Sexist Uefa loses its accreditation and Bolton struggle in defence

 

 

• PGMOL are not incompetent, so stop saying they are
• How Premier League refereeing descended into total chaos

By Bulldog Drummond

Until 2011/12 we used to write about Bolton a lot (often calling them Notlob to signify their backward view of reality).  They were in those days (although you might not remember) a Premier League side.  But not just any Premier League side they were often considered (at least by us, but I think also by a few other sites and supporters) as the ultimate in everything a Premier League should not be particularly concerning tackling and fouling. 

Of course today we don’t see much of them, but we can recall that in four of their last five seasons in the Premier League they scored 41 goals or less – sometimes reaching down to less than one goal a game through a whole season.

In defence, they were plain dirty and a flair for the dangerous, but the referees allowed them to get away with it as it was “just Bolton” and their goal difference was generally negative, sometimes very negative until finally they were relegated in 2011/12 with a goal difference of -31 and a top scorer in the league (Klasnic) who got nine.

Since then it has been the Championship, League One and League Two for them.  Last season in League One they came third, five points behind Derby and 10 behind Portsmouth, the two clubs that went up.  They lost in the play offs and Oxford and the Championship sighed a collective sigh of relief.

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Portsmouth	46	28	13	5	78	41	37	97
2	Derby County	46	28	8	10	78	37	41	92
3	Bolton Wanderers	46	25	12	9	86	51	35	87

 

But this season things have not been so good

League One now includes the newly empowered Wrexham who won the National League in 2023, then came second in League Two in 2024, and now top League One with 16 points.   Bolton have played six, won two and drawn one, and have a goal difference of -4.  They sit in 19th, which is (if they are paying attention) worryingly close to the relegation zone, with two wins and a draw, and a goal difference of minus four.

It’s still too early to measure this season’s figures against each other but for last season we can see this comparison.  Arsenal secured 2.47 points at home on average in the last campaign while Bolton got 1.61 away in their campaign.

The goal difference was even more marked.  Arsenal scored 2.53 goals a game at home while Bolton scored 1.48.

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
3	Arsenal home	19	15	2	2	48	16	32	47
5	Bolton Wanderers away	23	10	7	6	34	24	10	37

 

In their last half dozen games (which include one in the League Cup and one in the Football League Trophy) they have won three (including beating Barrow of League Two in the Trophy), while also losing three.    They have scored nine and conceded 12. In fact in four of those last six games they have conceded at least two goals. 

The referee for this game is Josh Smith and we will take a look at his work in the next report, but meanwhile I must divert for a moment to an article which has appeared in the Swiss newspaper Blick.

In this article the paper notes that although Uefa in 2021 was congratulated by the Swiss Equal Salary Foundation for its work in giving equal pay and equal opportunities to women, it has now fallen from grace.

The Swiss Equal-Salary Foundation has now withdrawn its certification of Uefa.  Last February, an article in the public service media brought Uefa once more to the attention of the country’s Equality Commission, after two senior Uefa officials found that a director of Uefa had been accused of sexism after a female assistant complained. Despite an external investigation “finding that the manager had discriminated against women” the Uefa manager kept his job; something that is utterly unheard of in Switzerland where equality between women and men is considered to be a paramount issue within the country. 

A review  of the case found that Uefa has been uncooperative with the Equal Salary Commission, something which employees of Uefa had reported back to the Equality Commission.  

In its normal style Uefa claimed that such local rules (local meaning Swiss law) did not apply to itself  and refused to budge after which Uefa lost the certification showing that they treated men and women equally at work.  Uefa has refused to comment – as indeed has the English media.  

What this means is the English football is now bowing down to the rules of an organisation which has not only been found guilty of sex discrimination but which has refused to change its ways.   And this is the body that is overseeing international European women’s football.