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This article is part of the series : REFEREE REVIEW 2012
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By DogFace and Walter Broeckx
Untold Arsenal has a team of qualified referees who have reviewed more than 40% of the EPL games from last season. The reviews themselves were based on full match video footage with the advantage of video technology features such as slow motion and pause.
By reviewing those 155 games we have made a database of more than 7000 decisions that have been judged by our panel of dedicated and qualified referees.
The numbers you will see are based on those decisions and those reviewed games.
The next in our series is a bit of a special case. He started the season in the PL. And then halfway the season he went to the USA and now he is over there doing a bit what Mike Riley is over here. Leading the refs to glory…. now surely that would be put in the hands of one who was a leading example on the field?
Peter Walton
Let’s find out.
We did 7 games from Walton last season. And that is almost 47% of his total games he has done in the PL. In this case doing half the games should give us a rather good idea on how he was as a ref.
So lets have a look at his numbers.
Well these numbers are….shockingly terribly bad. Only 64% of his decisions were correct on the field. This is awful.
And if we put weight on the decisions it even goes more down to 62.90% correct decisions.
Those numbers are worse than the numbers from Attwell who got demoted. Peter Walton got promoted.
Let us quickly take a look at the different type of decisions he had to make
The goal decisions are rather okay if you compare to the league average. So that is fine.
And also the offside decisions were better than the league average. So that also is rather fine.
But now we enter the terrible zone. In the others decisions we see a sad score of only 62.62% correct decisions. This is about fouls all over the field. He just didn’t call them as it should have been. And I remind you on how we did our reviews and that in case of doubt we gave the ref the benefit of the doubt. When no replay was shown he still could have been wrong but we gave it as correct as we couldn’t over rule the decision on the field. Thus this score is really bad and not worthy of the PL.
And then we see his penalty decisions and with 54% correct this is not great and even lower than the league average so this isn’t good at all.
When we look at the red cards we see that he managed to make 1 correct decision out of 11 possible decisions. Well one is better than none but surely a PL ref should be able to get a better score than that.
And in the yellow card decisions he also managed to get a lower score than the overall league average.
So all in all these are truly bad numbers.
Let us see if we can see if he has a home or away bias.
Well poor teams that had him when away from home. One of the highest negative away biases of all referees against the away teams. Of course the teams that played at home will have been happy with his home-refereeing.
And once again I repeat these are truly shocking numbers. PL unworthy numbers.
And if we put weight on it we see that well… it all stays the same. Terrible home referee is the only conclusion we can reach when we look at these numbers.
Let us move on to the team numbers and see how they pan out.
If we look at these numbers we see that Peter Walton is living in a black and white world. For the bias is large against you or largely in your favour. I think it just depends on having him in a home game or an away game. There is no real low bias number to be found in these numbers. Shocking.
And when we put weight on the decisions…. the numbers become even more shocking. Awful is the only word that enters my mind. What can you say about such numbers? It looks as if he had not one game with no controversy in it. Wherever he came he brought bad refereeing with him.
He was either in your favour of heavily against your team. But nowhere can I find any sign of making mistakes nicely split up between the two teams.
If I combine the home and away bias graphics and the team graphics it looks as if this ref was a pure home ref. From the back of my head a few of his games were Everton – Manchester City, Stoke – Manchester – United… games in which he overly gave all to the home teams.
FINAL CONCLUSION
So far when looking at the refs I have never seen such numbers. The competency numbers are shockingly low. Unacceptable low.
Such a bad home bias by this ref exposed time and time again.
Good or bad (the latter for me) but he sure was not a fair ref if we look at these numbers.
So the good news is : WE GOT RID OF HIM! He will not be destroying any more games in the PL this season. But pity the poor referees in the USA. They now have a person leading them who didn’t have a clue on how to do a good game and on how to be fair and unbiased in his games. Now is he the person that should raise the standard from the referees in the USA. With such a track record?
