By Walter Broeckx
As you might have noticed the new season is already 10 days old and no referee review has been published.
No, don’t worry we didn’t gave up. We didn’t call it a day and gave a free pass to the PGMOL to further ruin our beautiful game. We didn’t start what we started some time ago just for nothing. No, we are not easily put off when we set our mind to something.
So what have we done while not publishing reviews? Well we have the ongoing results from last season that are still running and that are far from over in fact. Still some interesting results you can and will find on this website.
But behind the scenes we have built a new website. A website away from Untold Arsenal. We will give you the link to this website at the bottom of this article of course. But first we must explain what we are going to try and are doing. And how we will put it all together.
Let me start with the reviewers. First of all good news as we have expanded our reviewing team already. And there are a few referees who have shown an interest but who are still unsure about joining us. I think they are waiting for the reviews for the new season to come out .
Thanks to our Untold readers we have found a few websites where we can see almost all the games in the EPL. Not yet all, but very close to all the games. We thank you for the links and please if you have anything you want to let me know about possibilities to review the games don’t hesitate. Just send me a message.
We have another reader who has been bombarding all kind of club website with the question to get their refs involved in our project. And he also has made some contact with news channels to let them know we will come out soon. Stuart, we cannot thank you enough for your work on this.
Of course Tony is involved because he has given us the website and our own place on the internet from where we can judge the referees in the PL. Thanks Tony. There is still room for one statue outside the Emirates you know.
And if that statue is built it should also include the man who is contributing from behind the scenes. Most of you will know already that I am talking about: Dogface. He is the man who will present the reviews on the site and bring up the needed graphics and tables. I have asked him all kind of difficult questions and difficult tables and graphics to add to the site. He always made it possible so I am rather sure he will do it once again.
Now what will change for Untold Arsenal? Well we only will publish Arsenal reviews over here from this season on. In fact this is going back to the season before the last when we also did it like that. That was then down to the fact we didn’t review other games. Now it is a choice. Our choice to do it like that. I know some people had sometimes problems with all the reviews from other teams on an Arsenal blog. So they will be happy about it.
The other reviews we do and the Arsenal reviews will be published on the new site. They will also be listed on the usual news accumulation sites, and additionally they will be listed on the sites of other clubs that are run by Goonernews. You can find these sites by going to Goonernews and looking down the right side to the badges of each club.
Our new site will be the place to see how a ref did a game from each premier league team. And if what you felt as wrong was really wrong. Or that your feelings were wrong.
So for the “referee review fanatics” on this site it means you have to add another site to your favourites. Sorry about this. But we had to do it like that. We had and have to overcome the “Arsenal” tag on our reviews. We must attract new readers, new people and hopefully new referees.
Of course we will be linking to the new site on Untold and let you know about the reviews we put up. But try to come around yourself on a regular basis and join in the discussions that we hope to have. Or come along to praise us amidst the abuse our ref reviewers will have to swallow from time to time.
Last season we were extremely proud to have done 40% of the PL games. Some people said it still was not enough and we had to do more games. We took that as our task to do better.
And the first signs are well…looking amazing. I am very proud to let you know that from the first game day which had as usual 10 games we have reviewed…9 (nine) games! That is 90% of the games on that day. And if someone can deliver us the 10th game be our guest and deliver and we will review it.
I know the season is still new and we face a long and hard battle in front of us. But just imagine if we could keep this number up. Just imagine if we could do 90% of the PL games from this season? What other excuse will they find to ignore us by saying it isn’t enough? Right, no excuses from then on.
So let’s go for it. Let us try our best to reach that number. If that would be possible I would be a very happy referee-reviewer. And if you are a referee and want to join this project: what are you waiting for?
Join us at Referee decisions! See you there.
Woolwich Arsenal: the club that changed football
—————————–
- Calling football chaotic gives chaos a bad name
- Bill Parker, an Arsenal man who went to the States
- Ref Review, Chris Foy. Oh my!
- If you are going to boo, then boo for the right reason
- How Arsenal might play if Mr Usmanov was in charge.
- Arsenal vs The Rugby Team – ref preview
- Arsenal vs The Rugby Team – match preview
- Is it time for a wage cap in the Premier League
I have to say, I think you are doing the right thing. Losing the Arsenal tag can only help your cause, which is a noble one, as your reviews will be seen as impartial and unbiased. Very good work all, I still can’t believe that the PGMOL have got away with things for so long. Maybe now they will be forced to acknowledge their mistakes!
