FA Watch

Kirkstall Blue said:
I don't think it is a hopeless effort, if we don't try to organize and protest, nothing will change.

I wrote yesterday to the sports minister in a private capacity, reminding him of his duty and that of the FA to act in a manner that is transparent and fair. As the sports minister, he knows full well, that in order to bid for the world cup his duty and that of the FA is to stamp out match violence, "not condone it" as in the case of the Arsenal fans and not publicly comment on individual players (Adebayor) prior to any discipline hearing. (trial by the media).

We can go to higher authorities than the FA.
Click to expand...

Very likely, the higher authorities have the same concerns as the FA.

Have you noticed how the UEFA adopted Platini's plan with the goal of relieving pressure on indebted clubs (the case of many english clubs) therefore saving them from a Leeds scenario?

The issue is plain for all to see: either saving a number of clubs by being blatantly dishonest or letting them crash by being dishonest. Choice was made by the FA. Same choice is (or will be) made by UEFA, FIFA or the English government. All these institutions are on the same boat when it comes to football.
Usually, when you have to remind people who are supposed to be fair to you they have to be fair to you, it is bad news. Once again, the FA is certainly aware of the biais they apply. It is not a question of ignorance and their behaviour serves a purpose: keeping the clubs with the biggest turnovers at the top so they dont collapse.
So the question is, since reminding FA of its duty of fairness is useless (they ignore it on purpose to serve vested interests), to determine whether or not a collective can force them to be fair.
I dont think the vast majority of top four clubs supporters are disgusted with their clubs being outrageously favoured by refs. On the contrary, it gives them a feeling of comfort and power. They know their club is protected by the FA, which gives them warrantees on performance.
You can already forget about getting their support and those supporters are worldwide and more numerous.

The FA acts on purpose and their purpose is to freeze the current order with the clubs with the biggest turnover on top.
 
I think you underestimate the ill feeling toward the FA from Sky 4 supporters FCLB.

Liverpool supporters complain that the rags get a free ride, rags think that they are harshly treated by the FA, and complain about the decisions that Chelsea gets. And so on and so on.

What none of them can argue with hard facts, and a clearly thought out response to particular decisions by the FA.

I also think you underestimate the groundswell of ill feeling toward the FA by supporters of the non Sky 4 clubs. They are significant in numbers, and if harnessed form a hugely powerful lobby that can make a difference.

My personal opinion is that the FA isnt trying to maintain the status quo, it's more a case of them pandering to the media and stretching their own rules and regs to ensure that they face little or no media backlash and embarrassment. What we, as supporters, need to do is ensure that the FA face just as much of a backlash when they do apply their rules inconsistently.
 
I'm pleased to announce that chippy_boy has offered us his services as a research officer, albeit it if we do have any (ex) referees amongst us who would be able to help him I'm sure he would appreciate it.

And Not My Fault has agreed to take on responsibility for MP's and celebrities. He will contact the MP's who have responded to us so far to ask if we can use their name and their words of support on our website, and will contact any celebrities who again would be asked to say if they were prepared to publicly endorse us and/or work for us.

We now have an interim management board of 12 people who are able to cover most things at a strategic level, albeit lots of hard work still needs to be done on a day to day basis by everyone if we are to succeed.

The dirty dozen, and their portfolios where appropriate are:

Mark Tipton - FA liaison
Sam The Drummer - Website
Ric - Website
Damocles
100% manc
Moonbeams - Fan Co-ordinator
Not My Fault - Media (now plus MP's and celebrities)
Prestwich Blue - Blog Editor/Journalist
0103 - Incident Co-ordinator
Dyed Petya
City Raider
Chippy_boy - research)

We hope to have something to announce about the website just after the weekend.
 
For those wondering what the role of the Incident Co-ordinator is, I'll be looking to ensure that for each premier league match played we will have a representative watching, and bringing any incidents of interest to our attention. We'll do this with a team of "spotters" passing on key information about the matches they are watching. Basically we want one person to act as a spotter for each premier league team, recording things like:

- Name of the referee and the other officials
- Details of each red and yellow cards handed out
- Time goals were scored, and the time the game restarted after each goal.
- Any red card offences not spotted by the ref at the time
- Any stoppages for injuries
- Any excessive or "improper" goal celebrations
- Any other incidents that may be of interest

In short, watching football, and passing on info about the game. Tough job eh!!

Each report will be looked at, and relevant incidents referred onto Mark for further action or contact with the FA. Even if no further action is deemed necessary each report will be logged, and analysed down the track to see if we can highlight trends.

It's vitally important that we get a spotter for each club, it will give us two spotters for each premier league game played and ensure that we don't leave ourselves open to accusations of highlighting certain incidents and ignoring others - an accusation that may well be laid on the doorstep of the FA one day.

Ideally volunteers will be able to see full match footage (I'm sure BBC & Sky wouldn't edit controversial incidents out of their highlights packages) of each their allocated teams matches. But anyone willing to spend time and effort highlighting the incidents that will form the bread and butter of the FA Watch campaign will be more than welcome. Of course we will also welcome any input from anyone who wants to highlight a particular incident without committing to a particular team, but we want to be sure that for every match we will have at least those two allocated "spotters" acting as our eyes and ears.

If you're interested, or have any questions please pm.
 
brilliant work everyone I hope other clubs who suffer the FA double standards join in fully when the website is up and running.
 
Thanks both of you, pm's are on the way.

Just out of interest, I'm watching the Pompey v Everton match and taking a few stats along the way.

Pretty easy stuff so far, but thought it was interesting that 1 minute 8 added time was played in the first half despite an injury holding up play for 1 minute 5 seconds, and a 55 second goal celebration. The ref - our good mate Alan Wiley.

On the face of it, these numbers don't mean a lot, but if we can build up a picture over time it could lead to some interesting results.
 
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