'It's madness' - Crawley Town boss shares idea to improve refereeing standards - and it will only cost £4million

The Crawley Town boss said it was ‘a mess’ recently after he disagreed with 22 decisions when his side drew 1-1 with MK Dons – and on Saturday in the win 1-0 win over Harrogate Town, Lindsey was left frustrated by another decision which saw Ryan Loft sent off for a second bookable offence.

Bit this week, Lindsey has met with referee chiefs Andy D’Urso and Paul Taylor to discuss standards and what can be done to improve them – and the Reds boss was encouraged by them. He said: “I had a meeting with Andy Durso and Paul Taylor, who were brilliant, I've got to say, and fair play to them.

"They came down to meet me after I asked if I could have a meeting with them, and they were excellent. ”We went through a lot of clips and we had a real understanding. I feel sorry for them because I think that the referees' situation is not in a good place.

"We were talking and thrashing it out about how it could be better. And I don't think that it can be, other than somebody, somewhere putting money into it.”

And Lindsey had a masterplan on how money could be spent to help everyone involved, especially the referees.

"It's madness to think that we're full-time footballers - my players, it's their job, they're full-time, yet the referees are part-time,” said Lindsey. “And it just seems madness that we have part-time referees, refereeing a professional, full-time sport. If you did the maths, and you got, say, 80 referees on, £50,000 a year, for argument's sake. If you do the maths, I think that's around £4 million.

“£4 million is a drop in the ocean when you look at the money, what's in the Premier League. And I just think that the game's in a real state when we're in a situation where we've got part-time referees still refereeing full-time professional games.

“And I think that for £4 million, someone somewhere, or the Premier League, or something should be done, in my opinion. It's not fair on the players. It's not fair on the fans. And I don't think it's fair on the actual referees themselves either.”

After the Harrogate win, Lindsey said he ‘did not understand’ Loft’s sending off and was going to speak to the referee to get an explanation. In the build up to the Cheltenham Town game, Lindsey told us: “I went in and spoke to the referee. He was under the opinion that there was an elbow thrown. You watch the footage back, there's no elbow thrown.

“But the problem is that it was two yellow cards, so you can't appeal. You can only appeal if it's a red card. In my opinion, both these yellow cards were really soft. We're missing a player now because of it.”