Referees/Officials

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Perhaps the answer is paying them a lot more money and having a properly understood career structure (the better you are, the higher you can go, the more you can earn). Encourage young players, who don't make it, into refereeing (maybe some ex players might fancy it), and make all academy players take a refereeing course. If nothing else, it would let them see it from the other side. Also, make most red cards retrospective by putting players on report. A single consistent review panel would then decide on a ban. This would allow decisions to be taken dispassionately and give no players an excuse to feign injury in the hope of getting someone sent off. It seems to work pretty well for both rugby codes.

 

[manchester blue]

I agree that the general point about our possession and number of fouls relative to the amount of free kicks yellow cards we pick up is disproportionate, and I think Guardiola is right to raise his concerns.

A big part of why we are bottom of the fair play league though is down to needless red cards that we're acquiring, and from senior pros at that.

You could argue that some of that is borne from frustration, but they should know better and not give refs the opportunity to send them off. Nolito, Aguero (x 2 with the West Ham one) and Fernandinho (x 2) were all down to the player, there was no injustice in that regard.

But we would not be bottom if the laws were applied consistently to all teams. Yes, the reds were correct but certain teams are treated very differently to protect Scudamore's brand. You said earlier you would bin it off if you thought it was bent. I'm convinced it is and the Chelsea game was the day I fell out of love with football. So after 40+ consecutive season tickets this will definitely be my last. I may change my mind after a year if I miss it too much but I used to do always as well and not done one for years and don't miss that at all.

You also said there would be a whistleblower and it would be big news. I give you Mark Halsey. He stated he was told to amend his match report. Big news? I would say so but it was swept under the carpet so quickly to be never heard of again.

Anyone who does not think there is corruption in the English game should rethink. It happened in Italy and it's happening here too. Itsly used to be the hub of football. Look what happened there. China is looming and the English FA need to clean up its act otherwise the English brand will go the same way if this continues.

 

[@BluePhil8]

I think the point about 2012 and 2014 is wrong Ric - but for some of the dodgy refereeing decisions the title wins would have been much bigger. How do you explain us going into the QPR 3 2 game in 2012 with the possession we had that season with 8 sendings off to us and only 1 of our opponents had been sent off (Joey did make it two thank fuck) and yet scum only had 1 sent off but 8 opponents sent off, that is a huge difference for 2 teams on the same points??

When you see it written down like that...

Funny how a very similar pattern has emerged this season.

 

[Bill]

Scudamore has let the cat out of the bag with his strategic plan to have a new name on the trophy every 6 year cycle and admitting that a poor Rags side is bad for the brand and bad for business. In what other sporting competition does its head come out with such utter claptrap, basically willing on one side to be successful again?

Terrible start to the season and all of a sudden, they start to get the benefit of the doubt on so many levels during a game from every ref, bad tackles, no red cards, offside goals and its suddenly 8 wins on the trot.

Its not even subtle anymore.

absolutely on the money.

the daft thing is they think we don't know that they are at it.

clear as day.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Scudamore has let the cat out of the bag with his strategic plan to have a new name on the trophy every 6 year cycle and admitting that a poor Rags side is bad for the brand and bad for business. In what other sporting competition does its head come out with such utter claptrap, basically willing on one side to be successful again?

Terrible start to the season and all of a sudden, they start to get the benefit of the doubt on so many levels during a game from every ref, bad tackles, no red cards, offside goals and its suddenly 8 wins on the trot.

Its not even subtle anymore.

Scudamore's comment doesn't get the headlines and credence it deserves, it tells you pretty much everything you need to know imo.

 

[Eds]

Think it was the Arsenal vs Preston game yesterday. Keeper gets a bit of an arm to the face to stop him getting the ball under control/punching it out. Ref rightly gives it as a foul and commentators go on about it being a definite foul. But against Burnley it wasn't when bravo was slapped round the chops. Then there is Ashley youngs challenge in the manure game that looked no better than dinhos red card...

Saw MOTD this morning and in the Rochdale game I think a tackle exactly like Ferny's only merited a yellow and of course it hasn't been shown on a constant loop.

 

[blueinsa]

Scudamore's comment doesn't get the headlines and credence it deserves, it tells you pretty much everything you need to know imo.

Much like Mark Halsey telling the whole world he and others where told to lie in match reports so that they could then ban certain players after the fact.

The media dictate who gets banned, who doesn't and stories like this are just ignored and swept under the carpet.

£Billion pound tv deals, $Billion dollar international markets where the growth of the brand is the be all and end all plus £Billions gambled on a weekly basis around the world with Sky having their fingers in both pots means there are just so many conflict of interests its ridiculous and where there is money, there will be greedy men willing to do anything to further their own wealth.

Thats not pie in the sky thinking, its just the truth based on human nature and being a £Multi millionaire has never stopped anyone form wanting more and numerous instances down the years of referees on the take to fix matches.

Match going fans in this country are currently being taken for a ride and dont get me wrong, we will win plenty in the coming years but it doesn't mean the corruption has stopped or isnt there anymore because it will be with someone else getting stiffed.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I'm not sure the two are comparable, to be fair. It's a bad analogy. I'll give you the FIFA (and indeed UEFA) corruption though, even if it's not like for like.

If you do think it's inherently bent though, how do you explain the marginal 2012 and 2014 title wins? Surely it wouldn't have taken much to nobble us at some point in the lead up to those successes?

Also, as mentioned to blueinsa, why would you carry on following a sport that you felt was corrupt?

I can certainly give you chapter & verse on 2012. There was an organised attempt to cheat us out of the title that season. Think about the foul on Dzeko at Fulham, when they scored instead of us getting a fee kick and we dropped our first points. Then there was Clattenburg turning down a clear penalty at Stamford Bridge, giving us our first loss, Balotelli's two yellow cards at Liverpool amd losing to an offside goal at Sunderland. The club were made aware of this and paid someone to present a report to Mike Riley highlighting decision like these against suspicious betting patterns and fingering certain referees. That's why Riley did his Q&A at the Etihad although he claimed it was a "pilot". I'm pretty sure no further meetings have taken place since that, nearly 5 years ago.

Things changed a little for the better after that but sometimes a team plays so well that nothing a ref does has a lasting impact. And sometimes they play so badly that the ref doesn't need to do anything. Think of our game at Norwich where Chris Foy (one of the refs fingered I believe) booked Tevez for diving, when it should have been a penalty. Yet we were unstoppable that day but we nearly fucked it up against QPR.

Now, as unlikely as all this sounds, I know it's true without any shadow of a doubt.

 

[Machiavelli]

If you watch the docu film 'Senna' you can see how the governing bodies in sport influence outcomes by moving the goalposts or applying one rule for one, and another rule for others. It still happens in F1 so they can take championships to the last race/races.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

What annoys me is when the fans start chanting "You don't know what your doing" when a ref is quite obviously bent. He's bent so he knows exactly what he's doing. A more appropriate chant would be " You bent bastard" or "You're bent & you know you are".

You bent bastard, You cheating bastard were my main chants from CBL3 that day!