PGMO: how long do we have to put up with this useless organisation?

By Walter Broeckx

Every year, every f*cking year, season after season after season after season Untold Arsenal has been banging the drum about the gross incompetence of the PGMO the organisation that is responsible for delivering the referees for the PL and of course as he is their main man Mike Riley. Mike Riley who is running the PGMO in the same way as he did match 50 it seems: completely wrong and biased.

We have been saying for years and seasons that there simply are not enough referees in the PL. As you know there are only 16 permanent PL referees. A ridiculous low number if you know that each match day you have 10 matches. And as some referees are not allowed to do some teams because of the fact that they support a certain PL team (e.g. Clattenburg – Newcastle and Dean – Liverpool) you understand that this leads to bad situations. Where some referees have to do the same teams over and over and over and over again.

Having Dean six times in one season and with the statistics he has for Arsenal this means that Arsenal in some years had a handicap of around 18 points to overcome. 18 f*cking points!!!!

Let that sink in. How many times have we been 18 points behind the league winner in the past 10 years???? No need to go out on a search as I did it for you. Only 3 times. But 7 times we were less than 18 points behind the PL winner. But how can you even think of winning it with a ref like Dean 6 times around in a season????? You don’t have to believe just us at Untold, you can always check this as another good source  of how Dean is doing his Arsenal matches.

But what is the reason for my new rant this time only so short behind the latest (I  could do a rant each day in fact…)?

Well as with all sportsman they can get injured. And referees are sportsman and can get injured. I know all too well for the moment with my knee giving me troubles. But at the moment there are 3 referees who are out with long term injuries. They are Phil Dowd (the oldest ref) and Lee Probert (thank god for that) and a new boy around the block in Graham Scott (whom we haven’t had as far as I can remember).

So hey ho for the moment and this for a long while we now have only 13 PL referees for the PL. 13. Thirteen! THIRTEEN!!!!!!!! F*CKING THIRTEEN!!!!

An organisation that gets more than £11 million each year from the PL, the Football League and the FA has made it possible to come up with only 13 PL referees in a league in which it has to send out at least 10 referees each weekend.

And then we also have to take in account that these referees also have the right to have weekends free. Just as you and I have the right to take days off our work. And we haven’t taken into account that referees also can get sick. A bug, a virus and before you know it you lost another referee.  And then we even don’t mention the matches of the League cup and the FIFA refs who will be sent out to do European matches and thus get a bigger work load and come back not fresh and make more mistakes as a result.

But with this small group the final result will be that you will get your bogey refs even more than before!

Untold has been asking that they should have a pool of at least 20 referees available for the whole season. And that the appointments should be organised in such a way that you only get each ref twice in a season in the PL. Maximum twice in fact. But with the fact that some refs cannot do some teams you have to make sure that for each ref who cannot do a team, you have one ref more in your group. So if we only take the two refs I have mentioned we should be having a pool of at least 22 referees in the PL as long as they are around.

Now one might argue that the refs in the lower divisions are simply not good enough for being promoted to the PL.

But then the question arises: who is responsible for the training and education of the referees????? Isn’t that the same organisation PGMO and their boss Mike Riley?????

It is they that should look forward and make sure that situations as the current cannot happen. It seems that their education planning (if they have it!???) certainly isn’t working as it should.

The one thing that is certain is that the PGMO is not doing a proper job. One could say that they manage in doing absolutely everything the wrong way.

The quality of the PL refs???? Only in their imaginary dream world and stats they think they get it right all the time. 95% correct important decisions… you are having a laugh.

The numbers of PL refs??? As I just showed you: unbelievable incompetence.

Educations of referees??? Looking at the quality again –  a big failure….

Education of the public???? Despite it being one of their tasks written down in their job description they utterly and miserably fail in doing this. Unless of course you think that publishing stats nobody can check is educating the public. I rather would call it lying to the public.

So thanks to the PGMO we will have Dean and Taylor (luckily Probert is injured) time and time and time again. But then again even without injuries they like to send them to Arsenal matches (the PGMO know their Arsenal stats all too well – after all they can and could find them over here) at a very high rate. And some refs who seem capable of doing Arsenal matches in a more balanced way are rarely to be seen around Arsenal matches.

