Good morning all and well done on all your work so far. I hope I can contribute in some small way with my thoughts.
This generic message has been posted on the board by a number of fellow blues.
mcfcbj said:
Finally got a reply to the message I sent to the FA last Monday .It seems to be a bit different to other one's if seen so far:
Dear Ben
Thank you for your e-mail. The Football Association receives frequent correspondence on individual refereeing decisions across all levels of football as well as on the performance of referees in general. Every supporter will have an opinion on the game’s major talking points and we’re always interested to hear them. It's a revealing fact that for every piece of correspondence we have from supporters complaining of a bias to a particular club we have the same amount claiming a bias against that club.
There are set procedures in place for when The FA can take retrospective action in relation to incidents that have not been seen by the Match Officials at the time, as was the case recently with Emmanuel Adebayor. We can only bring additional charges in exceptional cases, for example, when a referee indicates in his/her match report that an incident went unnoticed, The FA can then be requested to review the incident. In contrast, if an incident was witnessed by the referee at the time, The FA generally has no power to take retrospective action, due to FIFA directives.
Whilst 100% consistency is impossible when human judgment is introduced into a situation, referees get the overwhelming majority of decisions correct. In fact they are arguably the most consistent people in the game making split-second decisions that will be analysed repeatedly by slow motion cameras and panels of football experts. The FIFA Laws of the Game stipulate that we cannot re-referee matches by issuing or upgrading cards on incidents that the referee has witnessed.
Supporters often compare incidents with others and ask why the same actions are not taken. This is simply due to no two incidents being the same. The Football Association takes its disciplinary procedures very seriously and judges each case on its merits.
With regards to Robin van Persie’s goal celebration, having reviewed the incident and spoken with Greater Manchester Police and the Match Official, The FA have contacted Robin van Persie to remind the player of his responsibilities as a professional with regards to his future conduct. No further action will be taken.
We do appreciate all of the feedback we receive from supporters. This feedback is collated and used to build a picture of public opinion and is subsequently fed back internally within the organisation. Please rest assured your suggestions will form part of this feedback process.
Kind regards
The Football Association
The paragraphs coloured above rather than answering any points raised give some further points for the FA to answer.
1 If there are set procedures in place what are these procedures and are they open to public scrutiny?
2 If the FA generally has no power to take retrospective action due to FIFA directives. Are the set procedures in 1 sanctioned by FIFA?
3 If the FA can take retrospective action in relation to incidents that have not been seen by the Match Officials. And the FA can then bring additional charges in exceptional cases
if a incident went unnoticed, how would a FA or Match Official know something had been missed??? This could only be from an agency outside the football world i.e. Press or TV reports surely. The use of TV evidence on the day is constantly refused by the football authority's on the basis of singularity from the top of the football food chain to the bottom.WHO if this is the case brings the indecent to the attention of the referee presumably after reading the referees report to see if it has been reported or not and HOW is the referee informed of something he missed? Is there an official process open to scrutiny not just a quick phone call from someone.
I personally don't see you getting far with your aims by bringing up individual 'irregularities' though if you continue along this route I hope you are successful.(See the last sentence from paragraph one of the FA response above.) Maybe it would be worth while having a campaign for specifics such as, Referees reports to be published on the FA web site or for action only to be taken by the ref during the game?
I think also that you will have more success once the FA Watch site is running, why would a fan from an opposition team to City feel confident in the aims of an organisation formed and populated by posters here. I hope I am proved wrong with this thought as I genuinely wish you success. A clear mandate with simple aims would imo help you become more attractive to what could be described as the opposition.
The paragraph bellow obviously states what the FA sees as it's legal stance on correspondence.If you are committed to taking on the FA then this could be turned against them further down the line as a newspaper could be interested in a story along the lines of, huge secretive organisation takes steps to quiet the voice of the fans, type thing. If a legal fund needs to be raised you can count on me to make a contribution.
This communication contains information which is confidential, which may be privileged, and which is for the exclusive use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not an intended recipient please note that any distribution, disclosure, use or copying of any part of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error please notify us by return email or by telephone on 0844 980 8200 and delete this communication and any copies of it. The Football Association does not warrant that this email is free from error, viruses, malware or defects, or is compatible with your equipment or fit for any purpose and may monitor, intercept and block emails addressed to its users or take any other action in accordance with its email use policy.
Statements or opinions may be expressed in this communication that are personal to the sender and do not necessarily represent the views of The Football Association. Unless expressly stated otherwise, The Football Association is not bound by any contract or obligation purported to be created by this communication.
This communication has originated from the communications system of The FA Group.
I am far from am expert on FA or FIFA law and would be interested to hear he views and opinions of the posters on BM particularly with the points 1 to 3 above. If the consensus is that further understanding of these or any new issues or requests are required I would propose any further correspondence be made to an individual rather than some generic web site address as this would negate the paragraph above which starts ''Statements or opinions''.
Good luck
