Foreign players dive more than English players; English refs give support to English players.

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Tony

England players get privilege’s from refs that foreign players don’t get.   That is the essence of Sergio Agüero’s case of the bias when playing in England.

I am not at all sure this has been analysed by our referees working on Referee Decisions – and previously here – but it adds another dimension to the Problem with Referees (PWR) that we now have.

Most of the problems could be resolved very easily, and this one is no exception.  There is no reason why we should only have English refs in the English league.  We are short of referees anyway, and exposure to some foreign referees would surely help the top clubs prepare for Europe.

So why don’t we?  I don’t know – as PGMOL.

The incidents that got everyone exercised over the issue involved Carlos Tevez and Pablo Zabaleta going down in the penalty area.  Now we know from the detailed review of referees last season (link below) in which we analysed over 40% of the games that referees are awful when it comes to penalties.  At best getting a penalty or not is a lottery.

But that figure came from an analysis of whether the penalty is right or wrong – not who the foul was committed by and against.  Given the paucity of penalties that Arsenal get it is an issue of some concern at the Ems.

To be fair Agüero also said, “It happens everywhere.  There is a little bit of privilege with players who come from that country. That is normal. We just play our game, and the referee’s job is to know who is tricking him and who is not.”

The Guardian newspaper suggested that the problem was that “referees are innately suspicious of foreign players”.   “Innate” is a difficult word in this context.   Being innately against a player from another country is not racist.  Being against a black player is.   There is a real difference, but it is still discrimination and should be stopped.

Sir Alex Ferguson naturally had a word to say.   He claimed that “foreign players” are the worst culprits when it comes to diving.  He said: “It’s not worth going into that subject because down the years there have been plenty of players diving, and you have to say particularly foreign players.”

Of an incident last weekend Sir F Word said, “Nani is not the type to dive, I know that. It was a penalty kick on Saturday. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t. The linesman could have helped him but didn’t.”   So foreigners dive but not Nani.
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Maybe another line of enquiry for our referee reviewers?
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17 Replies to “Foreign players dive more than English players; English refs give support to English players.”

  1. To answer a few questions you rightfully ask Tony:

    Not that is was the first thought when we started the ref reviews….
    Not that is what the most important thing on our mind when we were making the total make over of the referee decisions website behind the scenes…

    BUT If all goes as planned and our referee reviewers do their job we might get this data out of our reviews at some point in time.

    Because as most of you know we focus on the wrong calls and in the new type of reviews we have we should be having the correct names and numbers of all the players in our database.

    So maybe, just maybe Dogface can push on some buttons and then the whole machine at Untold towers starts buzzing and clicking and clacking and maybe, just maybe Dogface could come up with the data about who suffered the most from wrong decisions… 😉

    Oh my… just imagine that our reviews could lead to something that backs up Aguero’s words…..

  2. Oh and another thing we did get a few penalties last season away from home.
    If I remember (from the back of my head) correct : 3

    One at Old Trafford (assistant gave it): foul on Theo Walcott
    One at Aston Villa: foul on Theo Walcott
    One at Wolves : foul on …yep Theo Walcott

    All the other blatant and clear fouls not given was a few times: Gervinho, RVP,

    Ah well, it will be a coincidence that only Theo seems to be fit enough to get a penalty in our favour I think.

  3. Referring to diving, think SAF needs to look at at least one of his high profile Englishmen before having a go at Johnny Foreigner.
    As for Aguero’s comments, lots of anecdotal suggestion, and when you look at what the likes of Scholes, Gerrard, Rooney Shearer and home grown Stoke players….to name but a few have got away with, he may have a point.
    Completely agree with the PGMOL appointing foreign refs, sounds a great idea, and would rid themselves of any notion they may be operating a cosy little cartel

