Loads of Fun

We are only ten games into a new season and the fun is well and truly underway for the men in the middle with the whistle. There have been quite a few decisions that have been discussed in pubs the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland not to mention the rest of the world. One such discussion has been focused around players holding their opponents at the taking of corners during the game. I would like to explain why Phil Dowd in the Manchester United v Chelsea game was correct not to award a penalty for Chelsea after the so called foul on Ivanovic.

When corners are been taken players will always jostle for position and before the ball is played into the box a lot of pushing and shoving can go on. There is actually nothing wrong with this as I have always felt it was part and parcel of the game. What I have noticed though in recent times is attackers are just running straight into their markers and this in turn is leading to all sorts of holding/Pushing/Shoving etc. Let us remember it is not an offence to stand your ground and your natural reaction as a defender is to hold your ground. If you can get your hand on a recording of the United match I would ask you to have a look at the particular incident again and don't look at Ivanovic but focus your eyes on John Terry. As the corner comes in JT runs at Chris Smalling and both are holding but in my opinion Terry was the aggressor and a free kick should have been given to United. If this had happened we would not have been talking about an incident involving the Chelsea defender Ivanovic. The point I am trying to make is the fact at what players are up to now to try and win penalties. I spoke recently with a referee in the UK and he informed me that at a pre season meeting with managers and referees that the managers had no issues with players holding in the penalty areas. The view was that it seemed to be part and parcel of the game. If the truth be known it was probably that on the  law of averages they would get a penalty sooner or later.

One other item that caught my eye was the treatment of in my opinion the best referee in the UK at present. Mark Clattenburg is top class and controls a game so well. He goes about his business on a football field with very little fuss and very rarely has a bad game. I was utterly astonished to hear recently that Mark had been dropped from the panel of referees for a weekend after he went to an Ed Sheeran concert and was involved in speaking to Neil Warnock on the phone. Mark can have no excuse after his dash to the Sheeran concert. Really he should have sorted out travel arrangements to that gig long before his match in which he got caught up in the controversy. I am sure he will have learned a lesson on that issue. The Warnock phone call to me is more of a worry though. As a referee you should never be getting phone calls from managers, it is a really really dangerous road to go down. I would love to know how Warnock got a hold of a private phone number for Mark. That would be a question I certainly would ask. Mark missed out on a couple of big games due to those blunders and they were not even related to things that happened on the park. I hope he has learned his lesson and the next time I write about him it's on him having a great performance once again in a game. Mind you I will be watching to see when he gets a game involving Crystal Palace again. Watch this space. 

On that note i'd just like to say thanks for reading and feel free to share any of your comments! If you'd like to speak with me further you can catch me on Twitter: @meiercy