Am I Mystic Meg?

For those of you who read my regular blogs for the guys at Pitch Talk, you will know that I have been saying it all season that the referees will have a big say in who and who does not win the league. Over the past few months the men in the middle have been making mistake after mistake with their decision making. It is something that should not be happening as the refereeing standards should be so much better than what we have witnessed. There are only a few games to go now in most leagues around the world and errors are still been made. What is more worrying for me is the fact that these bad decisions are not just in one league or even one country, but right across all leagues throughout the world. Maybe it is the fact that the games from around the world are readily available to watch no matter where you are on this planet. It is a system now that highlights all the problems involving getting a decision correct. Refereeing has always been a hard job to do but with the coverage the games get now it has nearly become the impossible job. Having written all that, this week my microscope falls on two officials who had a tough weekend as they blew the whistle. Jon Moss and Craig Thompson came in for a lot of stick over the weekend after their performances on the field in Leicester and Glasgow. Let me unravel a few issues below that happened to the guys.

Leicester City have been the sensation of the decade this season. Every neutral and so called pundit want them to win the league and any referee who makes any sort of an error whilst officiating the Foxes will be hammered. Jon Moss was the man in the middle for their latest clash which last weekend was against another team having a super season, West Ham United. Jon had three huge calls in the game and got two of them spot on, unfortunately the one he got wrong could have a huge impact on the final outcome of this seasons Barclays Premier League. The Jamie Vardy sending off was in my opinion 100% correct, in fact it was downright cheating. The regular readers of my articles for the boys at Pitch Talk will remember I have highlighted Vardy’s antics before. This time he has been caught out and hopefully the book will be thrown at him, his reaction to his sending off was outrageous. Let us be honest Jamie, you were caught out now take your punishment. If you look at the West Ham penalty it is very easy to see why the referee gave it.  Before the corner had been taken the referee had reason to pull out a few players and warned them about holding. It obviously fell on deaf ears and it was a good and brave decision to give the away team a spot kick. So having got two good decisions under his belt the referee went and blew it in the final moments of the game. All he had to do was see out the game and the plaudits would have come his way. Instead he decides to give a penalty for a challenge by Andy Carroll. In my opinion it was just a coming together of players and never a penalty. In the big scheme of things if referees are going to blow for incidents like this every week, we may just turn off our televisions. So Jon in my opinion has now left his mark on this seasons Barclays Premier League with such a huge call. Mind you it is just another black mark against the officials who have screwed up.

We have waited quite a while for an Old Firm Derby and finally we got one last week in the Scottish Cup semifinal. For such a huge game, who better to referee it than arguably the best official in Scotland, Craig Thompson? It was always going to be a tough game for Craig and I cannot believe how he made a mess of it by the simple awarding of a throw in. When a referee and his team get together they need to be in tune with each other all the time. The more experienced guys learn this over the years. So when referee Thompson over ruled his assistant on the simplest of decisions like awarding a throw in, I knew we were in for problems. It not only showed me that Craig had no trust in his assistant Alan Mulvanny but was quite prepared to leave him out to dry. The incident led to a second Rangers goal and effectively knocked Celtic out of the cup. I know that Rangers only went two one up after the goal but who was to say that they could have got a second once, Celtic got their,s. As we all know now Rangers went on to win the tie and progress to the final and good luck to them. But in my opinion it was an awful decision and for the life of me I cannot understand what came into Craig,s head. One explanation been thrown out by a lot of my refereeing colleagues around the world this week is possibly he was fatigued. I cannot agree with that opinion at all, in fact if this was the case he should have totally left the decision to his assistant. The knock on effect has left Celtic with no possibility of a double and today manager Ronny Deila has decided to step down at the end of the season a decision I am not sure he would have taken if his Celtic team had done the double. The fallout from a bad decision by Craig Thompson has led to more than just not appearing in a cup final, but far further than that. It was a poor decision by a referee who after all is a FIFA man, in my eyes this is not acceptable.

So there you go, another very bad weekend for refereeing decisions. I am scratching my brain to remember when I did not have a weekend were nothing has gone wrong. Having said all that, we have a few exciting weekends ahead and I expect the top referees to be getting things correct. So until my next blog for the boys at Pitch Talk enjoy your football and I do hope your team does not fall the victim of a bad decision. CIAO 

The Heat Is On

We have entered the month of April and this is were things really heat up, in the chase for trophies and the valuable points to avoid relegation. It is at this time of the season that refereeing decisions come under the spotlight with great scrutiny. If the officials get it wrong at this stage of the season it can be curtains for some clubs. The managers are only looking for excuses to point the finger at a bad refereeing decision. How many times have we heard coaches complain about a missed hand ball a missed tackle by a referee or even the referee missing a clear cut red card. It has been going on for more years than I care to remember. These managers are just looking for someone to point a finger at as it all goes wrong. I always find it funny when managers blame referees for a dodgy decision that may have cost his team the points, well I think these guys should concentrate more on their own tactical judgement than a profession of which they know nothing about, refereeing. So whilst watching my feast of football on TV last weekend what caught my eye, yes you have guessed it a manager moaning and funnily enough a player not moaning enough as to get his team a penalty. Read on below and let us unravel the issues as I saw them. One of my observations will make you chuckle, as a manager points a finger at the wrong person.

