- Arsenal v Fulham. Send lawyers, guns and money
- ‘Technical’ offences give referees far too much latitude to influence matches
For this preview, I have included not just Arsenal and the team we are playing but two others, by way of comparison: Manchester City and West Ham United – with the WHU totals shown for last season as well as this. As we can see West Ham are going tackles crazy.
| Tackles pg | Fouls pg | Yellow pg | |
| Arsenal | 16.5 | 11 | 1.5 |
| Fulham | 10 | 9.5 | 2.0 |
| Manchester City | 14 | 5.25 | 0.5 |
| West Ham 2023/24 | 22 | 13 | 3.0 |
| WHU 2022/23 | 16 | 9.5 | 1.16 |
But the referees have given up making them a special case as they were last year – at least as far as yellow cards are concerned.
| Tackles per foul | Tackles per yellow | Fouls per yellow | |
| Arsenal | 1.5 | 11.0 | 7.3 |
| Fulham | 1.1 | 5.0 | 4.7 |
| Manchester City | 2.7 | 28.0 | 10.5 |
| WHU 2023/24 | 1.7 | 7.3 | 4.3 |
| WHU 2022/23 | 1.7 | 13.8 | 8.19 |
Now we can see that there is a vast range of treatments handed out between clubs as we have seen before. Manchester City can put in 28 tackles before getting a yellow, while Fulham can put in five. OK we might say, Fulham are over four times worse at tackling than Manchester City.
But when we compare West Ham last season with this, we find that they are now being allowed almost twice as many tackles before they get a yellow and over twice as many fouls before they get a yellow, as against last season.
What on earth is going on?
Well, we began to get an understanding when Mike Dean admitted that he was unable to separate personal feelings, bias, preferences and above all else the OLD BOYS’ NETWORK from reality. And that is pretty much what we have been suggesting to explain the way the home crowd influences some referees and not others.
And this really isn’t corruption, but gross incompetence and the old pals’ act. The corruption might still be there at the PGMO level where they fail to take action when they consider games after – but with the example we have of Dean as revealed in the media, we know incompetence is certainly taking place.
But when we add in the data above showing the way a club’s figures can change from one season to the next, well… maybe we can argue corruption or incompetence but it is one or the other.
Certainly, we now know that some referees cannot separate their personal feelings, preferences, bias, personal allegiance, old boy’s network etc etc from their daily work…
Of course if Fifa were serious about anything other than bolstering their own bank accounts they would get rid of the PGMO en masse.
But within PGMO it seems that the referees are so scared (according to Dean) of making an error and losing their job that instead of deciding, they hesitate. That really isn’t very good.
Referees are of course human, and subject to human emotions and feelings, but they should be people who, as we hope judges do in court, make the right decision according to the law. For a long time we have realised this is not right, because some referees oversee so many home wins, while others oversee so many away wins. But now we are starting to see why: incompetence, fear, and second-guessing.
Put that revelation together with the fact that (for example) Fulham get a yellow card for every fifth tackle while Manchester City get one for every 28th tackle, and one begins to see how deep the problem is.
At least Mike Dean has admitted, as the Guardian has reported, he failed to correct a mistake in a Chelsea v Tottenham matchto prevent his friend Anthony Taylor from receiving extra “grief”. But that is only the start, because the real questions are
a) What does the PGMO do now?
b) What does the Premier League do about PGMO now?
The PGMO can say nothing at all, which would be their normal response. Or they can say, we are looking at it. The League can say nothing which would be their normal response. Or they can say, we are waiting for a reply from PGMO.
Any such response is appalling. We have shown over and over that there is something very seriously wrong with referee decision-making and have used statistics to prove it. Now a referee has admitted how wrong it can go.
So what now Premier League? What now PGMO? And rather interestingly, what now, reporters in the national media. Ignore it? Say it was a one-off? Treat it as last year’s news with no relevance to this weekend’s match? Mention it today but then carry on as before (which is my bet as to what will happen).
But, do you know, I think maybe we were right in the last article. Send lawyers, guns and money. After all, how much money has Arsenal lost as a result of hostile referee action in recent years?
“But within PGMO it seems that the referees are so scared (according to Dean) of making an error and losing their job that instead of deciding, they hesitate”.
But who exactly are they scared of?
It cant be Webb. As we saw at Old Trafford, no matter how poor the decisions he backs them to the hilt. We’ve seen that dozens of times. We saw it the other night from Coote. A terrible game but not a word from Webb.
So I ask again. What are they scared of? Losing their job? More importantly I think is, who are they scared of?
Well yes, I guess they are scared of losing their job. But as I said, Webb is nothing to worry about, so who are they scared of?
The media, and here’s why.
“Referees are of course human, and subject to human emotions and feelings, but they should be people who, as we hope judges do in court, make the right decision according to the law.”
And that is their dilemma
I believe the reason they hesitate is because they don’t know what to do. They do indeed know the Laws of the Game. And in a perfect World they would apply them without hesitation. But we don’t live in a perfect World. We don’t live in a World where applying the rule of Law is all that matters. We live in a World where keeping SKY Sports, MOTD and Talkshite happy is all that matters. How that lot perceive their decisions is what will keep or lose them their job, not how Webb sees their decisions. He’s happy if the media are happy.
Yes referees are only human, and I do have a modicum of sympathy with them, but as we all know the situation could be sorted, IF the will to do so was there.
1) Referees only handle a team once home and away.
2) Referees from all over the Country , not almost exclusively from the North.
3) Obliged to explain their decisions.
Just 3 simple changes that would help straight away. But alas the will just isn’t there.
My personal view is that their should be a European pool of referees that can be shared around the 5 or 6 major European Leagues, and they NEVER referee in their own Country. And don’t tell me it couldn’t be done.
What all this tells us is what we already knew, and that is that the PGMOL and in it’s wake, the referees and VAR are in total disarray.
Why? Because the Media run our referees, not Webb. No wonder they are confused.
The problem is the media WANT them confused. They want them in disarray. An organised, well disciplined, independent, well trained group of officials would be much more difficult to bend to their will, and that just wouldn’t do.
Are the figures in the first table – Arsenal, Fulham and MCFC – for the first two games of the current season?
PGMOL posted this on their Twitter (X) account feed at 4PM today:-
“We strongly refute any suggestion that VARs do not intervene, for whatever reason, when they have identified a clear and obvious error”.
What are they trying to say?
Now we know why the PL are so eager to pull match footage from YouTube.