Handball Ref

Another weekend has passed and more refereeing controversies have arisen. This week the big talking points have been all about hand ball in the two big televised live matches on Saturday at Anfield and Loftus Road. I watched both games as I knew there would be entertainment and plenty to talk about afterwards. Little did I know there would be three hand balls that could have had a huge bearing on the outcome of where the Premier League title will go this season.

 Let me take you back to Anfield first and discuss not one but two hand balls. Yes I can't believe it myself, I am blogging about two hand balls by Chelsea’s Gary Cahill. On both occasions referee Anthony Taylor waved away the Liverpool appeals for penalties which I thought were awful calls by the official. Cahill was clearly seen to move his body towards the ball in both incidents and they were the easiest of penalties in my opinion to give. This sort of decision is fact based and the fact was he handled the ball. It is not like a referee getting a red card decision wrong due to wrong interpretation of the law, these handballs were clear to see by everybody. Player’s reaction can also give the referee a clue and on the first one, Cahill was seen clearly on TV to hold his head as if he knew he could be in trouble. Funnily enough I thought the second penalty claim by Liverpool was even easier to give as it was a clearer cut movement of the arm towards the ball. In front of a packed screaming Kop I was astonished to see the referee wave away Steven Gerard’s appeal. As we all know the easiest thing would have been to blow for the penalty in front of the passionate Liverpool fans who sit in the famous Kop. I will be interested to see if Mr Taylor gets a game the next time we have Premiership football but as they say in the high places of power "Watch this Space ".

 Before I discuss the hand ball in the game at Loftus Road can I just say Mike Dean got the Joe Hart incident completely correct? The kick had not been taken legally so therefore the free kick was to be retaken. Anywhere else on the pitch and QPR would have been awarded a free kick. The reason behind City getting to take the kick again was because the ball had not come out of the box legally due to Joe’s double touch. The speed in which he made his mind up to have the kick retaken was impressive, the sign of a man focused and tuned in. Having said that all his good work was dramatically undone when Sergio Aguero handled the ball before he scored his first goal. There is no doubt in my mind it was hand ball and the reason Mike missed it was due to bad positioning and absolutely no help from his assistant. In fact if Mike was unable to get wide enough to see the handball his assistant should have given him a shout in his ear.

 What is more worrying about the incidents that I have discussed this week is the fact these referees are not rookies. These guys are around quite a while now and should be getting these decisions correct. In particular the hand balls at Anfield were the more disappointing as the outcome of that game could have been all so different if in my opinion the referee had awarded penalties for two of the easiest claims I have seen in a long time. Next week is an international break and if you get a chance have a look at the refereeing performances of the guys who come in from around different parts of Europe to take charge of the home nations. Take note of how less fussy they are and give decisions without been surrounded by players. Anyway until next time, keep well and enjoy your football.

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

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

Super Sunday You’re Having a Laugh

Like most football fans I normally sit down on a Sunday to watch all things premiership live on TV. We all know that the station push it as Super Sunday, well most weeks it really is poor and we have to watch boring games, not this weekend it has been excellent and to top it all off plenty of controversial decisions. I would like to have a look below at the performances of two referees, Mark Clattenburg and Mike Dean. Mark was in charge at Leicester and Mike took charge of the big game of the weekend between City and Chelsea. Both men left a few questions to be asked about their performances on the day.

Let me have a look at the Leicester v Man United game first. It is amazing how sometimes a refereeing decision can turn a game or cost teams points. Let us be honest, at three one up, United had the game in the bag. They were cruising and all things were happy in Louis Van Gaal,s world. So when referee Mark Clattenburg gave the home side a penalty it was to be the start of a collapse that would cost United dearly. In my opinion it was never a penalty in fact it should have been a free kick from outside the box as I in my opinion Vardy uphended Rafael in the first place to get control under control. But ok, fair enough Mark missed it the phase of play moved on into the penalty area where he blew for what only can be described as a very, very soft penalty. The Leicester player clearly made a move towards Rafael to get himself a penalty and Mark bought it. Awful decision and I am not alone in saying that. It let Leicester back into a game in which they had no right to be still involved in if Manchester United had taken their chances and the referee had been on his game.

