- Where will each of the top clubs be after another six games? Here’s the answer.
- Farewell hooligans, farewell facts, hello anger. Why the football debate is now so unhealthy.
By Tony Attwood
I am not sure that I have ever previously handed over an article on Untold to an outside youtube blogger, but I have had this video blog pointed out to me and I think it makes the point that seems apposite so clearly, that I really do want to spread the word. If nothing else to show that it is not just Untold that asks the question that is raised at the end of this video.
At the end the blogger points out that referees are not allowed to oversee games involving the teams they support or their biggest rivals. Then he asks…
“In an era when two of the Premier League’s most pre-eminent clubs are owned by the vice president of the UAE and the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, why on earth would the PGMOL allow its leading match officials to take lucrative assignments and contracts in the UAE and Saudi Pro League?”
He does not give an answer to that question, but we might speculate on a few.
- PGMO is itself totally incompetent and doesn’t know what it is doing and thus can’t see the danger of the situation it is in.
- PGMO has been bought by the owners of certain clubs to ensure that their clubs get the best calls.
- Errr…. I can’t think of a third explanation. If you can please write in. But if we don’t have any reasonable answers, it has to be one of those two.
If you have another answer please do say.
Well said
I’ve been saying for over a decade now: PGMOL is being used as a tool to fix matches in England, not just PL matches either.
Their most recent escapades to UAE is nothing short of a brazen, blatant and arrogant FUCK YOU to all those who have been questioning their very integrity.
I know I know I gotta be careful or they will penalize me for bringing the games name into disrepute. They fail to see that they have long lost any kind of resemblance of integrity or reputation
There is a crack in the dam. We just have to keep hitting it. I have commented on the PGMOL on several Youtube channels and have been soundly ignored, but i’ll try again. The refs aren’t just inept, they are bent.
I stay convinced we are just seeing total incompetence on a grand scale.
PGMOL has always been some sort of old boys network that did not evolve these past 20 years along with the billions the PL generates and the millions the players earn.
As being the one vital cog of the whole PL, PGMOL is managed by who ? How does it earn it’s revenue ? Who does it report to ? Who controls it ? Nothing of the sorts. Like it is still some club run by amateurs, way over their heads in the chaos they are creating. And do not tell me some ex-referee is the perfect appoinment to run such an organisation. Again it shows the arrogance and incompetence of it all, of all decision makers and actors involved.
How the owners of PL clubs can accept this state of affairs is beyond me.
As for those thinking corruption is at play here, think again : with such sheer incompetence and so much money involved, do you seriously believe there would not be yet some email, some powerpoint, some recording out there proving the point ?
Chris if it walks like a duck and starts quacking, it may be time to call a vet.
Chris
“How the owners of PL clubs can accept this state of affairs is beyond me”
Because as I keep saying like a broken record, our game is run by the media and what they desire. If you protest and you are not in vogue with the media, they rip your argument apart and inform the referees via their columns that you need to be brought down a peg or 2.
If they agree they make it known their concerns need acting upon.
I cant be asked to go into it all again, but basically the more ambiguity within the application of the rules the easier it is for the PGMOL and the referees to do the medias bidding.
The problem is, some of the decisions this season, and last, have been so appalling there is simply no disguising what is going on. The blatant manipulation of results is beyond argument, even though some still try.
Nothing will change because the media do not want it to change. Yes, we get the odd bit of huffing and puffing, but no more.
As a prime example of what I’m talking about, today we have the following from Mark Irwin The Sun:
“What exactly is refs’ chief Webb hoping to achieve with match officials Mic’dup?”
Hmmm. Accountability perhaps? openness perhaps?
“Because we really don’t want to hear him and Michael Oliver telling us how VAR has f***** up”
Hmmmm. Don’t we? I thought that was exactly what we wanted?
“We’re already well aware of the wrong calls the Premier League’s elite officials have made this season”
Yes, we are. But it’s not just this season is it? It’s been going on for years.
