Everton v Liverpool and Chelsea v Manchester United both saw some horrendous and incompetent officiating at their matches, but this is not a new area of our game that has suddenly become a focus of anger or frustration from paying fans or members of the public who pay TV subscriptions to watch premier league officials make horrifying and scandalous decisions that cause controversy and leave football fans feeling cheated of an honest game of football.
The fact is that referees are human and make mistakes just like us, but just like us, we have to answer for our mistakes at work or in life, the referees don’t seem to fall into that same set of rules.
The problem doesn’t lay just with the officials, the Football Association has a massive part to play in the standard of officiating of the premier league and the blame should rest firmly at their door.
The FA are responsible for the training and quality of all referees and its their lack of backbone and refusal to adapt to change that has our game in such turmoil. How many more times are we going to see last gasp goals disallowed or given when the actual decision is blatantly the complete opposite to the one the match official has chosen.
Controversy is what makes football exciting and makes great conversation amongst fans, but I don’t think Brendan Rodgers would agree with you after being cheated out of a victory in the last moments of the Merseyside derby by an incredible and absolutely scandalous decision to deny Luis Suarez a perfectly good and honest goal.
But this is not the first time that officials have tarnished and made our game a laughing stock, it happens weekly somewhere in the premier league, with a consistency record that makes our officiating reputation in the world of football a complete and utter joke.
Our officials must be held accountable for the mistakes they make, it simply is not enough to make a call on Monday to the manager who has been on the receiving end of one of their incompetent decisions and apologise, it simply is not enough and is becoming a cop out. If we made as many mistakes as they do in a month we would be unemployed simple as that.
What the spineless FA need to do is place an official with the same access with various TV screen views as SKY TV show fans at home and give the match official the power to ask the off field official for confirmation of a decision, it would take seconds to receive an answer and stop many bad decisions.
To complement that the FA must train referees to a far more superior standard to what they are at present, the FA must act if a referee has failed to provide a standard of officiating that is deemed acceptable, referees must be sacked if they continue to underperform and make poor decisions.
Clubs, players, managers and fans simply cannot continue to be cheated out of a honest game of football any longer, while the FA sit back and hide under the table like scared little boys just in case Alex Ferguson calls because he never got his way or got offended this weekend.
Brian Reece
twitter @oldfattoad
The FA have proved over time that they are incompetent as a ruling body.
Its time that a more competent officiating body presided over the game. The top clubs in England should start a consortium and challenge the FA as they are presently out of their depth and bringing the game into disrepute.
Fans need to be alot louder at stating their disgust at being cheated out of our money for supporting our teams.
It is about time that the FA introduced TV evidence as they do in Rugby League and Rugby Union, To determine whether a Try has been scored or not.
We were robd its happening since the start of the season
You can’t spell and it has been happening since the start of the season.
The FA knows what to do but they wouldn’t, I just hope it doest get to the stage where fans take laws into their hands.
We need a panel that can assist/overrule the ref. what happen today was a joke. For a start, I looked like an idiot in a pub with evertonians. Next up is work tomorrow
YNWA
In a pub filled with Evertonian patrons? Looks like you need more than a panel to assist you.
The thing you are overlooking Erin is that the goal was right to be disallowed, but for the wrong reason. Coates used Coleman for leverage as he headed the ball on.
Nice article , we all know the trust about this coz the evidence are there to see for ourself .. Manchester United controls the FA board as Rafael Benitez said some yrs ago u cant have an impartial association when the members of that board are CEO of ManU ….I love this beautful game and most soccer fans do watch the premier league but I fear the Fa are gonna make some of us hate this game coz of their partial act…Ywna
The game of ftball is in jeopardy, something is wrong somewhere. Every week we see wrong decisions in the ftball grounds. But the most shocking part of it is that, the wrong decisions always go to the same teams, and likewise right decisions to the same teams. This is a paradox that needs to be scanned before we portion some blames to the incompetence of the so called officials. No brainy is needed to assume that officials are only bias, and to some extent some foul play by the governing board which need to be probed.
Referees Jones, Halsey, Dowd, Foy and Wiley all took charge of United losses then gave them penalties next time they refereed them. Clatterburg has just kept up the tradition with 2 sendings off, one definitely wrong and allowing an offside goal too. First time Clattenburg has refereed United in 18 months, just shows the power of Fergie and the corruption in the FA.
These modern day refs are all taking bribes,i really do believe the goal today by suarez was ruled offside by either a useless or corrupt official.
If you are so cocksure that modern-day referees are on the take then the official who deemed Suarez’s goal to be offside has got to be corrupted not useless.
Fans have to unite on this. Their is only one set of fans in the league that don’t seem to have to deal with the ineptness of the FA. I don’t know if it needs a petition, a demonstration, a government intervention. I do know something drastic needs to be done to completely overhaul the governing body of English Football.
