Motivation Quote by Bill Shankly

Shankly’s jab lands because it’s not really about referees; it’s about the limits of rulebook authority in a living, improvisational sport. He draws a clean, devastating line between knowing the rules and knowing the game, and in that gap he fits everything football fans recognize: momentum, intimidation, fatigue, streetwise cunning, the way a match “tilts” long before the scoreboard admits it. A referee can memorize the Laws of the Game and still miss what’s actually happening, because what’s happening isn’t only infractions - it’s context.

The intent is managerial, almost political. Shankly is defending a working-class idea of expertise: the people inside the contest understand it more deeply than the people policing it from above. That’s classic Shankly, the socialist-leaning Liverpool prophet who treated football as communal drama, not sterile procedure. His subtext isn’t “refs are stupid.” It’s “they’re structurally unsuited to judge what they can’t feel.” The game’s truth is experiential: pressure, rhythm, the tacit negotiations between players, the borderline foul that’s functionally a warning shot.

In context, the line also prefigures today’s endless arguments over VAR and “clear and obvious” errors. Technology can increase accuracy while still flattening meaning. Shankly’s point survives because football isn’t only a set of events to be audited; it’s a contest of interpretation. When officials referee by rule alone, they risk officiating against the sport’s internal logic - and fans sense the betrayal instantly.