Last night was a European blip so no point IMO about getting too caught up with it. What I think it highliights though is the state of the game in England.
1. The Respect the Ref campaign has not worked. I think the behaviour of the players last night was shocking and deserves some punishment. The respect the ref campaign was brought in largely because of the disrespect that the top 4 show them week in week out and it has little impact on them. I'd like to see what the FA would do if Stoke, Hull or ourselves acted up as bad as the top 4 do. The book would be thrown a those teams but somehow it's only passion when it's he top sides. Bollox!
2. The game is crying out for a TV Official, miked up refs and some means to make refs accountable for decisions (even if they are only human error). IMO the biggest obstacle of this is that the authorities would lose their "grey area". Take the SWP banning as n example. The ref lied and said he didn't see SWP's raisd leg so the FA had to step in and ban him. The ref then saw Ronaldo's incident so nothing happens. We all know this is "corrupt" but the authorities want to keep this so they can control the game as they wish. TVs and refs with voices would make that so much harder.
3. The standard of referring in general is crap. Forget last night. Personally I thought he was okish - some errors but mostly fair. Instead consider the standard week in week out in England. It's dire. I've said for years that bringing down Vassell and bringing down Rooney in the premier league referee's mind are very different. Rooney may score so it's a yellow. Vassell would have fallen over anyway so it may not even bee a foul. It's the same in the opposite way with Robinho and say Anelka. Robinho is too lightweight so no foul but Anelka would only fall over if it was really bad so yellow. So it's not quite corrupt but it's biased. This is just one slice of it though. Each week there are shocking examples of poor referring. Beyond he TVs, mikes, etc they themselves need to figure out how they can become more consistent.
Overall the game in England needs fixing and I hope last night just highlighted some things that'll help. From a City perspective I hope any change come soon because if we get anywhere near close enough to challenge the top you'll see some strange refereeing and FA decisions then it'll be murder compared to last night.
1. The Respect the Ref campaign has not worked. I think the behaviour of the players last night was shocking and deserves some punishment. The respect the ref campaign was brought in largely because of the disrespect that the top 4 show them week in week out and it has little impact on them. I'd like to see what the FA would do if Stoke, Hull or ourselves acted up as bad as the top 4 do. The book would be thrown a those teams but somehow it's only passion when it's he top sides. Bollox!
2. The game is crying out for a TV Official, miked up refs and some means to make refs accountable for decisions (even if they are only human error). IMO the biggest obstacle of this is that the authorities would lose their "grey area". Take the SWP banning as n example. The ref lied and said he didn't see SWP's raisd leg so the FA had to step in and ban him. The ref then saw Ronaldo's incident so nothing happens. We all know this is "corrupt" but the authorities want to keep this so they can control the game as they wish. TVs and refs with voices would make that so much harder.
3. The standard of referring in general is crap. Forget last night. Personally I thought he was okish - some errors but mostly fair. Instead consider the standard week in week out in England. It's dire. I've said for years that bringing down Vassell and bringing down Rooney in the premier league referee's mind are very different. Rooney may score so it's a yellow. Vassell would have fallen over anyway so it may not even bee a foul. It's the same in the opposite way with Robinho and say Anelka. Robinho is too lightweight so no foul but Anelka would only fall over if it was really bad so yellow. So it's not quite corrupt but it's biased. This is just one slice of it though. Each week there are shocking examples of poor referring. Beyond he TVs, mikes, etc they themselves need to figure out how they can become more consistent.
Overall the game in England needs fixing and I hope last night just highlighted some things that'll help. From a City perspective I hope any change come soon because if we get anywhere near close enough to challenge the top you'll see some strange refereeing and FA decisions then it'll be murder compared to last night.