Amazing work. It may be no coincidence that the clown Mason performed comparatively well on Sunday after a season of mediocrity at best following your published review.
Keep up the good work.
Walter, congratulations, and farewell! But I’ll be haunting the new website all the time now. This is a big step that should lead to good things.
Don’t worry El Gringo I will still hang around here you know 😉
I hope I can find the time to write a bit more, but must admit life is rather hectic for the moment…
This is great news. May be there is room for two statues! I can foresee one of two possible outcomes. 1. the standard of refereeing will improve or 2 The PGMOL will stop hiding behind their closed doors.
On a personal level I know spud supporters who will have nothing to do with Untold Arsenal (understandable) but I think will go to Referee Decisions and the word will spread and the campaign will spread to supporters of other clubs who are being ‘done’ by the present system.
I don’t live in England but to those who do why not mention this new site on ‘606’ Write about it in your blogs, refer to it on Twitter and Facebook. The march is on!
Walter and the rest of the team, this is a huge leap to roll back the advancement of the dark warlords. Congratulations.
Please I’ll like to know, how do you guys get paid for this job you are doing, seeing that this reviews must gulp so much time and energy?
Thank u so much guys
You are the golden guardians!
Checked the new site earlier today – it’s late afternoon already here in China – eagerly awaiting the reviews, but there were none yet. Good to see the first two reviews have gone up by now.
Will you have a schedule for publishing the reviews, like max 2 or 3 per day? Or will you put them online as soon as the reviews are ready?
This work is so amazing. Thank you Untold.
It’s funny – just yesterday I was hunting through the ref index – wondering if I’d somehow missed reviews of this season’s matches or if there was a link to the new site. In the end I noticed that Dogface was asking for a particular game via his twitter a/c. This told me you’re all on the case and I simply have to wait.
I had a conversation with a fellow Gooner who confessed he didn’t take too much notice of the ref reviews I sent him as “nothing’s gonna change”. He challenged me: “What has changed so far?”. I had to think for a few seconds. I thought I’d tell him about the BBC writer who mentioned Untold, Walter and Dogface, but I’m sure I sent that article to him. I thought of a couple other things which I can’t recall at this moment.
Then I said to him, “At Stoke, every time the goalkeeper was due to re-start the game – the Arsenal fans started shouting the seconds being taken to get the ball back in play: one two, three, four etc.
My friend was really surprised to hear that and he agreed this was an amazing thing. I could see his surprise. Whilst this alone hasn’t in itself revolutionised the ref’s standards, it does mean that our away fans “get it”. (You dedicated away supporters, I salute you. Most times it’s difficult to make out what you’re chanting as the commentators seem to be in soundproof boxes and spend lots of time talking bolux to cover up what’s being chanted, but shouting out numbers – in this case, lead to the commentators talking about wasting time, and musing about how much time the ref may add on. Brilliant.)
I can’t wait to see how badly Webb and Dean done in the ongoing series (for last season). (And how unfortunate that Webb’s doing the match against Liverpool at Anfield bearing in mind Mark Halsey’s performance last time we were there. Webb’s bound to let Suaracist dive around and surely Henderson has refined his ‘knock out the opposition behind the ref’s back’ – move?)
And what about the game from Sunday? Plenty of violence there – multiple pushes on Santi that went unpunished (that Arsenal players will never get away with), plus the stamp on him. That was vicious and it was meant to ‘take him out’, IMO. How about that assault on Giroud? Stoke players and manager really are a bunch of ****s! MOTD2 showed some contentious challenges but certainly didn’t talk them up too much. There were no calls for reaction from the authorities as there surely would be if Arsenal’s players carried on like that.
May I say that all of you at Untold excelled during the off-season – keeping us informed with myriad amazing articles. I think readership numbers have rightly gone up and although some of the increase has been from Totty, Stokie, Rangers-ey fans, etc, there are more Arsenal fans reading and being relieved to see an Arsenal blog that actually supports Arsenal.
Yeah!
Timmy,
my pay day is when I get to the Emirates on those (all too) rare occasions and walk inside to meet Tony after entering and someone shouts: Walter? Are you Walter from Untold? And when I confirm this they shake my hand and tell me: “You are doing a great job!”
That is my pay day…
… even though… a few £, $ or euro might come in hand… LOL 🙂 🙂 🙂
Like Tony said on the new website: it is a labour of love. But hey I am not alone in this. The other ref reviewers are just doing what they can in the same way like I do it.
Kentetsu,
I will be trying to publish the games per game day as much as possible.
