A Year of Poor Decisions

It has been a crazy year for decisions made by referees all around the British Isles. Those of you who follow my regular blog for the boys at Pitch Talk, will know only to well there has been plenty to blog about. If you read my columns closely, you will know I have said most of the year that the best two referees in the country have been Mark Clattenburg and Martin Atkinson, a point not missed out by their bosses at UEFA as both have been picked to referee at next years European Championship Finals. So it was to my astonishment to see the two lads get a few things wrong in the games they had on Bank Holiday Monday, they must have had to much Christmas Turkey as the decisions they got wrong were in my opinion poor ones.

Let me first have a look at two big decisions in the Manchester United v Chelsea game that changed the outcome of the match. As I always say, if a refereeing decision changes the result of the game that to me is a cardinal sin. How Martin Atkinson did not give a penalty when Willian handled the ball within his own penalty area is a mystery to me. It was a clear hand ball seen by everyone and by the letter of the law the referee should have pointed to the spot. The Chelsea player actually moved his hand to the ball and that was the point when the referee should have blown. The assistant referee was in a good spot to see it and maybe give the referee a shout, on those famous earpieces but not even he was able to help out his colleague. It is game changing decisions like these that can sometimes cost managers their jobs and we all know that the Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal needs victories and with that type of decision not been given, does not help his cause. The other big talking point in the game was an awful challenge by England captain Wayne Rooney on Chelsea midfielder Oscar. He could have broke his opponents leg and how the referee only gave him a yellow and did not send him off beggars belief. In fact Wayne knew he had done wrong and his reaction to the challenge in my opinion was one of a guilty man.

Mark Clattenburg took charge of what surely will go down as a Barclays Premier League Classic game between Everton and Stoke at Goodison Park, and if he had not given an outrageous penalty in the dying moments, the game would have ended up all square. Their is not doubt in my mind Everton defender John Stones clearly won the ball on his initial challenge and the fact his trailing leg came into contact with Antanouci should not have made a blind bit of difference. The referee appeared to wave play on and then changed his mind, maybe he got a whisper in his ear from his assistant, but if he did it was incredible. The referee was well positioned to make the call and needed no outside interference. A very very poor decision in the end cost Everton the game and I was not surprised to hear after the game, Roberto Martinez complain, with some justification in my opinion.

As we head into the year 2016 I am sure that their will be plenty to blog about for the boys at Pitch Talk and in this strangest of seasons god only knows what will happen. This could be a season when we have a surprise winner of the title but I really do hope it is not a bad refereeing decision that decides this seasons champions. As I finish off this blog may I take the opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very very Happy New Year, Enjoy your Football, Ciao

The Worldwide Game

The game of Association Football is played all around the globe, from as far North as the Faroe Islands, to the hot South of Australia. The English Premier League is beamed into many homes on this great global planet every weekend and big decisions are discussed in so many different languages when they happen. That is the beauty of our game, everyone has an opinion and a view on so much involved in and around the games. Their is so much football on TV these days, that the weekends are now special for us football fans. Controversy is never to far away and again this weekend we had our fair share of it. I want to this week focus on the game at the Eithiad Stadium and in particular, a refereeing performance from Roger East.

I have watched Roger on many ocassions over the past year and he has the making of a very good referee. But to be perfectly honest I was disappointed with his performance on Saturday. It was not that he had a particularly poor performance, but it was more the way he went about his business on the day and I can not let the Sean Davis handball go without a mention. In my opinion I thought Roger,s application of the advantage rule was wrong on the day, something I have not seen him do before. He seemed to be letting a long time lapse between the tackle and the awarding of a free kick. On a couple of occasions he tended to hold before blowing and then a second challenge came in, before he blew, for the original free kick. This is so dangerous, as it can lead to all sorts of problems and it causes players to react to you as if the first free kick had been missed. As I said earlier I have not seen Roger take this approach before and I just hope his coach is not putting it into his head to do this. His big call in the game was a handball by Southampton,s Steven Davis on the goal line which went out for a corner. It was in my opinion a100% red card and a penalty. How the referee did not see it was amazing, even the movement by the Southampton player should have told him it was a handball. But if I can, may I take this a bit further. An official behind the goal would have seen the incident and in my opinion would have been in the best position to do so. This is something that maybe the FA should have a look at and take the European route. The extra official behind the goal does work and will not cost the millions that the introduction of goal line technology has.

