FA Watch

[Montgomery Burns]

I've certainly seen red cards given for less!

Lucas keeps his eye on the ball throughout, Fellaini leads with his arm and Lucas didn't stand a chance. Alan Wiley didn't even blow for a foul so that suggests he didn't see it.

I'll send a letter off.

 

[ultimateharold]

Fellaini gets away with that EVERY week. It's a surprise it's never mentioned.

 

[Clubber]

Has there been any comeback on johnny evans for his kung fu kick on drogba. Looked a bit like dangerous play to me, just as dangerous as Ade's stomp.


Didn't think so.

 

[Damocles]

The official replies from the FA are on the FA Watch forum.

<a class="postlink" href="http://fawatch.org/forum" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://fawatch.org/forum</a>

 

[Montgomery Burns]

I have written to the FA tonight on behalf of FA Watch, and the details of the letter are as follows:

Dear Sir/Madam,

As you know, your decision last September to charge Emmanuel Adebayor with a charge of violent conduct sparked a lively debate in football circles, as fans wait to see whether you intend to intervene in other cases of violent conduct that may not been seen by match officials during the game.

As before, I write to you on behalf of the ‘FA Watch’ campaign, which is published at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.fawatch.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fawatch.org</a>.

In view of your decision to charge Mr Adebayor and in the interests of wishing the laws of the game to be applied in an even handed and consistent manner, I refer you to an incident in the second half of yesterday’s Merseyside derby when Liverpool’s Lucas was elbowed in the face by Everton’s Marouane Fellaini.

Given Alan Wiley did not even blow for a foul it is quite possible he did not see the full extent of the incident, in which Lucas had an elbow smashed in his face whilst heading the ball away.

One would normally expect a red card for violent conduct to have been issued by Mr Wiley had he seen the incident in the circumstances so described. If he did not see the incident from the angle he was coming from as it seems, one would normally expect the FA to follow the matter up after reviewing the official’s match report.

The question at the heart of this matter therefore is whether Mr Wiley saw the incident in full and dealt with the matter at the time. Given he did not even blow for a foul this would seem unlikely. However the answer should be in Mr Wiley's match report.

Can you therefore advise whether Mr Wiley saw the incident in question and if so that he felt there was no need for the matter to be reconsidered? If the answers to both questions are ‘yes’ then I will obviously contact Keith Hackett in due course to take matters further from that side.

But if Mr Wiley did not see the incident in full can you confirm you will be investigating the circumstances of the incident, and if so let me know the outcome of that investigation? Your comments will be published at the web address given above. (end)


Copies have been sent to the usual media outlets.

 

[Montgomery Burns]

Has there been any comeback on johnny evans for his kung fu kick on drogba. Looked a bit like dangerous play to me, just as dangerous as Ade's stomp.


Didn't think so.

They did reply and I did post it up here as well as <a class="postlink" href="http://www.fawatch.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=252" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fawatch.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=252</a>

Atkinson's position was that he dealt with the incident at the time as he saw fit!

Honestly!!

 

[Freestyler]

I have written to the FA tonight on behalf of FA Watch, and the details of the letter are as follows:

Dear Sir/Madam,

As you know, your decision last September to charge Emmanuel Adebayor with a charge of violent conduct sparked a lively debate in football circles, as fans wait to see whether you intend to intervene in other cases of violent conduct that may not been seen by match officials during the game.

As before, I write to you on behalf of the ‘FA Watch’ campaign, which is published at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.fawatch.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fawatch.org</a>.

In view of your decision to charge Mr Adebayor and in the interests of wishing the laws of the game to be applied in an even handed and consistent manner, I refer you to an incident in the second half of yesterday’s Merseyside derby when Liverpool’s Lucas was elbowed in the face by Everton’s Marouane Fellaini.

Given Alan Wiley did not even blow for a foul it is quite possible he did not see the full extent of the incident, in which Lucas had an elbow smashed in his face whilst heading the ball away.

One would normally expect a red card for violent conduct to have been issued by Mr Wiley had he seen the incident in the circumstances so described. If he did not see the incident from the angle he was coming from as it seems, one would normally expect the FA to follow the matter up after reviewing the official’s match report.

The question at the heart of this matter therefore is whether Mr Wiley saw the incident in full and dealt with the matter at the time. Given he did not even blow for a foul this would seem unlikely. However the answer should be in Mr Wiley's match report.

Can you therefore advise whether Mr Wiley saw the incident in question and if so that he felt there was no need for the matter to be reconsidered? If the answers to both questions are ‘yes’ then I will obviously contact Keith Hackett in due course to take matters further from that side.

But if Mr Wiley did not see the incident in full can you confirm you will be investigating the circumstances of the incident, and if so let me know the outcome of that investigation? Your comments will be published at the web address given above. (end)


Copies have been sent to the usual media outlets.

awesome, good man.

 

[Montgomery Burns]

A legal question for any budding Columbo.

Can we put in a Freedom of Information request into the FA to obtain the Referee's match reports?

If so, how in practical terms does one do this e.g. is there a set format or a form that needs completing?

Thanks


Mark

 

[Dyed Petya]

For what it's worth, I used to be an advisory lawyer at a central government department and advising on FOI requests, when the Act had just come into force in 2005, was a part of my job. The bottom line is that I think you're on a loser here, as it seems to me that the FOIA does not apply to the FA. I'll set out reasoning here because I'm sure plenty f others are as qualified to comment on this as I am and can disagree or add to it if they wish.

The FOIA is basically intended to apply (see section 4) to (a) a "body or office was established by any enactment, the Crown prerogative, a government department or a Minister acting in any other way"; and (b) a "body or office are made by the Crown, a Minister or a government department". Such bodies are listed in Schedule 1 to the FOIA (you can find details here: http://www.foi.gov.uk/yourRights/publicauthorities.htm#schedule1), and the Secretary of State has power to amend that Schedule to add new bodies.

Where those conditions are not met, the SoS can, under section 5, designate a private body as being covered by the FOIA if: "they appear to him to be performing functions of a public nature; or they are carrying out functions under contract with a public authority which would otherwise be up to the authority to provide".

Unless anyone knows better, the FA does not appear in Schedule 1, and as far as I can ascertain has not been designated under section 5. The only football body to which the FOIA applies seems to be the Football Licensing Authority, which appears in Schedule 1.

It's open to any person in theory to try to persuade the SoS to use his/her power under section 4 to amend Schedule 1 or to designate a body as being subject to the FOIA under section 5. Any such attempt seems to me likely to be futile: section 4 clearly doesn't apply to the FA, and my opinion is that you'd struggle to persuade anyone that section 5 does.

Incidentally, even if you did manage to persuade anyone that the FA should be subject to the FOIA, it doesn't mean you can have any information you'd like. There are fairly extensive exemptions, and from my experience of using them, I reckon anyone competent could make a fairly good case for one of them applying to referees reports so that they wouldn't be disclosed anyway.

Finally, for the sake of completeness, as to your question about the form of a request. There's no pro forma. The requirements are that it should be in writing (submission via an electronic medium like fax or email is OK), should state the name of the applicant and give a correspondence address; and should clearly identify the information being requested.

 

[Montgomery Burns]

Thanks Dyed Petya.

If anyone has anything to add on this point I'm sure we'd all be very interested to hear, as DP intimates.

Mark