Ref review 2012/13: Lee Probert. This is not acceptable.

21 Replies to “Ref review 2012/13: Lee Probert. This is not acceptable.”

1. Only two words: Norwich-Arsenal.

2. Absolutely incredible! The numbers are awful and he is clearly a referee for whom the fan’s chant is entirely appropriate. It seems that his saving grace is the bias against Arsenal which perfectly fits the Dark Lord’s agenda.

3. Not suprised one bit. He is an atrocious referee not even fit for the championship. His anti Arsenal bias rivals that of Mike Dean and he shouldnt be doing any more of our matches. PGMO must love what he is doing.

4. Mahdain, guess who is referring our match on Sunday?
   Yes indeedy, it’s the joker in the pack Mike Dean!!!

5. Hmmm… I keep seeing Arsenal at the wrong end of these bias rankings.

6. @ken yeah i know. Stoke are gonna have a field day kicking us off the pitch but amazingly it will Arsenal who will be booked more. Put money on a Flamini red card

7. @Mahdain I wonder why we, as a club, do not ask for these biased referees to be “blacklisted” from our games?
   I seem to remember SAFErgie doing this a while back.
   What makes matters worse is that Dean has shown biase TOWARDS Stoke!!
   @Jayramfootball it does worry me a little that “others” will see these reports as just Gooners being biased themselves. I know the criteria Walter, but it does seem odd!!!!

8. @jayram if you have been watching Probert in our matches then you would had actually expected us to be top of his negative bias list. Remember that 2-1 defeat against fulham at craven cottage 2 seasons ago? That was one of the worst refereed matches i have seen and guess who were on the bad end of everything? Yep Arsenal. He even invented fouls in that match for crying out loud. Walter did an extensive ref review of that match in what i consider his best ref review article since he started it all few seasons back.

9. @ken i also ask myself the same question. Why doesnt our management do anything to make sure these pricks dont ref us again? If its not working behind the scenes then go public. The worst thing the FA can do is fine us

10. In fact, the reason we don’t see the number of refs increased in the prem is because riley wants to surround himself with people like this man, to do his bidding. Shocking numbers, and I found the Bellamy incident shocking. Its not like I don’t believe you Walter, but i wasn’t aware of any such incident and when I read this my first thought was unbelievable. But after googling it its all over the internet with pictures. Even doing this on an opposing player would have earned a straight red, let alone a ref.

11. Another incompetent referee with a heavy bias against Arsenal – just the usual.

    Perhaps Arsenal need to start texting the refs before each match – just as someone else has been reported to do.

12. About the Probert – Bellamy incident I refered to:

    I have seen the images (they made the press in Belgium) but on this link they have been removed? http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/craig-bellamy-poured-water-over-referee-lee-probert-during-cardiff-3-man-city-2/

    but on this link you can see the images (a Flemish newspaper site) http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/950/Buitenlands-Voetbal/article/detail/1693060/2013/08/26/Bellamy-overgiet-scheidsrechter-met-water.dhtml

13. Yet again , we come off worst, just look who comes off near best, as well,as Sunderland, why do refs in general like them so much

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/mark-halsey-alex-ferguson-text-2276765

    What conclusion can we draw….every thing fergie has achieved is tainted?

14. @Walter Broeckx. I’m certainly no fan of Lee Probert, so the less said about him the better . Especially after his performance as the fourth official in the 2009 Man U clash at OT when he and Mike Dean combined in a bizarre and shameful spectacle to send Mr Wenger into the stands for kicking the water bottle in the last minute of the game. It’s been my long held position that The Premier League suffers from low quality officiating but unlike yourself I don’t believe there is a coordinated effort to conspire against our club on the part of the League or PGMOL . Part of the problem with officiating at any level is that most referee decisions can be interpreted in more than one way , but in no way am I trying to belittle the effort you’ve put into this project. Since there are only a few examples of your interpretations of referee’s decisions that I can find , I will concentrate on the last one of any relevance. You said that you watched Sagna v Altidore incident in slow motion and you’ve concluded both players were fauling each other equally and as soon as the referee blew his whistle, Sagna stopped as it became obvious the play was whistled dead. Further more , you’ve concluded that Altidore could’ve been issued a yellow card just as easily as Sagna was. Mind you, I’m not passing judgement on your character but rather observing how you saw the play . Now I’ve watched it in slow motion many times and it was clear to me Sagna put his arms on Altidore first and was much more inclined to slow Altidore down than to play the ball. After Altidore got free Sagna never stopped persuing him ( unlike your assessment) and ends up right next to the striker when the ball is struck on goal. And so does Szczesny, Flamini and Kos who tried to make the goal line clearance , which would indicate neither one of those players heard the whistle . To go as far as to insinuate ( half jokingly I admit) that Altidore could’ve been issued a yellow card for kicking the ball after the whistle is beyond anything logical. The point of all this is to illustrate that after watching the same play in slow motion you’ve come to a different conclusion than I ,and more importantly Mr Wenger himself ,on who the fouled player was( fair enough as this is a judgement call), but more importantly you also got some facts wrong seeing as Sagna never stopped defending on the play. This is not a dig at you but just a proof how two or more people can see the same incident in a totally different light. Keep up the good work and take care.