  5. Apologies for going off topic — — but this is hilarious:

    INTRO
    Come on mate, Time is ticking. Last year of the contract, Still not signed it. What’s going on, man? Spill the beans.
    CHORUS
    Walcott, Walcott, Walcott, Walcott,
    Sign da ting, sign da ting.
    (Repeat four times)
    VERSE 1
    Oi Theo, stick to the wing.
    Playing up front just ain’t your thing.
    Apart from your pace what else are you offering?
    Now we got Oxlade-Chamberlain.
    In your spot, technique he brings, that’s why the fans his name we sing.
    Should be you but it’s not its him. We ain’t playing you until you sign da ting.
    PRE-CHORUS
    Sign the ting na, sign the ting. Theo Walcott, sign the ting.
    If you don’t, well, then you’re stuck on the bench, listening to Frimpong chat about Dench.
    We got Podolski, we got Giroud, even Gervinho’s been up front too.
    That ain’t to say that they’re better than you, but you got a year left, so what you gonna do then?
    CHORUS
    Walcott, Walcott, Walcott, Walcott,
    Sign da ting, sign da ting.
    (Repeat four times)
    VERSE 2
    You’ll never get more love than from The Gunners.
    Think about that before you do a runner.
    If you stay I’ll be happy, in fact delighted.
    If you go I hope you don’t go to Man United
    Are you gonna be just like the rest, just take the money, forget the crest.
    The big fat cannon upon your chest. Because that’s what makes you play your best.
    PRE-CHORUS
    Sign the ting na, sign the ting. Theo Walcott, sign the ting.
    If you don’t, well, then you’re stuck on the bench, listening to Frimpong chat about Dench.
    We got Podolski, we got Giroud, even Gervinho’s been up front too.
    That ain’t to say that they’re better than you, but you got a year left, so what you gonna do then?
    CHORUS
    Walcott, Walcott, Walcott, Walcott,
    Sign da ting, sign da ting.
    (Repeat four times)
    VERSE THREE
    So Theo, what’s it gonna be?
    When you look into the mirror. What do you see?
    Do you wanna be a part of history, or are you gonna be like Van Persie?
    The little boy inside him saying join me! It’s been a long time since you won a trophy.
    And that was for being a young personality. Given to you by the BBC.
    PRE-CHORUS
    Sign the ting na, sign the ting. Theo Walcott, sign the ting.
    If you don’t, well, then you’re stuck on the bench, listening to Frimpong chat about Dench.
    We got Podolski, we got Giroud, even Gervinho’s been up front too.
    That ain’t to say that they’re better than you, but you got a year left, so what you gonna do then?
    CHORUS
    Walcott, Walcott, Walcott, Walcott,
    Sign da ting, sign da ting.
    (Repeat four times)
    OUTRO
    Sign da ting, sign da ting.
    Walcott, Walcott, Walcott, Walcott,
    Walcott, Walcott, Walcott, Walcott,
    Sign da ting, sign da ting

    By Roxy Arms

  6. SAF seems to have conveniently forgotten his new “wonder kid” Ashley Young – remember him against Chelsea, QPR; id addition to Evra against Chelsea. This explains why year in, year out ManU are always receiving the highest no. of soft penalties – DIVING

  10. We had some problems with the comment section and the settings for overwriting older articles with the new data. I hope Dogface can fix it.

    I could say we were practising how it would feel to shut the mouth of people 😉 a bit like the PGMOL 🙂 but in reality it just is a wrong setting somewhere, somehow

  11. Rooney got a with assault against Wigan, ginger tosser on talkshit even went as far to claim the Wigan man ran into Shreks elbow.

    Young is a fucking legend at diving, how about Welbeck for England against Ukraine in the recent qualifier.

  12. Despite strong claims from Steven Gerrard, the Man Utd trio of Rooney, Welbeck and Young must surely be recognised as the diving champions of the EPL.

  13. If Alex Salmond gets his way and Scotland secedes from the Union, then Ferguson will become the foreigner he whines about.

  16. Mandy an article on this has already been made. Will be published in the next days

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