Refereeing decisions...

[WEMBLEY76]

We cannot blame the referee today,Neverton were more determined,dirty and hungrier for the ball,hence their win,again versus us in their cup final,only in the wrong competition,Wigan mustn't have motivated them last week.

 

[Matty]

We cannot blame the referee today,Neverton were more determined,dirty and hungrier for the ball,hence their win,again versus us in their cup final,only in the wrong competition,Wigan mustn't have motivated them last week.

No-one is blaming the referee for the result in it's entirety. We were shit. We deserved nothing. However, at 0-1, with 2 minutes to play, when their player clearly handles a yard inside the box, and the referee blows up for the handball, you're entitled to expect it to be 1-1 soon. What you shouldn't be seeing next is a freekick being given, and a freekick which wasn't even on the line, it was a good 3 foot OUTSIDE the box.

 

[manchesterblue23]

We cannot blame the referee today,Neverton were more determined,dirty and hungrier for the ball,hence their win,again versus us in their cup final,only in the wrong competition,Wigan mustn't have motivated them last week.

No-one is blaming the referee for the result in it's entirety. We were shit. We deserved nothing. However, at 0-1, with 2 minutes to play, when their player clearly handles a yard inside the box, and the referee blows up for the handball, you're entitled to expect it to be 1-1 soon. What you shouldn't be seeing next is a freekick being given, and a freekick which wasn't even on the line, it was a good 3 foot OUTSIDE the box.

Outrageous decision. The referee should be taking a break from refereeing Premiership games after his performance today.

 

[Dethred]

The argument given today, whenever the Fellaini handball decision is mentioned, is "well, Everto had an onside goal chalked off so that evens it out".

Does it?

Firstly, if Mirallas scores then we've got 70 minutes to get a goal back, if we score our penalty Everton have 2 minutes to respond, so not really then same impact on the final result there.

Secondly, the Mirallas goal, to the naked eye, looked offside. It was only when it was slow-mo replayed that you could see, at the point the pass was played, for a split second, Mirallas was onside, by a toe. Was it the wrong decision? Yes. Was it a completely understandable one to have been made? Yes, as the linesman didn;t have slow motion, or replays, to make the call. The Fellaini decision however, both at the time in real time, and in all replays, is so far inside the box I completely fail to see how anyone with the ability to see could give a freekick some 10 foot further away out side the box. It was a penalty. It was clearly a penalty. There was no decision anyone with an ounce of credibility could have given but a penalty. Now, I'm sure Lee Probert will come out (or more likely some lacky will) and claim the decision was given against Osman not Fellaini (the only plausible defence as the freekick was placed where Osman was, NOT Fellaini) however it's clear to see that's bullshit. Osman neither fouled Tevez with his lunge, nor did his raised arm get within a few feet of the ball.

Lee Probert has, at best, bottled a big decision and demonstrated why he shouldn't be trusted to referee in the Premiership and, at worst, actively made an incorrect decision based upon a prior decision on the outcome of the game.

The one thing I'm certain of is that, come next weekend, Lee Probert will be back refereeing in the Premiership as if nothing has happened.

Couldn't have said it any better. Sad thing is, had that call be made to the disadvantage of United, he'd be reffing league 2 for a few months.

 

[Dethred]

Does anyone honestly actually think that referees are biased against City?
Over the season the good and bad decisions even each other out.
The refs are professionals who are assessed after each match, It's not in their interest to favour one team over another.
Sure they make mistakes but to presume there is an agenda is just being daft.

I think they're biased against anyone who challenges United. Today is the perfect example: Vidic should have conceded a stonewall penalty and it was waved off, while we were denied a stonewall penalty by our opponents. 4 point swing in one day, just on two (probably coordinated) refereeing efforts.

Its a primary reason I decided to support city, and that was over the span of a decade I've seen it. I started following the league with a completely blanks slate, and came to the same conclusion long before having single soul to converse with that wasn't a fucking glory hunting American rag. I always wonder why teams appear to never give United a very tough game, and I realize its because the slightest bit of contact in the box is an automatic penalty, even if its not enough to actually impede on player. Any sliding foul is an automatic yellow, and a second foul is a sending off.

On the flip side, United get away with so much, its bent as fuck. And there I was getting excited that the Italian scandal might seep over into England. But I finally realized United's success is so ingrained into the league and the TV revenue that its in everyone but their opponents interest for United to win.

 

[AntiUnited]

Does anyone honestly actually think that referees are biased against City?
Over the season the good and bad decisions even each other out.
The refs are professionals who are assessed after each match, It's not in their interest to favour one team over another.
Sure they make mistakes but to presume there is an agenda is just being daft.

