Worst Refereeing Performance in Premiership History ?

Another weekend has ended in the Barclays Premier League and once again there are loads of talking points to have a look at in the refereeing world. According to former referees Chief Keith Hackett, we witnessed the worst refereeing performance in Premiership history at Stamford Bridge on Saturday in the game between Chelsea and Burnley, a game that not many people could see Burnley getting much from. I praised referee Martin Atkinson a few weeks back in my regular work for the boys at Pitch Talk and my views about the official have not changed. Martin Atkinson in my opinion is one of the top two referees in the country and I would back him every week. In fact not only is Martin a top official in the Barclays Premier League, he is also a top, top FIFA official. I will try and unravel below all the issues that led Keith Hackett to make such a statement.

Let us remember that these games are ninety minutes long and in the big scheme of things on the day Martin had only four big issues in my mind to deal with. Another thing to keep in mind is the behaviour of the players on the day, can also have a huge effect on how things can turn out for the referee. Three players who have to look at their antics on Saturday were Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Barnes and Oscar. I am picking these three out for special mention as I feel they let the game down, by their behaviour. The first contentious moment was when Barnes appeared to leave his knee into Ivanovic’s back whilst challenging for a high ball. In my opinion his eyes were clearly on the ball, but he unfortunately caught his opponent. You could hear the Chelsea players scream as he landed and then rolled over not once but twice and then to my utter amazement he sprung to his feet and ran, arms swinging in complaint to referee Atkinson.

Once again a player trying to con a referee so as to get his opponent into trouble, the issue with Oscar was a nasty little challenge were he raked his studs down the back of Ashley Barnes calf, a cheap and nasty challenge that could have seriously injured his opponent. As you can see we are now developing an issue were Chelsea had picked out the Burnley player for special attention. Maybe they were trying to get retribution for the challenge earlier on Ivanovic. It was always going to lead to trouble and when Barnes and Matic clashed in the middle of the park later, sparks were bound to fly. A loose ball, where two committed players could challenge for, is what football is all about. Let us be under no illusion that Barnes won the ball clearly and unfortunately his robust challenge caught Matic. In my opinion there was no way he tried to break up the Chelsea player. If this challenge was so bad how come none of the other Chelsea players reacted, a little strange I taught because as we know they tend to pile in on incidents like this.In fact some of them run a fair distance to get involved. No the reason nobody came running to help Matic out on Saturday was because nobody thought the challenge was a tackle that players hate to see. As I said Chelsea players have a history of sprinting off the spot, to get involved in these issues. Matic was stupid to push Barnes and was correctly sent off. In fact the FA backed the referee yesterday and took no retrospective action against the Burnley player, a decision which I totally agree with.

So all in all, I think some pundits have been very harsh with their comments about Martin Atkinson over the past couple of days. Ok so he turned down a few penalty shouts, so what, that is what makes football the most talked about sport in the world. I thought over all he did not have his greatest performance of the season, but the media reaction has been over the top. I think it is about time the manager at Chelsea just got on with managing his team and stop worrying about conspiracy theories, because this is starting to back fire on him spectacularly. We are on the final run in now and the pressure is coming on from all angles to referees, players and managers but this is part and parcel of our game. The next couple of weeks are going to be brilliant in the chase for the title and if you are going to a game I hope your team gets its just rewards and you enjoy your ninety minutes. Until next week, have a good one.

It was Assault.

Their is only one place I can start this weeks blog and I would like to take you back to Chelsea v Everton game played at Stamford Bridge. I would like to shed some light on an incident involving Chelsea’s Ivanovic. An incident in which today as I am typing this article I’m still in shock that he did not receive a red card on the night or worse still, retrospectively. Now let us call this issue correctly. Any player who puts his hands on an opponent in an aggressive manner should be sent off in my opinion. I cannot understand why referee John Moss did not produce red, as it was an easy one as they say.

There were three key moments in this game for me and I thought the referee and his team got two out of the three correct. As we know Matic had a shot, which was turned in by Ivanovic, but there was no doubt he was offside. The Barry red card was also correct and I have to admit in my opinion Gareth had to go. But what turned my stomach was the reaction of the Chelsea players to what after all was just an every day run of the mill late tackle. It was nothing nasty, nothing dangerous and for the men in blue to surround the referee in the manner they did to get a fellow player sent off was disgusting. The Chelsea left back in actual fact ran at least forty yards to make sure he got his point across to Jon Moss about Barry.