I hope before the weekend that all the games from the first day will be on line
rantetta,
those last kind words in your comment are also giving me a pay day feeling 😉
So far we have 3 reviews posted (Sorry for driving the people out of here Tony…)
http://www.refereedecisions.co.uk/match-review-lee-probert-queens-park-rangers-vs-swansea-city-0-5-18082012/comment-page-1/#comment-30 is the latest one
Congratulations Walter, Tony, Dogface and all at Untold towers. A great step up from what were humble, though revolutionary, beginnings on this site. Let’s turn the spotlight even more on the roaches 🙂
Walter, a couple of questions.
1)Which is the 10th match?
2)And also, this bears asking since now the ref reviews are expanding. How will you ensure the refs that join in online, are a)genuinely qualified, b) doing their best to be impartial. I ask because I am by nature a sceptic 🙂
Great news, this really is fantastic stuff. I’m genuinely excited for what will come from this. No longer will cynics be able to play the arsenal conspiracy card and put down all your hard work. I’m sure this will make massive strides in uncovering what we all suspect. Congratulations Untold
Could I just ask though, are you starting fresh or will you be using the stats you’ve gathered to date on the untold site?
Shard,
1) West Ham – Aston Villa but someone send me a link and I might get it now. Only problem is upload time will be around 7hours! 🙁 Or else I have to pay for it… 🙁
2) We let them do a test to see if they have the skills of course. And we try to check them of course
By the way: thanks for the link!!!
Iniez,
we are intending to also publish all the games from last season over there if possible. But that will be a hell of a job I think because posting another 155 odd games is not that easy to do. Unless Dogface finds a solution of course 😉
But for now will publish the games from this season
Walter,
I appreciate being thanked, but uhh..What link? 🙂
Shard,
that was for the person who send me the link. Wanted to put it in another comment but failed to do so…
Hehe..Thought so.
im a one man standing ovation right now.
witnessing evolution is what arsenal is all about, be it wilshere or the reviews.
cant thank all of you enough.
Bon Voyage!
Here’s to your great public service to all and anyone that wants the fair pitch that will restore the great game to the beautiful game.
Great work! I hope to see a few hundred thousand visits per month on our new site very soon, and then, millions. I will do all I can to spread the word.
Great Job, Ref Reviewers, Walter & Dogface. I wish there was something I could help you guys do. But I am not a Ref. Rest assured you have my full appreciation.
Walter,
Two points of historical order:
I’m a massive fan of your last season’s ref review (2011/2012) and feel that you should have some kind of Archive or link to the great predecessor of the great current work.
There should also be a special link to your special Re-View of the 2004 Crime Scene at Old Toilet [when Micky R. knee-capped our undefeated run to show why he was the perfect choice for PGMOL chief]. For those who don’t know about this major contribution to a historical understanding of the present football moment, here it is in the interim:
http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/2012/08/11/the-ref-review-from-the-past-man-u-2-arsenal-0-the-unbeaten-run-is-over/
Of course, doing this may be said by the usual suspects to “Arsenalize” the site and dilute the impact. But anyone who stoops to that will surely realize the origins of the site at UA and slate the new site anyway. It comes with the turf. So, for my tuppence, I’d run these two pieces on the new site. And, if that’s not done, I’d ask that Tony give these more prominence here on AU, so that the past is not sorted off into a tidy little list where all articles fade away into the mists. At least give them red colored/bold fonts.
These two articles matter a lot and, in any case, Walter Broeckx is an international football treasure who continues to walk the walk and roundly deserves our trans-massive merci beaucoup.
p.s. sorry, meant above to praise and advocate for your great end of season 2010/2011 review as the seed of the current efforts. It should not be so easily forgotten or written off.
Walter….are there any other club-dedicated sites like Untold who have tried to do game officiating reviews or is UA the only club-based blog out of 20 EPL supporters’ blogs that does this? If, as I already suspect, UA is the sole website doing ref and game reviews…that is an incredible condemnation of other clubs’ supporters and their disinterest in actually trying to improve Football! I know this takes an enormous amount of time to manage and update UA BUT other clubs’ supporters spend enormous amounts of time and money attending games, writing comments on their blogs and spending time whining about how bad the officiating is, etc. The Totts have been screwed as much as we have by EPL officials but they seem to just bend over and pass the Vaseline!
I know the AAA and anti-Wenger faction at AFC are the PGMOL’s biggest apologists, since admitting that officials were responsible for part of our 7 year trophy drought would be removing some ¨blame¨ from Wenger and the Board’s shoulders…anathema to their vision of destroying AW and the current Board. Maybe IF they get their wish and Usmanov obtains enough shares, he’ll pay off the PGMOL and we’ll win every trophy and title in the world for the next decade or so?