Before I end this week, I can not sign off without giving Craig Pawson a mention. I pulled Craig up in last weeks blog for not carding players for diving and quite a few of my blog readers were in touch to let me know they were in total agreement with my views. They say a week is a very longtime in football, and I have to totally agree with that, so let me this week, heap praise on Mr. Pawson for not blowing for a free kick, when it was so much easier to do. In fact, if he had blown, history in the Barclay,s Premier League may never have happened. I am talking about the incident in the Leicester v Manchester United match, when Blind tried to stop Kasper Schmichel clearing a ball upfield by sticking his leg up, a free kick all day every day. But the referee on this occasion used his head and saw their was a break on for the home side, a break in fact which led to Jamie Vardy creating history by scoring eleven goals in eleven games in a row. Amazingly none of the so called TV pundits gave this decision any sort of mention over the weekend. Typical of people who get paid big money but have not got a clue about application of the rules laid down by FIFA. It was a great decision to play on by Craig and fair play to him.

Ok that's me for this week, I do hope you enjoy your football during the week and if your side is taking to the field, I do hope all the refereeing decisions are correct for your team, I know this sometimes never happens but sure isn't that why we love this beautiful game. 

Until next week enjoy.

Ref That's a Card

As we all know the Premier League had a break last week to allow for International football. Going into the break things were going along with the usual amount of refereeing mistakes and calamities of an average Premier League season. What happened on Friday the 13th in Paris puts everything in life into perspective. Forget about offsides, penalties, red or yellow cards as the world took a very sinister turn on the night .The terrorists who carried out the atrocity struck at the heart of the people's leisure time at the concert hall and the attempted bombing at the France v Germany game. The loss of so many young lives is heartbreaking and my thoughts and prayers go out to their families and friends. 

At all Premier league games this weekend the French national anthems was sang and showed support for the French. More importantly it showed the need to go on, in the face of threats from people who in my opinion are cowards. So on its return. what did the games in the Premier league produce this weekend and were was the controversial incidents ? . Their were a few so let me below have a look and shed some light on where things went horribly wrong for the men with the whistle.

Like the majority of fans who are unable to attend live matches. I sat down on Saturday afternoon and tuned into the Chelsea v Norwich match shown on live TV in Dublin. The man in charge for the game was Craig Pawson a referee I have to admit I don't know a lot about. If you look at his game overall you have to be disappointed, as he got the big game changing call totally wrong and failed to back up his decision making by not cautioning two players for simulation, a word that covers up the fact that it is blatant cheating. Clubs like Norwich need to get the rub of the green when they play the so called big clubs. So when Willian blocked Norwich,s Robbie Brady I expected to see the referee point to the spot for a penalty and I was amazed when he waved away the Norwich appeals. It was a clear cut penalty for me and I was quite pleased to hear Pat Nevin say the same on TV. These decisions are game changers in my opinion, the way Chelsea have been playing lately who knows what way the game could have gone if the Canaries had scored from the spot. Their we're two other issues in the game that were a disappointment from a refereeing point of view. On two separate occasions Mr.Pawson waved away two penalty appeals by Chelsea when Costa and Pedro went tumbling in the area. I saw them as dives and having not awarded the penalties I have no doubt he should have cautioned both players. These decisions to me are easy ones, if the referee deemed a player has dived to gain a penalty just caution him, simple as that, nothing else is good enough.

Football can be a great leveller and it was fantastic to see all the players this week stand arm in arm as the French national anthem was belted out all around the country. We can not let these terrorists win and been strong together sends out a great message. 