Meanwhile as the referee was dealing with dismissing Barry, Ivanovic was using his head and hands around McCarthy’s neck to try and sort things out. Now I don't totally blame Jon Moss for missing the incident as the tactic of the Chelsea players to surround him and try and pressurize the official into making the decision in there favour, a tactic that is surely been led from the manager in my opinion. But in this situation the assistant referee should have helped his referee out by seeing the incident and making sure Ivanovic was sent off.

Having not taken action on the night, I was sure the authorities would hand out a retrospective red card later in the week but could not believe it when he was cleared. I have done some investigations this week as to who sits on that panel but have not been able to come up with any names. The one thing I have to say about the whole incident was Ivanovic had his hands around the Everton’s players throat and his intent was clear to see on millions of TV,s around the world to head butt his opponent. That is enough in my opinion to warrant a three-match ban, no doubt. Whoever the guys are who sat on the panel

I wonder if they have been swayed by the attitude lately of Chelsea that everyone is against them. If they have been sucked in by all this publicity and decided not to hand out retrospective punishment, well then the mind game master has won. In my opinion it was a red card all day long and they got away with it. This is also the second game in a matter of weeks were we have had controversy involving a Chelsea player been under the spotlight after a game. If you remember the last time the three blind mice sat down to look at retrospective punishment, in fact they handed out a three match ban to Diego Costa.

As we go into the final few weeks of the season I don't want to be blogging about referees not making the big decisions but if it has to be passed on for others to have a look at I do hope they get it right and don't bottle any decisions no matter how special the player they are dealing with is. If I can look at an incident in the Liverpool v Spurs game last week I would like to praise Scot Ledger who was assisting Phil Dowd on the night. The shout Scot gave Phil to tell him Danny Rose had fouled Sturridge was superb. Phil was never giving a penalty and he only gave it when a brave Scot had a word in his ear.This in my opinion was team work of the highest calibre and hopefully did not go unseen by the referees boss assessor.

If only the assistant had been as brave at Stamford Bridge, Ivanovic would be about to start a three match ban. Anyway if you are out and about over the next week or so, enjoy your game and I hope your team gets the result for you. Cheers for now.

I did not do it

It has been a fabulous week for our beautiful game. As per usual we have had our fair share of controversy. The big two issues this week involve a stamp and a handball. Two totally different issues but in a strange way they both had the same outcome as players claimed innocence. Let me below, lay out my opinion on the big talking points of the week and try and make some clarity on the moments that once again got people talking and so much more this week.

If I may, just let me take you back to Stamford Bridge last Tuesday night and a superb game between Chelsea and Liverpool in the 2nd leg of the Capital One Cup semi final. Having drawn the first leg one all, the tie was there for either side to win and you always knew their was going to be plenty of incident. What I did not expect was an act of thuggery in my opinion by Diego Costa not just once but twice in the game. He is known well as a volatile character at the best of times but his stamp on Liverpool’s Emre Can was cheap and the act of a coward. 

People have been on social media this week with photo’s trying to prove Costa’s innocence. But I am afraid he was 100% guilty in my eyes, the only problem was that referee Michael Oliver failed to see it because of bad positioning by the official. Some in the media would have us believe that the Chelsea player did not intentionally stamp, as his eyes were totally on the ball, that is absolute crap in my mind. He knew exactly what he was doing and I for one am glad the FA also saw it this way and threw out his appeal. The appeal process was swift and now he can think about his actions a he sits out the next couple of games. 

Suppose if you look at the Chelsea players appeal, it was probably something he had to do,to try and clear his name. If you look at it another way, if he didn't appeal he was admitting guilt to stamping on an opponent. This is something that would have come back to haunt him later in the season, as to have a history of something like this could lead to referees making him a marked man for the rest of the season. Mind you I do feel we will be talking about him lots more before the seasons end as I do feel this guy is easy to wind up and a good opponent could do it again this season to get a reaction and I have no doubt Mr.Costa will oblige.