“Replaying those errors with running commentary from Stockley Park is just going to p*** us off even more”
Is it? Not really. What does p*** us off is people like you Irwin, that really don’t want to face up to them. To MAKE them accountable. Why is that? Is it perhaps, despite your faux outrage at the sheer incompetence of it all, you DON’T WANT to face up to them? Maybe the truth is you DON’T WANT to make them accountable?
But it’s in the last paragraph that the real double talk exposes the reality. He says:
“So maybe Webb should stay silent if the best he can come up with ‘yes, we’re useless, but at least we are honest about it'”
Well, actually he did come up with more than that by the suggestion that referee’s should be Mic’d up and Irwins response was to say he didn’t want it!!!! You couldn’t make it up.
So what we get from Irwin is complete and utter clap trap. On the surface, outrage at the poor officiating, but underneath, an absolute total lack of any desire at all to actually do anything about it.
WHY? Because underneath it all, all they want is for referees to do their bidding. They don’t really want them applying the Laws of the game, correctly, and fairly across the board. All they really want is for them tobe applied as per the medias current agenda.
Faux outrage and double talk.
The utter disgrace that is our media summed up in one article.
The referee may be the most powerful person in a multi-billion pound industry. You pay him 70,000 per year and you expect him to remain pure? How hard do you think it is to offer him a couple thousand to swing a game? How hard is it for a ref to turn that down? The system is stacked against refs resisting offers because he is earning chicken feed. Pay the refs a proper salary that they wouldn’t want to lose by making too many mistakes and maybe the refs will perform better. Maybe.
@Nitram, @ Mike,
yep, the referee is toiling, maybe thinking to himself : why did I not learn how to play football considering what the players he is supposed to ‘guide’ are earning.
Yet as I’ve stated, there would be emails or recordings on the web if there was any corruption there, I mean the corruption that would be systematic. But how do you prove the ‘old boys network’ doing it’s work ? Like Dean covering for a fellow referee because he had a bad week….the simple fact that ‘Fergie time’ was aknowledged as a fact just says it all.
The owners run teams worth billions yet they let their results depend on such an organisation reporting to no one ?
And, for starters, I don’t believe the owners are not aware of the bias figures, the ‘out of this world’ discrepancies in home and away statistics, etc…. no way they ignore this.
So why in the world do they accept losing so much money to a bunch of incompetent clowns ?!?!
“So why in the world do they accept losing so much money to a bunch of incompetent clowns ?!?!”
That is a very good question, and I believe it is fear of reprisals if they kick up a fuss. Or should I say, certain clubs, fear of reprisals.
Liverpool kicked up a stink about the ‘non’ offside goal and the media backed them so it got some traction.
Back in the day, Benitez had a pop about Fergie trying to influence referees but the media took the p*** and it went nowhere, despite the fact he had a diary full of referees numbers.
As you mention, we all knew there was Fergie time but the media found it amusing so nothing happened.
Wenger suggested Arsenal players having their legs broken at regular intervals should be stopped. He was, as were all our players, labelled by the media as Southern, or foreign softies, and nothing changed.
You might see a theme here.
Unless you have the media on your side, which could depend on who you are, or who’s the current flavour of the season, you are likely to do your team more harm than good if you start to complain.
We need a brand new, open, independent, accountable, body in charge of our officials, starting from scratch.
NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN
.. and what about the Rodri handball against Everton two seasons ago? That incident alone was a blatant robbery, and was impossible to miss (unless you happen to work for PGMOL).
That was a single incident that came to mind, but I’m sure there are hundreds of others, and possibly thousands, if we go back to the turn of the century.
Game50 was a complete re-writing of the football rulebook.
Premier League is a snake eating its own tail. Eventually the very people who put football on a pedal stall will walk away, genuine competition with sporting integrity that drew a worldwide audience will no longer wish to entertain a pantomime story.