How long do we have to accept this utterly failing and incompetent organisation ruining the PL and Arsenal??? When will the serious media finally pick up on this? When will they wake up? Why is it only blogs written by amateurs like those of us at Untold who see these things and the problems that come from having so little refs? Are the media too stupid or too lazy?  [Or told by PGMO that they will lose their licence to print fixtures if they question PGMO? – Tony]

Time to stop the PGMO and organise the referees in a different way. But will the PL, the FA and the Football league have the balls to do this? Looking at how they are crawling in the backside of Platini and Blatter in the past years there is little hope that they will do anything at all unless there is a big storm from the big media about this. The could brush Untold Arsenal under the carpet but if Sky, BT and the serious media who make big money on PL football demanded change and better referees they maybe could no longer ignore this.

When will the serious media act? Or are they as incompetent as the PGMO. If that is the case…. then all is lost….

 

Anniversaries

  • 3 October 1925: After losing 0-7 to Newcastle Chapman and Buchan transform Arsenal’s tactics – but it is not just WM that makes the difference.  This is the third 0-7 defeat for Arsenal in the first division – and certainly the one with the most implications.  Buchan’s first signing for Arsenal is here.
  • 3 October 1970: On the way to the double Kennedy scored first hattrick as Arsenal beat Nottm Forest 4-0 in match 11 of the first Double season.  The start of a 14 match unbeaten run.

25 Replies to “PGMO: how long do we have to put up with this useless organisation?”

  1. Only 13 referees at present !! Absolutely shocking. Walter, I guess to fill the gaps for other refs they are busy cloning Mike Riley 😛

  2. as I said in post last week, I think it would make sense to share refs from a European or even a world pool. There should be a minimum of 20 referees available in the PGMO (arguably more given each match has 2 referees present). But there has to be greater use of video technology so mistakes are minimized. I would introduce a card system for refs as well: for example when a referee (such as Dean at Chelsea) gets a decision so badly wrong they would get a yellow card, if they accrued say, 4 yellows in a set period of time/number of matches they would have to go on a training course and sit out that round of weekend matches (hence a further need for more refs). I’d pay them more, make the job more attractive, encourage them to speak to the media and appear on TV, and mike them up so they can be heard by TV audiences (like rugby refs).

  3. Its a simple strategy really. The FA, PGMO and the PL organization are all incompetent so they stick together work hand in glove. So no one upsets each other. We can rave and rant all we want and no one will pay any attention as we are just a insignificant bloggers of pro Arsenal ranters. If you what things to change it needs to be taken to the next level, which means the club has to step in big time. Make a lot of noise. I mean a lot of noise. I am sure that they have all the stats but the fact they have quite all this time beggars belief. And please dont tell us that they are working behind the scenes as there is no improvement in fact its gotten worse. Why is the club not raising the issue in the pubic. Ww need to find out why.

  4. Gouresh…..regarding the club, why is a good question. Why do they allow themselves and their fans to be cheated by referees time after time while appearing to say and do nothing about it?
    Our CEO is a powerful man in the game, see below from the official site
    Ivan contributes to the domestic game’s development as a member of the Professional Game Board (PGB), FA Council and the Premier League Working Group for Elite Player Performance. He also serves as the Chairman of the FA’s International Committee.
    Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/the-club/corporate-info/the-arsenal-board#YUsjfbXhiKGlhAGV.99
    Ivan Gazidis sits on the professional game board FFS.! Yet we still have to put up with this shite.
    Football is fixed say the club and our manager are myopic to the corruption that….. that bunch believe, as do many of us on here believe exists.
    I do not believe men as smart as Ivan or Wenger are myopic to this. So either
    1/they see nothing wrong and find it acceptable that we get Dein, Taylor and Atkinson week after week and their level of performances we are on the end of…..to me that seems unlikely
    2/ they are working behind the scenes to either mitigate or expose this…..possible
    3/ the pgmol or those behind them are too powerful to take on….very possible
    4/ and perhaps as part of the above point , the club have too much to lose in taking this on, they will be ridiculed in the media, these things are hard to prove…..and there is a reward, perhaps one,that makes the owner very happy that comes with the clubs silence. This I fear is the case, but I don’t think they should be taking top four or cup wins for granted with the refs we get
    5/ arsenal are complicit in it….ok absolute bollox that point!

