whenever a player spoke to him. The more you spoke to him, the wider Smiler smiled. If you really hauled off and had a crank at him, he would break into laughter, reminiscent of John Cleese in Monty Python skits.

I cannot express how galling this was. In one match, I scored a try in the corner after a kick through. Players usually know when they have scored a try and when they haven't and this was definitely a try.

But Smiler ruled it had gone into touch in goal and ordered a 22 drop-out. I argued with him extensively on the way back. Foolish, perhaps, as there hasn't been a ref born who changes his mind because you argue the toss but I was smarting with the injustice of it all.

He responded by smiling, then smiling wider and finally bursting into laughter as I pressed on. For a second, I could understand those lunatics who assault referees.

But he did play a good advantage...