Until next week enjoy your football and for the fallen people in Paris, may they all rest in peace. Au Revoir.

Bring in The European Referees

Regular readers to my blog for the boys at Pitch Talk will know that week in and week out I have had plenty of refereeing decisions to discuss this season. This weekend has been a breath of fresh air with nothing to report for the guys. Now before everyone falls off their chair in the belief that the Barclay's Premier League referees have cleaned up their act and become mistake free, relax the only reason we are not discussing more errors is the fact we have had an international break this weekend. With this in mind, I would like to this week have a look at an issue that comes up on a regular basis when the referees in the Barclay's Premier League screw up. The issue I am talking about is the call for European referees to be introduced into the English game to alleviate all the mistakes. Let me below give you the reasons in my opinion that it would not work.

The likes of Nicolai Rizolli, Jonas Ericksson and Felix Brych are three names that spring to mind when I think about the top elite referees in Europe. These guys are performing at the top level week in and week out throughout the season and very rarely drop any clangers. We would see these guys on a regular basis in Champions League action International games, they always seem to get their big calls correct. I have heard fans saying these guys should be brought in and used in the Barclays Premier League, well in my opinion it just would not work. The English game is played at a greater pace than these guys would be used to. Also the criteria laid down in Europe towards miss behaving teams can lead to huge fines if players get out of hand. It is a totally different world refereeing in Europe and I reckon that if you were to give the elite referees a run out in the Barclay's Premier League they too could eventually get themselves into bother.

You have often read my blogs for the boys at Pitch Talk where I have heaped praise on both Martin Atkinson and Mark Clattenburg, two of the best referees in my opinion in Europe. The reason these two lads are so good and so consistent in Europe is the fact that they are stepping down in pace when they go to Europe. I have often watched the pair perform in games and feel sometimes they could sit back in an armchair and have a cigar when refereeing in Europe. I am not so sure I could say the same about Rizolli, Ericksson and Brych if they were to ply their trade in the Barclays Premier League. So as we continue in this 2015/16 season let us stick with the referees we are using as they are doing a difficult job in tough circumstances. I just hope when we return to the action next weekend I am not blogging on a referee who has upset your team by giving a bad decision against your team. 

Until next time enjoy your football.

They Have Not Got a Clue

It was once again an incredible weekend in the Barclays Premier League. This season in my opinion is turning into possibly one of the most exciting in years. Controversy has not been to far away from the games this season, if you follow my regular column for the boys at Pitch Talk. One very important aspect of the televised coverage is the roll of the co commentator and the comments they can invariably make. After all, unless you have refereed or played the game, you need these guys to guide you. Let us just say for argument sake,you have arrived from the planet Pluto and you have never seen a game of association football before, these are the guys to educate and tell you what is going on. Well let me tell you these boys have not got a clue and in some cases are going along with a certain criteria the TV station is pushing. This weekend saw the meeting of Stoke and Chelsea and on the mic was Niall Quinn, now Quinner like myself is from Dublin and a very nice lad and anytime I have met him when he is home he comes across as a very nice person, but for a lad who has played the game at the highest level his co commentary skills are in my opinion non league standard. By the way that is no disrespect to the non league guys it is just making a point about Niall. Let me below have a look at two incidents in the game that Niall gave his opinion on and let me tell you why in my opinion he was talking out of his backside.

So don't forget you have arrived from the planet Pluto and you are now settling down to watch your first ever live soccer match on TV. Well if you are looking for proper input from the pundits you may as well just switch off the TV, as ex players very rarely knew the rules when they played and now that they have finished playing they even know less. The other evening Niall was going on about John Walters been in an offside position in the build up to the winning Stoke goal. Absolute garbage, under the rules for offside John would have never been flagged, not even last season. The Stoke player was not, I repeat not offside. It was also very interesting to hear Niall,s opinion on the incident involving the Stoke keeper and Remy. Niall praised the Chelsea player for staying on his feet and not diving to try and gain a penalty. Well in my opinion if he had let the keeper hit him I am sure referee Anthony Taylor would have awarded a cast iron penalty. It says something when a co commentator is praising a player for not diving, which in my opinion is a cancer in the game, I am sure Mr.Mourinho was screaming at his TV when he saw what Remy tried to do. Now I know this seems like I am picking out Niall for criticism but in fact my angle on this issue is that pundits are misleading fans with there views. A lot of the ex players struggle to understand the laws, let alone the interpretation to apply them by the top referees in the country.