How does it come that apparently you need to screw up big time as a ref to become a leading person in the referee world after your active career?
A few examples:
- the man of the Busacca-moment was shortly after that event given a big position at Fifa even though he still had a few years as an active ref in front of him and maybe even some finals. He is head of refereeing development. The Mike Riley of Fifa one could say.
- Mike Riley: who made a total mess of the game Manchester United – Arsenal in 2004 and later on got rewarded by being head of the PGMOL and this responsible for the referees in the PL
- And Peter Walton: not being able to do one good game this season (I cannot judge the seasons before) and he is being appointed as head of the referees in the USA.
Is this some kind of trend in the referee world? The worse the ref, the higher the position afterwards… How can we improve the standard of refereeing when the persons responsible for this standard have been crap on many occasions in their own referee career?
Our Woolwich Arsenal book nominated for an award
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- Ray Parlour and Martin Keown back playing this weekend.
- Why bother with internationals, when countries can own clubs?
- The answers to the great Arsenal history quiz – pts 1 2 3 revealed
- Ref Review: Kevin Friend
- How come everyone else spends billions but we don’t
This is a link to a BBC Radio 4 progamme about corruption in Bulgarian football. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m182v
I meant to ass to the above I believe you. There is no evidence to even suggest that ‘Referee mistakes even out in the end’. If the Refs are not corrupt then the evidence is they are not up to professional standards
It is unfair on the Champions League that a Ref not good enough for the EPL she be allowed in the CL. He should not go to a none professional league or only allowed to ref friendly matches.
ouch sorry correction of typo ‘I meant to add to the above.’ Sorry Tony.
The unholy trinity have PROVEN their value by “delivering the goods” on the biggest stage, under the brightest spotlight. That they can excel at their craft is made possible by a craven and complicit media establishment that understands the vital role that NON-ACCOUNTABILITY plays in maintaining the managed product that continues to enrich its owners, controllers and the food chain of its middle and bottom feeders. They are both Shameless and Effective. They stand in the way of a level playing field. Is there any other comparable professional sport with level of “oversight”? Not that it doesn’t exist, but fans of, for example, US baseball (MLB), football (NFL), hockey, do not tolerate this level of negative umpire/referee impact on game results without a huge hue and cry. I don’t know enough to know if fans largely accept it in top-flight Cricket, or Rugby, or Aussie Football, etc. But – worldwide – in the MOST lucrative of all sports, the sub-standard (to be polite) ref performance is institutionalized at the top. And when the head of the fish rots, well, the rest will follow. Are BPL fans so used to this as to accept, tsk-tsk, lament and weep as it continues, season after season? Does it all just confirm a view that nothing can change?
Oh, and just to give a little of today’s Media Mendacity on this very score, Talkshite is running a fan poll over which defenseman ManShitty should Poach: David Luiz or Tommy Vermaelen. This is a fan poll! The League Champ is seen and portrayed as having a legitimate expectation, a normalized right to decide whose prime asset it wants to have. This is exactly a feudal mentality: where the land-lord of the manor has an expectable right to sample the goods whenever one of the serf’s daughters is going to be wed. Reaching this point is so corrupt; and reaching this point without a hue and cry is even more depressing. Any had enough?
Its like a crook giving a speech about morality…..I’m going to puke here.
I mean the ref
aye Bob – more than enough.
The stench is unberable and I welcome the refreshing breeze blowing from these quarters.
Further to colario’s link above, it’s typical of the institutional staus in the UK to see the BBC interested in news of stink from abroad, whilst gleefully ingoring the stench from these shores.
Certainly the fans need to do something about it: individually and collectively,
No more Sky Sports for me (one small step).
Maybe we need to see banners at matches?
Will the TV channels show them?
I don’t know, but hopefully UA’s fresh breezes will blow up a storm.