15. See post above Halsey says ” it took time to gain fergies respect but in the end we had a good relationship”
    Is gaining fergies respect a right of passage for refs. Does the same apply to say mr holloway or arsene wenger or any other managers?
    Do Barclays, an institution not without controversy really want to associate themselves with this league ?
    Will the match fixer investigators come to England next time? Plenty of at least circumstantial evidence and always the desire to get at the holier than thou

16. I seen the BBC article about Halsey saying some referee could kill themself. A question a person needs to ask, is this pressure just provided by fans, or is it a conflict of interest between PGMOL desired results, and what fans want (an honest match).

    The FA has a policy about incidents not in the referee’s report. Was Belamy pouring water on a referee ever examined by the FA? Probably not. But Walter suggests it should have been.

17. That Bellamy incident is shocking. That deserves an extended ban, 8-10 matches or so.

18. Did anyone else see what Halsey wrote about his relationship with Alex Ferguson? He said they often texted and talked on the phone together. It makes one highly suspicious of the personal nature Fergie had with the refs.

    http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1554249/premier-league-referees-warned-contacting-managers-halsey-called-ferguson?campaign=rss&source=soccernet&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&cc=3888

19. Tom
    I completely disagree with your statement that Walter got it wrong re the Altidore/Sagna incident. The two players were certainly holding each other, with both hands too. Whether it was Sagna who held the other player first is open to debate, but lets assume he did, then the ref was right in punishing him with a free kick and yellow. Lets be clear about when the ref blew the whistle though, it was right when the players were still tussling, a second or two before Altidore took the shot. Now upon hearing the whistle the players who were closest to the action, Sagna & Flamini clearly slowed down. Altidore however continued his run on goal, gaining more space between him & our defense creating the impression he had gained an advantage. We see this all the time in situations like offsides where the defenders slow down or stop after seeing the flag or upon hearing the whistle. The attacking player usually is the last person to hear the whistle(whether this is pure coincidence or just pretence I don’t know) and usually will have a pop at goal. The keeper, even though clearly able to see that the ref has stopped play, will instinctively try and save the shot still. I guess its just a reflex reaction which happens without thinking, in case the ref changes their mind and allows the goal to stand. At times, while the defense stops, you may get a defender or two who will still try and make a half hearted attempt to stop the player, for the same reason stated above.

    Going back to the incident you can clearly Altidore shoving Sagna backwards at the point they disengage, and Sagna throwing his hands upwards in a gesture as if to say hey ref, what is he doing, momentarily slowing down before resuming chasing the striker who had gained a couple of yards by now(when Sagna lost momentum in his half hearted appeal). Its important to note the ref had blown the whistle by then, so whatever happened thereafter should not matter as players’s thinking and actions are influenced by the whistle at that point. I have seen a certain player receive a red for taking a shot at goal after the ref blew his whistle, so to suggest the attacking player could’ve been carded for that isnt illogical unless such punishment is reserved for us only. So to sum up the ref saw a foul, blew his whistle causing our defenders to slow down and allowing the striker more room to shoot creating the impression there was an advantage to be played. Had Sagna maintainI his momentum and cleared the ball i have no doubt we would be hearing how the ref cheated Sunderland out of a possible penalty. My opinion is in cases like that a drop ball is the fairest way to resume play. Or if the ref is going to blow his whistle then give the defender the benefit of the doubt as you don’t want to put another team at a disadvantage from an offence committed by both players.

20. The thing is if Halsey could just pick up his phone and ask Alex Ferguson for a favour, then doesn’t it make sense that Alex Ferguson could do likewise and phone a referee and ask for a favour?

21. @Al .. Thank you for responding and by doing so proving yet again what my point was ,that two or more reasonable people can look at the same incident/play and without a bias see two different things. You said Sagna lost his momentum while throwing his arms in the air in his half hearted appeal as if to say ; hey ref , what is he ( Altidore) doing? . When a simpler explanation might be that Sagna lost his balance momentarily because his arms were shoved back after he was holding on to a taller and stronger Altidore while trying to keep up with him and running half sideways and half backwards. Sagna never stopped running( contrary to Walter’s assessment which by the way was the only thing I said he was wrong about as everything else is a matter of opinion), never waved his arms trying to appeal but simply regained his balance and continued on defending. As for you suggesting that issueing a yellow card to Altidore for playing after a whistle would’ve been logical because the precedent had been set , and I’m assuming you are talking about RVP’s second yellow against Barca in the CL clash. If I remember correctly the general consensus was that it was one of the most ridiculous sending offs in recent memory.