The second incident I would like to look at is a handball in the Hull v Newcastle game on Saturday, not so much the handball but the aftermath of the whole issue. Now there is no doubt that Ahmed Elmohamady punched the ball into the Newcastle goal and only for a very tuned in assistant referee he would have got away with it. Now it wasn't a slight touch or even a deflection off his hand, it was a clear punch. When the ball hit the back of the net he ran away celebrating like there was no tomorrow. When Phil Dowd blew for a free kick on the advice from his assistant, Elmohamady’s face was a picture. He actually thought the referee was doing him an injustice by disallowing the goal. At half time he could be clearly seen telling the referee to look at it on a monitor in the dressing room at the break. 

Now this in my opinion is clear cheating and the player must have been off his rocker to think he could get away with it. In fact there is a case here for when the likes of this happens again a referee would well be in his rights to show a red card. If a player stops an obvious goal scoring opportunity by punching the ball off the line he receives a red card, so I think if a player willingly try's to cheat and con the referee by punching the ball into the net, he to should receive a red card. I tell you one thing if this law was introduced it would stop players from blatantly cheating and justice would be done. So I will sign off this week on that note and if you are going to a game any time soon enjoy yourself and I hope your team is victorious but by fair means. Until next time good luck.

Magical Atkinson

This is the time of the year when the big issues are starting to be settled in the football world. As we head into February and March titles and cups are up for grabs and top games need top referees. As you know from my previous blogs for the boys on Pitch Talk I do like to follow what is going on in the refereeing world and blog on all the big decisions. The first major semi final of the season was during the week between Liverpool and Chelsea. As we all know there is a lot of history between these two clubs and over recent seasons there has been plenty of controversy, the ghost goal and the Suarez bite, just to name two. So it was with great intrigue that I sat down to watch the game on Tuesday night at Anfield. I was delighted to see that Martin Atkinson had been awarded the game, in my opinion is one of the top two referees in England at the moment. The other shall remain my secret for the moment. So let me below try and give you a report from a referee’s viewpoint as to how Mr.Atkinson did on the night. 

The first thing that Martin did to help the game flow was not to be afraid to apply the advantage rule and this worked for him, giving us the public a rip roaring cup tie to enjoy. Sometimes referee’s blow to much and this can stifle a game, but not Martin he was prepared to let the game flow if the players wanted it. You are probably wondering on that statement, but there have been games recently where referees have tried to let the game open out only for players to ruin it by stepping across the line and fouling on a regular basis. Overall I thought Martin was superb and had only got three big issues to deal with. The Chelsea penalty was a 100% correct as the Liverpool defender put in a very clumsy challenge inside the box and left the referee with no option but to point to the spot. Players sometimes can give away the softest of penalties by lunging in or worse still going in to a challenge in the box when their body is not set up to make a challenge. The other two big talking points in the game were the dive by Costa in the second half and Courtois handling outside the box. 

Now let us put the handball incident to bed very quickly, yes it was handball outside the box but there was no way the referee could have picked it up, not in a million years. In fact the only way that everyone else saw it was because of Skys numerous amount of cameras placed around the ground. The Costa dive was really a non event in my mind, the player went to ground after passing by the defender and Martin was correct to do nothing at all but just play on. So throughout the game I was delighted with the officials match performance on the night. There in itself is also and issue in a two legged tie, if the referee in the first game has problems it can lead to the referee of the second leg to have a certain mind set going into it. I am glad to say that whoever gets the second leg need not worry as Martin Atkinson left a very tidy tie lined up to referee. I just hope that next week I am not reporting on a referee who has made a right mess of the game. On that note I will bid you farewell for this week and if your out and about at a match do have a good time and stay safe.

Trouble again at Elland Road

For the past year I have been blogging for the boys from Pitch Talk. If you are a regular reader of my blogs you will know that I mostly get involved in all things refereeing and try and give my views on decisions that have happened in matches.Over that period of time I have had a lot of people ask me do I follow any team myself. Now let me get it out there in this blog and yes I do support a team, the team in question is my beloved Leeds United. I have been following this great club for at least forty years now and on many ocassions I have been to Elland Road over the years. It saddens me to think how this great club has gone from the top, right down to the bottom over the years. Both on and off the field over the past couple of years things have gone so pear shaped you could write many a book about it. From financial melt down to points deduction I like many others have had to grim and bear it with a heavy heart.