  5. Above, Dean, not Dein……how I wish Dein was one of our refs.
    And on that subject, despite the notorious game of Riley, think these things have got a lot worse since Deins departure from the club.

  6. Walter
    It’s a sorry, sordid affair and most of us here agree with every word. I have one exception: who are the “serious media”? Sky? BT? Seems their commentators have the same bias toward AFC and spout the same old tired tropes as the rest. They never call out Riley, the unPGMO, or the FA. Perhaps I’m biased against them and can’t see their merits.

  7. Perhaps the UA (and other) style sheet should be amended to no longer use the word “referee” to describe these PigMob operatives, but instead use the term “result-managers”. It may catch on, gain traction and bring further seserved credit to those who perpetrate the refshite and to those in higher places who aid, abet, turn a blind eye or are effectively bought off by the vast TV contracts and CL bonuses that top 4 finishes confer.

  8. The PigMob is the weakest link in the chain of swill and all is lost if it is not exposed. This said, it would be nice if any who have not yet signed the Dean Out petition would lend a few keystrokes in this very direction.

  9. The Pgmo’s days of rigging the Premier League results to favour their preferred clubs is gradually coming to an end whether they like it or not. AU, please keep the fight on, until victory is finally won. This victory over malice will eventually be won as the battles over the malicious Pgmo is not relented but keep ranging on, until the truth prevailed over malice. Come to think of how we were denied a legitimate goal scored by Aaron Ramsey against Liverpool by a Pgmo assistant flag which denied us 2 points that would have seen Arsenal on 15 points in the table today before Man utd engage us tomorrow at the Emirates stadium. That match referee flagging offside Ramsey’s goal was a flagrant rigging of Premier League result that must henceforth, be brought to a permanent stop without further delays. The Pgmo have not shown any interest in the introduction of video technology to assist their match officials to decide accurate decision in their match officiating.

  10. I sometimes wonder whether a pool of UEFA top referees, officiating throughout the EPL and continental Europe, might lead at least to an improvement.
    It might not greatly better the incidence of mistakes but it would more nearly obliterate the charge of bias with which certain members of the PGMOL are tainted. 😉

  11. So the PGMOLtd stitched us against Chel$kie…they can’t obviously do it every single game…and the mighty ‘special one’ suddenly doesn’t look so special anymore ; 16th and show the type of game they like to play (fake,cheat,thug) way behind in my opinion and Mourinhoo will be packing his bags very soon!!

  12. Had Atkinson refer the Chel$kie game vs the Saints today, I bet 3 points would have gone to the scum!

  13. @apo Armani,
    Exactly right. The Saints won despite being denied 2 clear penalties. The ref was complete shite and tried to hand the game to Chelsea. Their defence is so bad they couldn’t win even with the help of the ref! As you mentioned, Mourinho probably will be out. That’s the pattern, 3 years and out. He destroys players by not rotating much and in the 3rd year they’re done. Look at Terry. Last season he played every minute of every game. How does he look now? Old, slow and shot. But another money club will hire JM for the old ‘win now’ mentality. He might win, but he’ll ruin your club in the process. Nooooooooooo thanks.

  14. I don’t believe there are only 16 referees in football crazy England capable and qualified to referee in the premier league.

    I can only conclude therefore that keeping this tight little group is a deliberate tactic of control. Note there is still not a single referee from London.

    What is happening about that petition that reached the remarkable number of 100,000 signatures? Does it strike anybody as undemocratic that a petition with such a huge number of signatories has had so little coverage in any branch of the mass media? I’m absolutely certain they all know about it.

  15. He who pays the piper calls the tune. T.V. wants to see it’s favourites the teams with the following at the top at the end of the season .Every round of the cup strangely gets a t.v.blockbuster .Football to Sky and BT is entertainment a consistent soap opera ,it needs a twist and a scandal at every turn .The football authorities are in hock to Murdoch and none of his outlets are about to rock the boat. I don’t believe that stuffed brown envelopes are changing hands but pressure is being exerted and football is being corrupted in it’s wake.