Matt Clarke,
Maybe a banner for the Utd game: “Manure don’t need Robin, they got the PGMOL”
The picture is telling the whole story: I don’t have a clue but I made it somehow…
Great write up Walter. Quite off topic but here are my thoughts on how we should great RVP at Man U. Sing a song that makes him sad…not angry. Here’s my suggestion:
(To the tune of “you are my sunshine”)
You were our sunshine
Our only sunshine
You made us happy
when skies were grey
Now noone loves you
you play for Man U
Santi is our sunshine Today
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!
We should let him know what he lost, not try and rile him up.
Alas until we can stamp corruption (or stump up some campaign donations) the Refereeing hell will continue.
Why do rewards come after seemingly awful games?
Perhaps they were not awful games after all. Perhaps the promotions were a reward for a job well done.
@brentCPH:
I’d sing it – nice one !
I love Arsenal & Football in general but you need to bet a life !!!!
One way of looking at the results is that he is reluctant to issue a card, prefers to have a chat and issue a warning. Many analysts in the British game regard this as commendable.
Personally I Just think he is a piss poor ref and we are better off without him.
The picture sums him up, confused and apologetic, we really ought to run a caption competition on it.
“Is there a referee in the house?”
“Penalty for Arsenal? What penalty”
Looking at the picture and his eyes it seems as if he is squint? Or is it my own eyes that are deceiving me?
No, Walter just an unfortunate pic – see this earlier example…
http://laist.com/attachments/la_adam1/sameagle2.jpg
[sorry all – I regret dragging the discussion down. I’ll go and hide for a while]
If he is in USA to improve the refereeing, how bad must it have been?
I am a referee in the Irish League (Northern Ireland ) and the hierarchy at the top are idiots. We are not allowed to use common sense and addede to that we have kids coming through who have never played but konow the rules (in theory).
I played the game at a good level and as the game is a spectator sport I try to keep it flowing……. not allowed apparently.
Football is being destroyed by the bosses. This will be my last season. (i am only 42 and have run 4 marathons this year already)
Or how bad will they become?
What are the odds Kipmonster and where can I find one.. 😉
Erm… Walton presided over the Stoke match where Ramsey was Shawcrossed. Therefore – I don’t merely believe – I know.
Jeezes rantetta… I totally forgot that one.
I still remember saying to my son minutes before Shawcross hacked Ramsey to pieces that the ref was letting too many things go and that it would end up badly…. I never felt as bad when it did happen a bit later
I just could see and feel it coming…
Matt Clarke, brentCPH,
Another little ditty:
“Robin Van Persie
He lies when he wants…”
In the current atmosphere, in case anyone has forgotten, this is what goes on when yes, a side actually protects its assets by citing its predator-enemy for tapping-up:
“Liverpool and Rodgers have refused to comment on claims they “tapped-up” Clint Dempsey, after Fulham lodged an official complaint to the Premier League over the transfer saga.
The Premier League are investigating Liverpool’s pursuit of Dempsey, who was left out of Fulham’s opening day win over Norwich City and will miss Saturday’s trip to Manchester United as a result of wanting to move to Anfield.
A league statement read: “The Premier League has received a complaint from Fulham FC regarding certain comments made by Liverpool FC officials and is currently looking into the matter.”
For what it’s worth, refereeing in the MLS seems to have been pretty rubbish this year. I saw a lot of FC Dallas last year–a bit like Arsenal in that they’re one of the few teams to try tactical variations any formation besides a 4-4-2 and to attack with any means besides fast wingers and long crosses–and at the beginning of this present season, they were having a player injured and a player sent off about once a game. Totally destroyed their season. Strangely, the players sent off were the level heads and safe players; the livewires I would have expected to do something stupid stayed on–there was only one sending off that didn’t surprise me when I heard who it was. Of course I can’t go to many matches, and they’re hard to come by on TV, so there could be a long string of coincidences…but I know what we think about coincidences over here, so I’ve been wondering if there isn’t a Peter Walton correlation.