These guys get paid a lot of money for their views and in some cases they call it totally wrong. To try and explain these big refereeing decisions for the boys at PitchTalk it helps that you have had to be on many occasions been involved in the middle of a game with a white hot atmosphere and called them correctly. Ex Players should really stick to talking tactics and stay away from the world of refereeing, which in my opinion is something they know nothing about. Until next week if you are out and about at a game, enjoy yourself and as I always say, I do hope I am not blogging about a bad decision against your team in my next blog. Bye for now.

Master Class by Clatts

This season the Barclays Premier League is the competition that keeps on giving. Every week now we are looking at incidents that are deciding the outcome of games. It has become a battle of wits between clubs and officials. The man holding the whistle has to be right on his game because managers are just waiting to point the finger elsewhere if their teams lose. I have always been of the opinion that the top referees should get the top games and rightly so. High profile games need to be refereed with as little fuss as possible and more importantly, when the game is over a referee has put it to bed with as little fuss as possible. One such game this weekend was Saturday,s match between Chelsea and Liverpool at The Bridge. The outcome of this game had so much riding on it that the last thing we needed was any controversy. So when I got the list of officials for the weekend I knew the appointment of Mark Clattenburg to this game was the correct one. Like many others I tuned in on Saturday lunchtime to watch, if rumours were to be believed Jose's last game in charge at Chelsea if his side suffered another defeat, I was not to be disappointed. What unfolded was a a superb match and a brilliant refereeing performance by Mark Clattenburg. Mind you with an up there is always a down and Anthony Taylor had a few problems at The Hawthorns. Let me below take you through how the day unfolded for both men.

From the moment Mark Clattenburg blew the first whistle on Saturday lunchtime, he was in total control from start to finish. All his big calls were perfect. Of course I am presuming Mark saw everything on the day. He seem to just let Skrtel and Costa have a battle and let them get on with it. This was not a bad thing to do, as he seemed to have control of the pair of them. In the incident were Costa kicked out at the Liverpool player, Mark seemed to react as if he had seen it and was prepared to let it go. This was excellent refereeing in my opinion as both players just seemed to be up for a good old battle. The one main talking point that seemed to annoy Chelsea was when Lucas was not shown a second yellow for a challenge on Ramires. In my opinion I feel the referee got this one correct, because I do not agree that every foul has to be a yellow card. The challenge in no way warranted a yellow and I was glad to see none was given. The reaction of the Chelsea players whilst Mark was making his mind up on the incident in my opinion was disgraceful, they actually surrounded the official and tried to pressurise Mark into producing a card. The usual suspects in the gang were Terry, Costa and Mikel, and if I was to be critical of the referee I feel he should have at least shown one of them a card. Players surrounding referees pleading for their fellow professionals to be sent off is disgusting in my book. Overall the officials on the day had a superb game and I know their bosses at the FA will be happy, but you very rarely get problems when Mark Clattenburg is in charge.

At The Hawthorns, West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis was left fuming with referee Anthony Taylor after his sides game against Leicester. The referee missed two clear penalty calls for the home side according to Tony. In my opinion he actually only called the one wrong. The challenge by Huth into the back of Fletcher was a penalty all day long, how the referee did not give it is beyond me. The claim by the West Brom manager that Johnny Evans should have had a penalty in my opinion was wrong, to me I thought the referee got that one right. Holding shirts in the penalty area is going on now quite a while and it just seems referees are not giving penalties for this type of infringement. It just seems that is the way at the moment, but yes it should be a penalty if the law was applied properly. I did not think Anthony covered himself in glory over the weekend and will need a good game next week to keep his bosses happy.