I think they're biased against anyone who challenges United. Today is the perfect example: Vidic should have conceded a stonewall penalty and it was waved off, while we were denied a stonewall penalty by our opponents. 4 point swing in one day, just on two (probably coordinated) refereeing efforts.

Its a primary reason I decided to support city, and that was over the span of a decade I've seen it. I started following the league with a completely blanks slate, and came to the same conclusion long before having single soul to converse with that wasn't a fucking glory hunting American rag. I always wonder why teams appear to never give United a very tough game, and I realize its because the slightest bit of contact in the box is an automatic penalty, even if its not enough to actually impede on player. Any sliding foul is an automatic yellow, and a second foul is a sending off.

On the flip side, United get away with so much, its bent as fuck. And there I was getting excited that the Italian scandal might seep over into England. But I finally realized United's success is so ingrained into the league and the TV revenue that its in everyone but their opponents interest for United to win.

Pretty much this. And i think it was the blatant cheating United gets away with week in and week out where i started to blindly hate them.

 

[Chris in London]

We cannot blame the referee today,Neverton were more determined,dirty and hungrier for the ball,hence their win,again versus us in their cup final,only in the wrong competition,Wigan mustn't have motivated them last week.

Funny team, Everton. Against us they always raise their game massively. Yesterday they were hugely motivated and were hurling themselves into tackles. But beating us has cost them Fellaini for two games and Pienaar for another because of the bans picked up, not to mention the general feeling that they got away with one with the penalty shout. So their two most productive players will be missing next week. One step forward, two steps back? Still, it's up to them to decide whether beating us is worth that much to them.

As a referee Lee Probert simply doesn't have a long history of favouring teams against us, or a long history of incompetent decisions, so I think I'd put yesterday down to being just a bit out of his depth in dealing with the hostility. We would have got the penalty had they not been down to ten men already, of that I am sure. We would have got the penalty had the game been at our place, and we would have got the penalty if we were already either 2-0 down or 2-0 up. As it was, he bottled it. Probably an okay ref for Sunderland v Norwich, but this was too much for him.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Generally don't get into the "United - Agenda" type discussions, as they sound whiny from City fans. However, I'm watching the FoxSoccerChannel Review of the day's football and they USUALLY see the world through red-tinted glasses, but are getting slated for "always getting the calls!"

The discussion was about how reading should have had a penalty from Vidic's push on Mariappa. One of the better analyst's on there (Thomas Rongen, an old Ajax player who came to the States and parlayed his Ajax stint into a career in the USA, and then made a name for himself as a coach before finally becoming the current Head of the Toronto FC Academy, which also allows him to do his TV gig!) put it this way:

"The bigger clubs in the world earn the right sometimes to get a call, especially at home. Having said that, in United's history, if we go all the way back to 2009, United called a ref 'fat and unfit' and retired two weeks later (I'm not sure that is true, as I think that was Dowd, who is still weebling around the Prem). However, when Clattenburg sends off Johnny Evans in the embarrassing 6-1 loss to Man City, he does not get another Man United game, but then Howard Web does a lot of Man United games.......(trails off to let you think about that for a second)
.......and 20% of all the penalties given in the League are given for Man United and not against them! I don't want to get into a conspiracy theory, but David Gill is on the FA Board and a lot of people, over the years, have suggested that Man United get favoritism, and this, to me, is a clear penalty call."

The show's presenter then chimes in, "Yes, but it wasn't because it was at Old Trafford, which tends to happen!"

FINALLY, even the red-tinted specs have to come off when things as blatant as Vidic's two armed push are not given right under the ref's nose!!

 

[AntiUnited]

Like some 1 mentioned previously it will all come out eventually it did for juventus its only a matter of time and there fall from grace is going to be tear jerkingly beautiful

 

[Pubteam Lomas]

We cannot blame the referee today,Neverton were more determined,dirty and hungrier for the ball,hence their win,again versus us in their cup final,only in the wrong competition,Wigan mustn't have motivated them last week.

Totally agree, but had we got the pen (as a previous post pointed out you have to expect that it becomes 1-1), and had the ref sent Felliani off we'd have been up aginst 9 with seven minutes to go!
Football is not about whether you deserve to win, it's just about winning.
I thought we were woeful yesterday, but the handball should have been the turning point and it WAS the key moment of the game regardless of how we'd played.
Graham Poll was on Danny Baker in the morning and he said, "a refs had a bad game when he gets the key/big decision(s) wrong" and Probert did.
He did not disallow their 'goal' for offside the assistant did, but he did give us a free-kick when it was handball 2 yards inside the box!
So he gets a reprimand for choking the big decision, but that doesnt help us, it just means he may not make the same mistake when he refs someone else, I'm sure Mancini will sleep a lot better knowing that!!!