Walter, I think this step is a good one for your efforts — while we saw that Arsenal will benefit significantly from an improvement in the standard of refereeing, this project is bigger than that, and it deserves its own masthead. Best of luck, and I look forward to your future posts for Untold once the referee decisions site settles in.
Walter, Tony – you have brought a little tear to my eye!
It is not often that people have the persistence to pursue the search for fairness so consistently, doggedly and with massive amounts of effort as you have.
Like another contributor, when I was watching Lee Mason on Sunday I wondered, has Untold something to do with his improved performance? At least, it looked improved to me,although I haven’t read the review yet. Looking forward to it.
Only negative feature – I’ll have to follow an additional web site!
But fully agree with you in setting it up. Good luck!
Oh, and let me add Dogface and the ref reviewers to the appreciation expressed above.
And finally – I just had a look at the new site.
It looks so good, and I love the photo at the top!
Even the referees seem to have improved!
@Domhuaille MacMathghamhna
I think the reason other club-dedicated sites are not so interested in the project is because plenty of them benefit from the current situation and thus are satisfied with the status quo, whilst those who do suffer in most cases do so only to a limited degree compared to us.
As pat said, the photo on the header for the new site is most excellent. Congratulations Untold, good luck!
But…where is the review for the Arsenal Sunderland game? 🙂
Or maybe those other clubs don’t have something like Untold where and some ref who dedicates his time and was “gently forced” by the readers to start what we are doing? 😉
You always need someone or a group of persons to start a “revolution” or a new idea. I think just by accident or whatever it was that brought Tony, Dogface and me together at the right moment in time. And then brought the other reviewers in to it and now even more reviewers….
If all goes well this is the year that the Untold referee reviews will completely shine and cause the shock we are hoping for: TO MAKE FOOTBALL BETTER AND FAIRER, FOR ALL!
Finsbury, it will come, it will come over here and on the new site.
And a final update: WE GOT GAME NUMBER 10 FROM THE FIRST MATCHDAY 🙂
10 OUT OF 10!
Now we only have to review it 🙂
Hi Walter, I noticed there was no RSS for Arsenal on the new site when I checked the other day (unless I missed something of course
Domhuaille
In response to 6.47pm
I have been contacting all the other teams blogs I could find and also main stream media including national newspapers, local papers, football magazines & fanzines/fan clubs and match day programmes to get people to publish the reviews and a request for help. Several of them have published my articles and a couple have said they will be keeping a close eye on Walters reviews this season.
I’ve yet to do Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs but we’re getting there. Oddly enugh, the hardest part for some teams has been finding blogs which are active. Some teams have virtually no presence on the web at all and some blogs seem to have only 1 reader (who comments anyway).
I think as gooners we are spoilt for choice when it comes to blogs and websites even if many are very poor and questionable.
Anyway, hopefully my efforts amount to more people getting involved and I hope that so far the refs who promised to come forward, have done so.
Oh and Walter, good stuff on number 10. Can wait.
Does that mean there are now reliable sources for every game??? Lets hope so.
For those asking about pay day… I even paid for game 10… but now I can download missing games in the next 30 days.
Nothing is too much to do what we do..
The game is reviewed. It’s past 1.00 am where I live.. I should get a live 🙂 🙂
Walter – let me know how much and I’ll chip in my share towards the costs. Thanks.
Not sure if this will work so excuse me if it doesn’t (new phone)
http://www.toffeeweb.com/season/12-13/comment/fan/22224.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=%23efc+%23everton
Have just pop over to the new site and and have left comments .Again a job well done and hope it becomes influential enough to change the status quo ( which frankly is crap!) and influence the game for the better .
Well done guys !
Walter , if there’s really no room for further statues , maybe a little grotto (as mooted by me in an earlier comment)
may surffice ; where (scene going into dream mode …)in the future, visiting fans will be told of the men (& gals) of Untold Arsenal who took on the evil establishment and beat the crap out of them and help return the beautiful game to the fans (and the trophies to Arsenal !)
Arsenalistas and Gunnereros will be introduced to such luminaries as Sir Tony ( Knighted in 2016 for services to football -above and beyond the call of duty !),Walter ,Dog Face ,Stuart and the rest (some with unpronceble foreign names !). Songs will be sung of these heroes .
Sigh !
Back to reality and work !