So with one game over and a cup of tea made I sat to watch the so called biggie of the weekend at the Ethiad stadium. These games between the top sides decide the destination of the title even at this early stage of the season. A referee who gets these games has to be strong and exude authority. Mike Dean normally would fall into this category in my opinion but on Sunday he was awful. He strangled the game to death and had far too many yellow cards in the first half. Having dished out so many cards in the first half for silly free kicks he was on a hiding to nothing in the second half and was always going to have a reveal the red at some point. I actually don't think there was one bad tackle in the game and in my opinion I thought Mike was afraid to let the game loose or  develop, I repeat he strangled it to death. Zabaletta,s second yellow was correct but his first booking was questionable. I thought Mike,s performance was poor and it ruined what could have been a super game.

It will be interesting to see if both of these guys get a Premier league game this coming weekend. If they do I hope they learn from their mistakes and improve as for I one do not want to be writing about refereeing decisions deciding games every weekend, but if it is to happen I will be all over it. Until the next time enjoy your football guys.  

Seasons Preview From The Ref

This weekend kicks off The Football League and The Premiership won't be to far behind it. What spills and thrills can we expect I wonder, who will win what ? Most of all, what refereeing controversies can we expect because without a doubt, over a long season their will be plenty of them. So before all the mayhem kicks off, let us take a few moments to have a look at the runners and riders for this 2014/15 season.

I can't see to much change at the top of the Premier League and the usual suspects will be lining up for the title and the top four positions. It will be a very interesting season for both Liverpool and Chelsea. 

Both clubs have invested a lot of money in their squads and will want to be up there challenging for the top prize.Jose Mourinho has had two trophy less seasons now. In his last season with Real Madrid he won nothing and then to carry that into his first season back at the Bridge was probably a huge surprise to the so called special one. If results go wrong for Jose I wouldn't think it will be to long before Roman gives him his P45 again. A lot of the time last season some people were saying that the only reason Liverpool were playing so well was due to the fact that they were not playing in Europe.Well with Liverpool in the Champions League this season, it will show us how good last seasons campaign was.Brendan Rodgers has bought well but I feel they will fall short once again.

The signing of the summer has been off the park.In fact not so much off the park but in a managers office. Louis Van Gaal's appointment at Old Trafford has been a great bit of business by the club.David Moyes never got time and the appointment of Van Gaal will certainly see a turn around in United,s fortunes. This guy takes no messing and will route out any problem makers at Old Trafford and ditch them.I am really looking forward to seeing his first testing press conference. I have been sounding out friends in the Netherlands and they have been telling me that when this guys temper goes he makes Fergie look like a pussycat. As I put this article together Van Gaal has not really dug into the transfer market as he was waiting for the tournament in America to finish. He has looked at his squad now and I expect the cheque book to be out soon.One other thing that United have going for them this season is the fact they don't play in Europe. If Van Gaal can get his team playing well and picking up points, they too could have a season like Liverpool had last season.

This season I feel could be a good one for the men from North London. When Arsenal won last seasons FA Cup it really did lift a huge burden from Arsene Wenger's shoulders. They are spending money and the capture of Sanchez from Barcelona should give them the spark that has been missing since Van Persie headed north. At the moment their is a lot of talk linking Khedira to the Gunners and maybe this could be Wenger's last piece in his final jigsaw. The manager got a lot of stick from the fans last season and came out victorious in the end. I for one would love to see him succeed and if he brings back the glory days to the Emirates he will have done a brilliant job.

So all in all let us hope it is a cracking season and one to remember for a long long time.Let the games begin.

Great World Cup

Now that we are down to the last eight of this years World Cup Finals, let me try and reflect on what has gone on so far. It has been an amazing tournament and has had all the spills and thrills that were so lacking in South Africa 2010. I could type all night and not do the tournament justice, so I am just going to focus in on two areas of this brilliant tournament.

Firstly I will bring my opinions on the refereeing,then I must reflect on how England got on, as these two subjects are in my opinion huge.