It would be magnificent if Leeds United could just get things right on and off the park. In my opinion under the leadership of Ken Bates and manager Simon Grayson things seemed to be going in the right direction but when that relationship hit the wall it seems the club seems to have been on a very slippery slope. I know an awful lot of people will not agree with me but I really thought Ken Bates was a brilliant owner. I am not so sure if Ken had the finances to push the club to the next level,but he always had the ambition of the club and the fans close to his heart. I met Ken on a number of occasions over the years and I have to admit you knew where you stood with the man. When Ken decided to move on he sold the club to GFH as we all know. To say that was a disaster for all involved at Elland Road would be the understatement of the century. They were an absolute joke, promises made, promises broken and the club going backwards once again. I actually remember saying to a close colleague of mine when they took over was, what would this crowd know about running a club, they are a bloody bank after all. How true were my thoughts, in fact the only thing they seemed to do correctly was get out of a business they know nothing about.

The arrival of Massimo Cellino as the new owner was hailed by a lot of the fans as the opening of a brand new dawn in the club's history. But I am not so sure about an owner who sticks his nose into team affairs and from what I am hearing he does have a big say. In fact if you look at his appointment of Dave Hockaday as Head Coach at the start of the season it should have given us a big idea into the Italian owners mind set as we set off into a season. Dave Hockaday was a very lucky man to even get in the door at Elland Road never mind being the boss. Could anyone in there right mind believe that he wasn't Cellino's puppet and if the owner was calling the shots on team selection he would have the balls to stand up and be counted on his team selection. As it stands tonight, the owner is fighting for his right to stay as owner of the club after failing the proper person test to own the club. Neil Redfearn is trying his best to get things moving but I don't think he has the knowledge or experience to get us out of trouble. It is probably to late in the season to make a change now so we can only hope and pray Neil can get it right. One thing that won't help the cause is the refusal of the owner to sign Becchio back from Norwich especially after been requested to do so by Redfearn. The sale of Stephen Warnock to Derby was stupid, after all he has been arguably our best player this season.

So as we move on into the final months of the season this could be the biggest period in our club history. If relegated I worry for a club that has had so much trouble over the years. The need to get ourselves on a run and get to safety has to be paramount in every ones thoughts. Through all this mess I think back to the days when I was a lad and Leeds United were the best team in English Football and the players were household names, Giles, Bremner, Gray, Lorimer to name just a few. The man who ran the show was a certain Don Revie and I feel after what has gone on over the years since Don left must have the man turning in his grave.

No Change

We have come to the end of another calendar year and as we go into 2015 nothing much has changed with managers still moaning and groaning about the men in the middle with the whistles. Week in and week out they are turning their attentions to ranting and raving to the press about so called decisions they have not got during games. Imaginary penalties they have looked for and not received or when their players are sent off bemoaning that the referee got it wrong. So just as 2014 was coming to a close, it was beyond belief that the so-called special one was claiming once again that there was a refereeing campaign against his team. Yes I am writing about Jose Mourinho, the best man of the mind games this beautiful game of ours has ever come across. Below I will clear up a few facts for Mr Mourinho and once and for all bury this guy’s behavior.

As I sat watching Mr Mourinho go into melt during the week, over the penalty claim turned down in the Southampton game my mind began to wander about his career in football and his clashes with referees over the years. More so his teams antics during the ninety minutes of games, no matter what club he has been at. When we first came across him he was manager of Porto and his teams antics in two games, which spring to mind, were against Manchester United and Glasgow Celtic. Both Sir Alex Ferguson and Martin O Neill came out heavily in their criticism of his teams’ gamesmanship behavior. Player’s time wasting and diving yes diving to win at all costs. It was a cancer coming into our game that was not needed.

On his arrival at Stamford Bridge I am not sure what he was putting into his players tea but it seemed to affect their ability to stay on their feet once tackled. Even that big man Didier Drogba was kissing the grass on a regular basis. It seems as if things have come full circle with Mr Mourinho back in the English Premier League after spells with Inter and Real to which I am sure his tactics were the same. When I watched Chelsea v Hull recently I actually thought that his Chelsea players had hit a new low for diving. In fact it was not just the Hull came but they have been at it all season. Against Hull Costa Willian and especially Cahill were seen to produce dives that Tom Daley would have been proud of. So when the referee turned down Fabregas penalty claim in the recent Southampton game and the player received a yellow card for simulation I applauded his decision and I finally thought, at long last Mourinhos tactics have come back to bite him in the backside. Now he can claim all he likes that there is a campaign out there against his side but he has to have a look at himself because his teams have had a history of this behavior over the years.