As all the readers of my blog for the boys at Pitch Talk will know, I am a big Leeds United fan. I have had the full list of ups and downs following this great club. It is a club with passionate fans and over the years passionate players. I sat down on Saturday lunchtime to watch my beloved club take on Burnley at Turf Moor. What I witnessed was a disappointing performance that lacked the passion from Leeds to go and get a result. It was the performance from a team that had decided it was time for the holidays. This was never so evident as when United had a clear penalty not given by referee Lee Mason, it was not so much that the referee did not give it, but it was more the fact that when Antenucci was pushed by Burnley defender Mee, not one Leeds player even appealed for the spot kick. It was an attitude of lay down and die by the away club. At the time of the incident I was unsure myself as to whether or not it was a spot kick, but a good friend of mine from Galway Gerry McDermott sent me the footage on Saturday evening and I was completely convinced it was indeed a penalty. Now you all know me and I do not agree with players surrounding referees and harassing them into making decisions but I could not believe that no one looked for the foul. The TV pundits tend to call this sort of challenge by a defender as just easing out his opponent. Nonsense it is a clear foul and on Saturday my club suffered from a bad decision by referee Lee Mason, an official who has a wealth of premier league experience. Mind you he was let off by no appeal from a Leeds team lacking any passion to want to have it awarded.

One thing which is certain is that football and the managers involved in the game never fail to amaze me and last weekend was no exception. The excuses these guys spout out week after week are a total and utter joke now at this stage. Last Sunday, Louis Van Gaal took the excuse game to an all new level. His United side were absolutely blitzed by a brilliant Spurs team in my opinion. But it was off the field that all the drama developed before the game as Manchester United turned up late. The lateness was blamed on London traffic, lucky they did not play on Saturday or they may have never got to White Hart Lane, when United did turn up they were instructed to warm up and were given an amount of time to do so, this is where the plot thickens. The United management team were up in arms blaming the referee for disrupting there pre match routine by not allowing them more time to warm up. Again after a defeat a manager coming out to the media and complaining about refereeing decisions, although this time it was not the on field decisions that had got the manager annoyed. Well let me put Mr. Van Gaal straight on this, you screwed up, you as the manager should have made sure to be in the ground on time. If you are looking for someone to blame throw the book at the bus driver who failed to check the travelling time for your journey. Like your players on the pitch, he was responsible for a defeat that ultimately has now cost you any chance of getting that fourth champions league spot.

So there we have it once again, another weekend of roller coaster decisions going wrong. We are fast running out of games and I am sure we will see plenty more. We have to hope that one of these bad footballing decisions is not going to cost your team valuable points. Until next week enjoy your football and I do hope things can only get better. Ciao.

The Show Goes On

A lot has happened since my last blog for the boys at Pitch Talk. It has been an extraordinary couple of weeks on this little planet we call EARTH. We have had the terrorist attack in Belgium which cost an awful lot of people their life's. It is worrying that men, women and children can not go about their daily routine now, without the risk of what could happen anywhere. After such atrocities, it is vitally important that people show these so called terrorists that you will never succeed. Now your probably wondering why I am even discussing these people, but UEFA are apparently proposing to play some games in the Euro 2016 Finals behind closed doors, if a threat to a particular game is mentioned. This should not happen in my opinion as it is a defeatist attitude and it only let's the bad boys win. We also have had some cracking games at international level since my last blog and of course it goes without saying some awful refereeing decisions. Instead of my usual look at events in the Barclays Premier League, I have decided this week to spread my net a little wider, I am going to have a look at sensible refereeing in Dublin and a German referee who had a tough game in Barcelona.

When it comes to derby games in SSE Airtricity League, they arguably do not come much bigger than Shamrock Rovers v Saint Patricks Athletic. Last week the two met and the atmosphere was red hot in the Tallaght Stadium, the home of Rovers. In charge for the battle was Tomas Connolly who is an excellent referee in my opinion. His consistency is top drawer and puts in excellent displays on a weekly basis. In this game Tomas showed something I have not seen from a referee in a very long time. I can hear everyone laugh now at the thought that a referee showed common sense, but that is exactly what he did. Having awarded a penalty for the home side, Tomas was quick to realize he may have called it wrong, in fact he had called it wrong it was never a penalty, so instead of making a complete mess of things and allow his decision to stand, he communicated with his his assistant, yes communicated with his assistant, something you do not see in the Barclays Premier League. Tomas had landed himself in a spot of bother but by keeping himself in control, his assistant and himself got to the right answer to the question in the end. In my opinion this was a a brilliant piece of refereeing and a demonstration of how communication between the officials is so important.

It is not very often you can sit down and enjoy a game of football were everything falls into place. Well on Tuesday night that is exactly what happened when I tuned into the Barcelona v Atletico Madrid game in the Champions League, two of the top clubs in Europe. It was also a night were I got a chance to have a look at referee Felix Brych from Germany. I was not to be disappointed as both teams put on a cracker. Barcelona the attacking side of the game and Madrid with their defensive policy. In a Nou Camp stadium that was filled to the rafters I thought it was a brilliant match, add to that, the performance of a referee who was on top of his game and we had footballing excellence. Felix was so impressive in a white hot atmosphere. When the game was threatening to boil over after he sent off Torres, the German showed total control. A referee who keeps composed, whilst everyone around him is looking to cause problems is a top class official in my opinion. This referee let no one sway any of his decisions, this in fact is far more important than the actual decisions themselves. Because if you let the players get to you, all sorts of things can go wrong. He was not fooled by anyone and this helped the game develop into the showpiece it turned out to be. Let us all be honest about the main issue of the game, Torres deserved to be sent off no matter what anybody says. He was given two yellow cards for two stupid tackles. The boys at Pitch Talk will understand what I mean with that statement, as you would have to be totally stupid to get sent off for what Torres did. When the game finished I actually thought that this performance could put the German in with a chance of officiating over this years final. It will take some refereeing performance to beat the one we all saw the other night.

So there you have it, no comments on the Barclays Premier League this week. It was good to have a chance to look at some other leagues and officials. I have no doubt we will be back discussing the Barclay,s Premier League next week. I can only hope we are not discussing an issue involving your team and a match official. Until then have a great week and enjoy your football. Ciao