The refereeing in this tournament has been a breath of fresh air for me. It is as if the referees have been instructed to let the games flow and keep yellow cards to a minimum, unless really necessary. Best refereeing performance for me was Howard Webb in the Brazil v Mexico game. I thought Howard was superb on the night. He let a few challenges go,early in the game and it seemed to work for him. It was a game were he could have been crucified. The host nation need to go far and if he was to have made an error which would have put them out, there would have been murder. The best decision of the game was the handball call on Hulk. To disallow the goal for hand ball was refereeing out of the top drawer and in my opinion has elevated Howard now to possibly the best referee in Europe. It was a performance that could possibly have got him the final,but as we know he was the man in the middle for the 2010 final.

There was one other stand out refereeing performance for me and it came from an unfamiliar referee to me. The referee in charge for the Chile v Holland game was a guy called Bakary Gassama from Gambia. Now I know very little about Gambian football and when I saw this appointment I worried for the guy. But he was superb,he controlled the game excellently and was not fooled by an awful lot of gamesmanship by both sides,so hats off to that man as well.

I will now try and make sense of what I can only call an abysmal performance at these finals by England. The build up to the finals was low key for a side who seemed to go into the finals expecting not to be going anywhere fast. Roy Hodgson decided to pick a young squad to bring with him to Rio,but it did not work. I thought his tactics were awful and can't believe the press have not hammered into him, since the team has returned home. Against Italy his tactics let Pirlo run the show and if he had put someone to sit on the Italian playmaker things could have been oh so different.

Against Uruguay he allowed his players to stay so far off Suarez,that I thought the Uruguay player had an exclusion zone placed around him. As we all know that Luis had a knee operation before the finals and if I had have been boss, I would have employed tactics to test out the knee instead of looking at the little man scoring the two goals to virtually knock the one time World Cup Winners out. The most bizarre decision he made throughout the whole tournament was when he took on Costa Rica. Gerrard and Lampard cannot play together we have been hearing for years, yet Hodgson had the two of them on the park in the final game. Most managers of the big nations who failed in this tournament,resigned after their sides exit but not Roy he is going on. He failed at Euro 12 and now has a double up, by failing at World Cup 2014.

So as I said earlier I am amazed that the press have not gone after him, but maybe they to are fed up with England under performing on the big stage and can't be arsed to write about it.

A Season in Review

Now as the dust settles on what was possibly the best ever Barclays Premier League campaign. Let us try and have a look back over the past nine months and see where trophies landed and who got them. The Premier league was brilliant, like a horse race going down to the line. In my opinion Manchester City were deserved winners and have so much to offer next season. When it came to the crunch of the run in they held there nerve and moved away from second place Liverpool. If we are to be totally honest the Liverpool train could just not get the job done. A superb run from Christmas to the last week of the league, has to be commended, but they just could not see it over the line. Chelsea put the spanner in the works by defeating the Reds at Anfield and the Liverpool balloon went down completely with that three all draw at Crystal Palace. I for the life of me can not understand why they did not just shut up shop when three up and get the job done. Those extra points would have kept the pressure on City for their last couple of games. It probably was the fact that it has been years since Liverpool had any chance of winning the top league and as they say inexperience can cause issues. I have to praise a Dublin lad who was tipping Liverpool since Christmas to go on and win it, but unfortunately Billy and Liverpool fell just short. Having won the league in 2012, when it came to the final hurdle, Manchester City had that winning mentality and managed to see it over the line. It has to be said that manager Manuel Pellegrini was superb throughout the whole season and did not get involved in any of the nonsense a certain manager in London was trying to draw him into. We must not forget that this was Pellegrini’s first campaign in English football and to take away the League and League Cup was a brilliant achievement. In my opinion City are building something quite extraordinary at the moment and more trophies will follow

over the next few seasons.