So there we have it, another weekend of big decisions involving match officials. They got some correct they got some horribly wrong, I just hope if your out and about watching your team this week that you are not going to suffer because of a bad refereeing call. Until next time enjoy your football.

Explosive Football Weekend

The season is well and truly underway a few weeks now but this past couple of days have been explosive. We have had refereeing issues not only in the Barclays Premier League but also in the championship. It is amazing how much is going on and I often wonder who would be a ref. Featuring this week in my regular blog for the boys at Pitch Talk are the referees and assistants who took charge of games at Ewood Park and Upton Park. The two men who took charge of these games were Keith Stroud and Jon Moss. Both of these men are small of stature but huge in confidence. Both men have also been performing well this season and have obviously been impressing their bosses as the pair got huge games at the weekend, in fact both were Derby games. Keith got the game at Ewood and Jon Moss was handed the London Derby between West Ham and Chelsea. The amount of incidents in both games need to be looked at in great detail so let me below give my opinion on the big calls for referees and assistants involved.

In the North West Derby at Ewood Park, Keith Stroud had to deal with a bit of a dog fight with both sides challenging for everything, especially around the middle of the park. One man who was involved in the big two decisions of the game was a certain Joey Barton. This guy is a bit of a Robbie Savage character and you either love him or hate him. For my part I am not to bothered either way, but referee Stroud had to keep a close eye on Joey on Saturday. In my opinion Blackburn defender Grant Hanley was lucky that the referee did not see the challenge on Barton in the penalty area as a penalty. At the time I called penalty, as I felt Hanley had caught him. What annoyed me was the fact that Hanley had another nip at Barton when the ball had cleared the penalty area, which also should have led to a penalty. With a player like Barton you need to be watching everything and on this occasion the referee failed to have a look back as he was to interested in following the ball. Funnily enough the second big call in the game also involved the busy Barton, he was involved in a challenge that saw Blackburn player Tom Lawrence go down in the Burnley penalty area claiming a spot kick but the referee was only yards away and said no, great refereeing. In these Derby games the matches are won by fine margins and the last thing a referee needs is to put in a poor performance. We are only talking here about two incidents during the ninety minutes and overall Mr Stroud had a good game. I wonder if his performance will put him in the shop window for a game in the Premier League.

Let me next take you to the Boleyn Ground, the home of the Happy Hammers. Jon Moss was given the task to look after this game, with the Chelsea circus in town. The game itself did not let us down or did the incidents. Jon and his team of officials had six big big calls to make during the afternoon and they called everyone correct. That is an amazing hit rate and for this I am awarding them performance of the season so far. The incidents I am talking about involved, Zouma, Matic, Mourinho, Fabregas and the member of the Chelsea coaching staff called Louro. Now as we all know, football is about opinions and the referee in my and a few more pundits eyes got all the big calls correct. Let us have a look, Zoumas header did not cross the line, both cards given to Matic were 100% correct, Fabregas was marginally offside for his goal, Louro been sent to the stand was correct as no coach is allowed to enter the field of play and throw abuse around like a mad man. This leads me on now to an incident at half time when manager Jose Mourinho was also sent to the stands for abusing the referee and his colleagues in their dressing room at half time. Over the ninety minutes Chelsea picked up five yellow cards and one red, discipline is at an time low at that club but is it any wonder when they have a manager who carries on like a two year old child as he throws his toys out of his pram on a regular basis. I really feel the the owners of Chelsea need to get a grip of him and explain that there is no conspiracy going on against his club. As I said earlier Jon Moss was superb on the day and got all his big calls correct.

I am sure as we go on this season, there will be loads to blog about, and for the boys at Pitch Talk to chat about. I just hope when you are out and about supporting your team that the talk on the tube on the way home is not all about the referee. Until next week enjoy your football, see Ya.