Disillusioned EPL Referee Rob Styles Resigns

What a shame for a referee to have to quit from the pinnacle of his profession because the "negatives" have significantly outweighed the "positives". For many (myself included), refereeing is primarily about enjoyment; if you don't enjoy doing something well, then eventually you will find enough reasons to justify not doing it anymore. Not having a dependable support network (e.g. in this case, support from the FA and PGMOL) has been cited as a key reason by Rob Styles to resign. Other referees, like ex-EPL official Graham Poll, clearly sympathise.

The following paragraphs were taken from a Daily Mail story:

And, while there will be plenty within the game who will not be sorry to see Styles go, his decision to end a 22-year career must surely spark a debate about the pressures referees are facing amid a backdrop of increasing scrutiny of their performances.

Styles, 45, has seen red cards he has issued overturned, he has had penalty decisions criticised, he has been forced to apologise to managers following mistakes and he has even been stripped of topflight games.

Feeling he has not received the backing of the FA and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), Styles, who is a surveyor and whose business interests outside of football have made him a wealthy man, has reluctantly reached the conclusion that he simply does not need the aggravation associated with being a referee any longer.

Looking at the 2008-2009 English Premier League referees' cards table, Rob Styles is clearly not in the extremes, having refereed 26 premiership matches (the joint 6th highest number of match appointments among the list of 19 elite referees).