As you all know, there is a third team on every pitch and that team is my one, the officials. It has been quite a good season for the referees no matter what the TV panels have been saying. Ok there have been a few incidents but over all the games in all the leagues, officials have done well. The one outstanding incident we all will remember is the handball by Oxlade Chamberlain in the Arsenal game against Chelsea at the Bridge. How Andre Marriner thought that it was Kieran Gibbs who handled the ball is still a mystery. I said at the time that I felt the fourth official might have given him a shout on the headset as he was in direct line with the incident.I actually don't think Andre saw the handball and that is where it started to go wrong.Sure we will never know but as I said earlier it has been a good season for the referees. If I may just pick out my referee of the year it has to be Mark Clattenburg. This season Mark has been brilliant and I don't think he has put a foot wrong. He has been refereeing with a smile and it has worked for him.All the hard work Mark put in, culminated in a superb performance in the Europa League semi final second leg between Juventus and Benfica. For that ninety minutes he got everything right, no question. It is disappointing for Mark that he won't be going to the World Cup Finals after such a season but Howard Webb is the chosen one. But I am sure his time will come and the European Championships in 2016 will be his stage.

Before I finish, let us not forget that the greatest show on earth starts next month and I for one can't wait. It will be round the clock football for everyone who loves the beautiful game and excitement will be massive. I have been getting questions from all over the networks as to who I think can win it ,but I am waiting to see we're my old Dublin pal Billy is laying his ten euro before I decide, because as I said earlier his Liverpool shout was an excellent one, so stand by your beds as we wait for Billy’s choice. Oh yes and in case you’re missing it already the English Premier League season for 2014/15 season kicks off again on the 16th of August, not to long to wait now.

Throw the Book at Them

I sat down last weekend to watch the Chelsea v Sunderland game on live TV over here in Dublin. Before the game all the odds were on a home win and another three points in the race for the title for the Chelsea. Unbeaten at home in the premier league under Mourinho, surely they had enough to beat Sunderland. How wrong can you be and I wonder how many people had taken a bet on the Mackems getting anything at the Bridge. What was to unfold has had so much fall out this week I just had to get my fingers tapping and try and put a calm perspective on the whole thing. Let me take you through the main talking points below.

As I see it there was four real talking points in the game. Firstly I do feel that Adam Johnson was a lucky boy not to be sent off by referee Mike Dean for a challenge on a Chelsea player in the first half. It was high and reckless and verging on dangerous,Dean yellow carded him but with all the criteria laid out for a red card I felt he should have received one. Then we have the incident of Ramires lashing out with an elbow into Larsson's face. I do not see how Mike Dean did not see it,but he didn't and these things happen. More to the point is the fact that Ramires has only returned from a ban after been sent off for an horrific challenge on an Aston Villa player quite recently. This guy is becoming a liability to his team with such rash behaviour. Then we have the penalty incident,now I can buy into people saying some penalties are harsh but the one Mike Dean awarded to Sunderland last weekend was 100% correct and in my opinion was a penalty every day of the week,I really can't see what the Chelsea complaints were all about. Maybe it's the fact that they had known they had blown the title and in a game they would have expected to win. So that,s all the on field issues sorted. Let me take you to the technical area and the meltdown of Mourinho's assistant manager Faria. He was so out of order it's incredible. He had to be forcefully removed from the area, and in my opinion if he had not been things could have got a hell of a lot worse. How can players behave on the pitch when you see that sort of carry on from the management team, he ought to be ashamed of himself.

So Sunderland had pulled off a wonderful result to give them a real chance of premiership survival and just as I was settling down after all the madness,I get word from a contact at Chelsea that Mourinho has had an amazing after match interview with the BBC. In it he applauded Mike Dean for his performance and he applauded referee chief Mike Reilly for his performance this season, sarcastic to the core again Jose. Well he has gone to far this time and in my opinion he is fast becoming a pain in the backside,in fact sometimes he talks out of it. I was delighted to see the FA hit Ramires, Faria and Mourinho with charges this week and I for one hope they throw the book at them. I also think the club should have been hit with a charge as well,because these guys need to be reigned in and told to control themselves. It is bad for football to see this thuggery and this is not a once off,there at it all the time. So let us see what punishment is handed out and then we will see if the FA have the balls to take on the big boys.