Right. I may have spoken too soon. I found some highlights of the worst bit of the FC Dallas season when there were 3 sendings off in three matches. All of them would have been deemed “soft” in the Premier League, but of course that doesn’t mean anything to the rest of the world. One straight red was for a knee-high, studs up challenge that might get a yellow in England–which of course means the card was justified. However, that came just 3 minutes after a soft second yellow to another Dallas player (first card for dissent, the second was a trip that I didn’t think quite merited a warning); more importantly, play should have already stopped due to another foul. The last sending off was also for a second yellow, and it was fine–the Dallas player got caught on with his heels down and impeded an attacker in a good position. So all told, one bad card, and a lot of bad luck. From what I saw, the officials really don’t need Walton’s “help.” Sorry for the premature speculation.
@DogFace and Walter thanks for all you guys are doing but something perturbs me, a little bit off topic. When The Arsenal Draws its a crisis, and when Manure loses its the first time in so many years blah,blah.
My kids are asking me questions and i need an answer so what should i tell them?
Otherwise guys keep it up.
Walter,
Thanks for your comment at 10:34pm
As I was writing my comment I was reliving the build-up to that assault. As you said was as I thought: Walton was letting things get out of hand, and so an Arsenal player was certainly going to be injured. The Stoke players hacked and bullied as though they knew they could ‘follow the manager’s instructions to Get Stuck In’ and they seemed confident they wouldn’t be punished.
So much so that Shawcross couldn’t believe he’d been sent off, and spent minutes wandering around the field with fake “woah is me”. Of course “Lenny” and all at Stoke – still see him as the Victim! Pubis talks about Shawcross not having a “bad one in his body”. (Mummy had to take “Lenny” home where he got calls from Rednose Slurgy AND a call-up to the England squad!
WTF.
Patrick Barclay (Sky Sunday Supplment) and Bobby Mc Mahon were the only journo’s I know who acknowledged the “tackle” as excessive.
Shawcross on Ramsey “Not a Tackle, a Scythe”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o67ftN-B6r8
Dermot Gallagher allowed the same sort of build-up to Dan Smith’s assault on Diaby, and Dean/Webb/most of the others – allow these kind of things to continue happening.
Kung fu kick by Ferdinand on Sagna with Webb a meter away, Sagna’s shirt is torn, no foul given, anyone?
This is why the ref reviews are so important and appreciated.
I’m not sure if I can watch on Sunday.
@ rantetta
If another one of our players is assaulted and injured with clear refereeing negligence, I say we get a petition together and get as many signatures as possible (from as many different teams fans as possible) to bring a civil suit against the FA for endangering the careers of players from the teams they represent. If they won’t clean things up behind closed doors it’s about time we took it to the public. I don’t want fouls called for every little contact like some other leagues, but if it means there are no more Eduardo, Diaby, or Ramsey like injuries do to criminally violent play….then maybe it’s not the worst solution.
brentCPH,
Perhaps it’s high time to look into the applicability to the assaults on Eduardo, Ramsey, Diaby, Sagna, and other non-Arsenal players, of the upcoming National Hockey League-based criminal trial of attacker Todd Bertuzzi (Vancouver) for his vicious 2004 assault (he claims it was ordered by his coach!) on Steve Moore (ColoradO). The long-awaited trial is slated for late September or by mid October. It’s taken many wild roads; and is finally coming to public trial. People can read about its background here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Bertuzzi
Frankly I hope that our non-EPL players are duly warned about what the Pulis gang has been capable of and are made vigilant. I always thought that Song’s physical capability (and he is not a thug) was some sort of a counter-weight/deterrent on our side and wish he were here (not only for this reason, but it’s among them). It’s well understood that Cazorla is perhaps our brightest beacon of light, and I would hate to see Pulis making an early major gift to Don Fergus, his well-known ally.
Maybe everybody. Should we’re a bandage when rvp returns to remind him while at arsenal most of the time he was wearing one