Honest to god I find the idea “make ex players refs” to be the most frustrating.

Currently refs get called biased if they lived in the same region as a club. Footballers who’ve moved into media roles over the years are always showing their biases. They’ve had decades of tribalism drummed into them, even if they’re fine moving clubs they still won’t want to tarnish their legacy by giving any decisions that help their rivals.

Even if they do play it straight no fan is going to believe them as fans