Cellarite
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 12 Jan 2010
- Messages
- 26,834
- Team supported
- Manchester City
It's getting to a point where the refs are making up unwritten rules and the mainstream media are going along with it. This has been driving me mad for ages. I'll give a few examples;
1) I watched the BT Sport programme about refs last month. Michael Oliver was on there saying that depending on the game, the officials will discuss how to ref it before the match. Where is the transparency with that?
Let's say for instance that us and Tottenham are neck and neck for the Premier League title on the penultimate weekend of the season. We have United at home and Tottenham are at home to West Brom. Aguero and Kane both make the same challenge in the opening five minutes. Aguero isn't booked (I know, I know - but let's just pretend they don't favour one team over another) because they recognise it's a derby and, in their own words, let a few challenges go. Kane gets booked though because West Brom isn't a local derby for Spurs so misses the last game of the season whilst Aguero gets to play for us. This is decided purely by the fixture list rather than the rules of the game.
2) Yesterday, the commentators and Howard Webb were banging on about Pawson letting the game flow and not spoiling it by producing yellow cards too early. Arsenal were therefore permitted to run around kicking Silva for 20 odd minutes with no reprisal. Maybe they should let both teams, management teams and sets of supporters know the magical minute when they are going to clamp down so we're all aware. Maybe we could start Silva on the bench and bring him on after 30 minutes to ensure he's safe.
To say that reducing a team to 10 men spoils the game is ludicrous. It's not the referee who has spoilt the game, it's the thug who has decided that the only way he can deal with a player more talented than him is to try to injure him.
3) Diego Costa kicked Vincent Kompany with both feet, slamming his studs into our captain's knee at Stamford Bridge in full view of the referee but it wasn't really deemed serious enough to warrant a red card.
Oumar Niasse made minimal, if any contact with a Watford player on Saturday in a vital relegation game and was sent off because he "intended" to kick him. If Niasse was sent off for intent, what was Costa intending to do when he actually kicked Kompany?
4) Another one yesterday - the Arsenal penalty claim was said to be a stonewaller that balanced out Aguero not getting one. However, earlier in the game, there was identical contact on Yaya Toure. The commentators and Howard Webb laughed off the Yaya incident saying he was far too big to go down so easily. My question, like the time when yellow cards start, is how tall and heavy does a player need to be for him to be deemed "being soft"?
The game is currently unmanageable. The offside rule is open to interpretation and nobody, not even the referees or players, understands it. The officials can't keep up with the pace of the game. There is no appeal system when a clear mistake has cost a team a game. The referees are deciding how to officiate matches week by week - they tell us this. If a manager or player makes a mistake, it affects their club and everyone is welcome to give an opinion. If an official makes a mistake and a player or manager comments on it, they risk having their salary reduced. In the last week, City have been put out of the FA Cup and Bayern Munich the Champions League because of incompetency - and not their own.
I shudder to think of the implications of Hull losing that game on Saturday because if their 10 men had lost while Swansea won, relegation would have been a probability rather than a possibility. People (and I don't mean just players and managers) lose their livelihoods when a team goes down.
All of this doesn't matter though because Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher went for a day out and said that it's tough being a referee so we can all sleep easily.
1) I watched the BT Sport programme about refs last month. Michael Oliver was on there saying that depending on the game, the officials will discuss how to ref it before the match. Where is the transparency with that?
Let's say for instance that us and Tottenham are neck and neck for the Premier League title on the penultimate weekend of the season. We have United at home and Tottenham are at home to West Brom. Aguero and Kane both make the same challenge in the opening five minutes. Aguero isn't booked (I know, I know - but let's just pretend they don't favour one team over another) because they recognise it's a derby and, in their own words, let a few challenges go. Kane gets booked though because West Brom isn't a local derby for Spurs so misses the last game of the season whilst Aguero gets to play for us. This is decided purely by the fixture list rather than the rules of the game.
2) Yesterday, the commentators and Howard Webb were banging on about Pawson letting the game flow and not spoiling it by producing yellow cards too early. Arsenal were therefore permitted to run around kicking Silva for 20 odd minutes with no reprisal. Maybe they should let both teams, management teams and sets of supporters know the magical minute when they are going to clamp down so we're all aware. Maybe we could start Silva on the bench and bring him on after 30 minutes to ensure he's safe.
To say that reducing a team to 10 men spoils the game is ludicrous. It's not the referee who has spoilt the game, it's the thug who has decided that the only way he can deal with a player more talented than him is to try to injure him.
3) Diego Costa kicked Vincent Kompany with both feet, slamming his studs into our captain's knee at Stamford Bridge in full view of the referee but it wasn't really deemed serious enough to warrant a red card.
Oumar Niasse made minimal, if any contact with a Watford player on Saturday in a vital relegation game and was sent off because he "intended" to kick him. If Niasse was sent off for intent, what was Costa intending to do when he actually kicked Kompany?
4) Another one yesterday - the Arsenal penalty claim was said to be a stonewaller that balanced out Aguero not getting one. However, earlier in the game, there was identical contact on Yaya Toure. The commentators and Howard Webb laughed off the Yaya incident saying he was far too big to go down so easily. My question, like the time when yellow cards start, is how tall and heavy does a player need to be for him to be deemed "being soft"?
The game is currently unmanageable. The offside rule is open to interpretation and nobody, not even the referees or players, understands it. The officials can't keep up with the pace of the game. There is no appeal system when a clear mistake has cost a team a game. The referees are deciding how to officiate matches week by week - they tell us this. If a manager or player makes a mistake, it affects their club and everyone is welcome to give an opinion. If an official makes a mistake and a player or manager comments on it, they risk having their salary reduced. In the last week, City have been put out of the FA Cup and Bayern Munich the Champions League because of incompetency - and not their own.
I shudder to think of the implications of Hull losing that game on Saturday because if their 10 men had lost while Swansea won, relegation would have been a probability rather than a possibility. People (and I don't mean just players and managers) lose their livelihoods when a team goes down.
All of this doesn't matter though because Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher went for a day out and said that it's tough being a referee so we can all sleep easily.