Fans have to unite on this. There is only one set of fans in the league that don’t seem to have to deal with the ineptness of the FA. I don’t know if it needs a petition, a demonstration, a government intervention. I do know something drastic needs to be done to completely overhaul the governing body of English Football.
I am fron Singapore and from what many of us soccer fans see, except the manure fans, is clear bias refereeing for the manures. They win the most controversial of decisions. The english FA is indeed corrupted if they dont once and for all get tough with referees who err, but more so of referees who give controversial decisions for the manures. There seem to be a conspiracy and we fans in asia are shocked that there is such corruption in the english FA and among their referees, more significantly the power that fergie seem to have whenever he speaks and referres would do all they can to ensure the manures win even in the most controversial and obvious ways.
This is all bad advertisement of how the English FA runs things and how third world standards their referres are at officiating matches.
Dont accuse us asians of fixing games, clean up your own.house first !
Yep. Total discrace today. Both games. Football should take a leaf out of Formula 1’s book; bury differences, get together and threaten a breakaway series. Nothing scares a ruling body into action quite like the threat that they may rule no-one.
This is my rant, and sorry my capslock is locked:
WHY WOULD YOU BE SURPRISE BY ALL OF THIS: OURS CLEARLY LEGITIMATE GOALS DISALLOWED, BUT THEIRS OFFSIDE GOALS, STAND, IN A GAME THAT HAS THEIRS OPPOSITION ALREADY GOT TWO CARDS!
WELL, IF THEY DON’T HAVE REFEREES, DO YOU THINK THEY COULD WON 19 TIMES? WHY SURPRISE AT ALL?
*take a deep breath*
I will still be a LFC fans, but I would probably stop watching Premier league! *sigh
Theirs? Still be a LFC fans? Your “S”es are leaking in more ways than one.
Well Referee’s add time on to the end of the 1st half, then add the same time on,AGAIN, plus any injury time from the 2nd half, on at the end of the match, so this argument the FA have about causing matches to run over too far is a non starter.
No reason why each team in the match cant have 2 appeals, forcing the ref to radio a panel off pitch to view multiple angles of a foul or goal for offside or the impedeing of a player during the scoring of one.
The reason the FA wont allow this is simple.
It takes away the grey areas that certain managers have exploited for near on 20 years, and yes I mean ferguson.
When a manager openly questions the amount of time allowed because it didnt allow for his team to score a winner, you know the games corrupt.
If 99% of fouls and goals are decided or assessed via video replay, 9/10 of those decisions will be fair, nothings full proof, but allowing a match to be decided by means not in the sole control of one man on the pitch means games are fair, results that should stand, do stand, and games where teams are cheated dont come about…….and clubs get a fair rub of the green in a very competative and lucrative league, meaning…”media sway”,put in place by clubs and managers who play the percentages and prompt officials with quotes and quips…. dont have any effect to the outcome of officials decisions…… a man in black cant decide the fate of a match because he supports the club he’s officiating, and he cant go against a panel who are privvy to multiple angles, so the referee ceases to be the ruler and decider of 90+mins of action on the basis of him ” thinking ” he saw what he saw….and that is the day, football becomes transparent……and all power over results are removed from people who can be got at via the media…
But it wont happen.
Because certain clubs wield too much power having their directors in bed with the Fa.
OMG!its utter nonsense and need to stop or to be stopped! The FA’s silence on damages created by their referees in peoples and clubs lives are at very dangerous level! Some drastic action need to be taken immedietly before some untoward insident take place! The cheating and robbing by the referees in the Premier League has reached to the highest level and the FA is doing nothing. Its time for Scotland Yard to step in to investigate the FA and the referees….its like there is a connection between the referees and the betting syndicates…watch out!
The FA, its referees and the Man United connection is going to threaten the beauty of the EPL
It would be awesome if fans of all teams in the EPL protest against the standard of the FA and Referee,they been sitting on the gold pot from TV rights and others for decades now. They won’t listen to any small fry complains unless a massive protest which could threaten their fat ass happening.UNITE ALL FANS- YNWA
Why bother to have a Premier League when one team always gets all the decisions their way. Think that I will watch some other European Leagues instead. Wonder who the referees take their instructions from….! The English Premier League is so popular in Asia and if they want to retain their popularity they have to do something about the referees and assistants etc etc ! Still cannot forget the EXTRA EXTRA time given to a certain team to win a match over their cross town rivals. Not surprised about that obviously off side goal given !!
this is why england national team become a joke in euro or world cup, because their referee baby sitting on 1 club. FA = Farce ASsociaton
come on lads i even remember a dicision going against man ure saying that i am a hundred and ten i think the fa put the ref infront of a firing squad
F.A. = Fergie’s Arse