  16. It is amazing how PGMO do not see blatant cheats yet sometimes suddenly get their sight & give correct decisions. The Falcao incident was a dive & desreved a card. The Ivanovic incident with Virgils shirt was a penalty. The Ivanovic ‘tackle’ on Bertrand was a leg breaker & should have been a red card.

    There were a lot more I could mention but Mourinho mourning & ranting was the cherry on the sundae.

  17. Pat, even amongst that small group of 16, I wouldn’t use the word capable on all of them

  18. The EPL is not a fair league but one that is manipulated. I feel sorry for the great players and manager at Arsenal who are cheated out of success but the PGMO.

    I was fairly certain that A Taylor would be appointed to the Arsenal Manu game. Mike Riley has to help his team!

  19. The only way to fight the cheats is to try even harder . Just play the right way and keep away from confrontations with the refs.The high moral ground is just and right.
    Shoot from outside the box and at every opportunity , while taking extreme care not to get booked or be the recipients of imaginary fouls. How many legitimate goals can a crooked ref deny ?How many imagined fouls can a ref give ?
    Lets see them justify the wrong doings and coat the bullshit . It will one day come back to hit them in the face !
    Yesterday ,I thought that David Pleat was being ridiculous in his expressing of his ‘expert’ opinions and bending over backwards to defend Chelski’s poor performance , until there was no way back and then his view changed too.
    Is there a translation of Moanin’inho’s post game interview ? Couldn’t understand almost any of it and fell asleep ! Was it another ‘fake’ result ? Was the substitution of a substitute after 20 minutes a ‘great’ tactical move ? Was it effective ? Did anyone question it ?

  20. PGMOL and the FA (and EPL to a certain extent) are all involved in creating this un-level playing field. However, there is another player – the media. As the football authorities in this country sow the seeds of conspiracy, so the nation’s “great and free press” are required to brainwash masses of supporters into accepting what is going on as the norm. How do they do this? By establishing a “pack” mentality amongst the supporters of major clubs, Unfortunately, we are one of the club’s “selected” to be demonised, perhaps because our supporters are generally of greater intelligence than the majority. However, they have failed to recognise a major flaw in their plan – the fact that we question everything that they do.

    On this Mornings “Anti Arsenal” channel’s press programme, a certain little runt made the bold statement “Wenger loses his cool” He said they would discuss this later in the prgramme. Instead he discussed a completely different article related to AW’s potential successor (generalistic – no names). By now, we all know that AW didn’t “lose his cool” at all, that he was very calm and to the point. So why does a jumped up little man, on a major TV channel lie?

  21. As I said. Arsenal have a good win against United but Rogers gets sacked and Sky drop us like a hot potato. The soap opera goes on.

  22. I would like to pick up on Pat’s comment regarding the Dean petition.

    I find it disappointing that with over 100,000 signatures what is an important expression of grassroot fan disgust with Dean seems to be going nowhere.

    Surely the Arsenal bloggers and the Arsenal supporters groups must now get together and determine how they are going to take this forward. It should be formally presented to the FA to whom it was addressed and we should make it a media event including a press release which expresses our frustration and demands for change (it is a shame that Walter with his passion is stuck in Belgium).

    Then we need to prepare a campaign, building on all our just grievances. Sadly as this is not a government matter we probably cannot get automatic response from either the Prime Minister nor from Parliament but there is no reason why all of us should not seek the support and advice of our MPs including Arsenal supporting Jeremy Corbyn.

    Finally just so you know how far we are from media thought after the AST meeting last night and whilst purchasing a copy of his new book on Arsene Wenger I asked John Cross what he thought of the petition and he compared it to the abuse and pressure from a section of the Chelsea crowd which caused a referee to reconsider their decision recently. I personally would see the nature of pressure as quite different between the two matters but it is indicative of the immediate hands off and shut your eyes response of the media.

    Clearly we have a lot of thinking and work to do to progress this matter.

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