Let me put another angle on this before I close out. Every week since the season started pundits and fans have been tipping Chelsea for the title and in fairness they managed to open up a sizable gap between themselves and their nearest rivals Manchester City. In fact some local bookies have actually paid out on Chelsea already, but guess what? City is still there and are now right on top of Chelsea in the race. So when Jose was ranting the other day, their was a possibility his team could have been level at the top with City if the Manchester men had not blown a two nil lead. The pressure is on Mourinho because he has won nothing recently but as per usual he steps below the belt and blames the referees. Does anybody remember what he did to Anders Frisk ?

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

Come on Ref

I like to think that in the big scheme of things I will always give the referee the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the big decisions in the game. I was as you know, once the man with the whistle calling the decisions that would define the outcome of a match. But I feel this week that a couple of decisions over the weekend made by referees in the English Premier League were poor. It wasn't the fact that the referees in question made the wrong calls but in fact it was easier get them right.The two men I am talking about are

Kevin Friend and Mike Jones.The games I am looking at are Sunderland v Chelsea and Southampton v Manchester City.So if you read on below let me try and explain how they got the two big decisions in both games horribly wrong. So let us rewind back to Saturday night and the game that took place at The Stadium of Light. Nearly all the pundits were predicting a Chelsea win and in fairness I thought the same myself. It was going to take a monumental effort by The Black Cats to get anything out of the game. The one way to play against Chelsea is to get in there face and sure enough that was the tactic used.Chelsea,s player of the moment Diego Costa is a liability in this sort of game. 

I thought John O'Shea played the Spaniard brilliantly and got stuck into him and sure enough Diego snapped just before half time when O'Shea fouled him near the touch line.Costa could be clearly seen to kick out at the Irishman and I was astonished that Kevin Friend did not send him off.I have looked at it a couple of times now and the only excuse that I can allow Kevin to put forward is possibly that he did not actually see the kick. But with all the technology available now to the officials, I would have thought the assistant referee would have had a word in his ear. But no that didn't happen so Costa was allowed to stay on the pitch.

Then in the second half matters got worse for Mr.Friend when he had to deal with another incident involving the Chelsea player. He rose to challenge for a ball and was clearly seen to leave his arm out in which Wes Brown crashed into. Now I am not saying it was an elbow into the face, but in my opinion he deliberately left his arm out to cause damage and there was definitely a swinging movement. I actually thought afterwards that maybe he thought it was O'Shea coming in to challenge him and he fancied a chance to put one into O'Shea after the Sunderland,s player challenge in the first half. How Kevin Friend didn't send him off is beyond belief. The referee saw it and in fact produced a yellow card but I have no doubt it should have been red. It wasn't long after he was carded by the referee that Jose Mourinho took him off as he probably thought he wouldn't last the ninety minutes. One astonishing follow on from this was the pundits on Match Of The Day on Saturday evening when the three stooges Lineker,Murphy and Ince thought he was unlucky to be shown yellow.What a joke,these guys have not got a clue, to make matters worse the kids who tune into watch them, listen to there every word and now see it the norm for a player to throw out an arm to cause harm to his opponent. Funnily enough all the other football programmes over the weekend did agree with my views and hey also thought he should have been sent off.Maybe the BBC panel need to read up on

Now let me just briefly touch on the incident in the Southampton v Manchester City game were referee Mike Jones booked Aguero for diving to win a penalty. How Mike came to that conclusion I just do not know. It was a stone wall penalty without a doubt in my opinion and it was harder not to give it. No sooner had he shown the City forward the card that I got about 25 texts quizzing his decision.I genuinely have no answer as to how the referee got it so wrong. What we have to be aware of here is that all players don't go down in the box to win penalties.Sometimes in fact they are fouled and when this happens the referee has to have the balls to blow his whistle and point to the spot.I will be very interested to see if either of the two referees get a game next weekend. I feel they should be rested and hopefully when they return they will be the better for it.Until next time I hope you enjoy your football and the referees do not upset you to much cheers!

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