By Ref Reviewer 04
We had ref Probert at Stamford Bridge in charge of the game between Chelsea – Liverpool
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | points | weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Min | Type | Foul from | On | C/NC | Comment | points | weight |
| 2 | OFFSIDE | Chelsea | C | 1 | 1 | ||
| 3 | OTHER | Terry | Maxi | NC | Terry blocks the run of Maxi and he pushes him with his arm in the neck. | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | RED | Terry | NC | Terry was the last defender and made a (stupid and unnecessary) foul and the only punishment is a red card. Ref decided to close his eyes | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | OTHER | Mikel | C | Handball | 1 | 1 | |
| 5 | OTHER | Suarez | Ruiz | NC | Little trip on the defender not given | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | OTHER | Ivanovic | Maxi | C | Tackle from behind | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | OTHER | Adam | Ramirez | NC | Tackle from behind got a bit of the ball but slid in at the back of Ramirez who was catapulted against another player. Nothing given??? | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | YELLOW | Adam | C | Flying tackles from behind catching the player is always a yellow card | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | OTHER | Kuyt | C | Handball | 1 | 1 | |
| 12 | OTHER | Ramirez | Maxi | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | RED | Luiz | NC | When the ball goes out Ramirez pulls at the shirt of Kuyt who is unhappy with this. Ramirez then also throws his hand at Kuyt. Attempt to slap an opponent is always a red card. Ref is losing the game because of his lax attitude | 0 | 0 | |
| 18 | OFFSIDE | Suarez | C | 1 | 1 | ||
| 19 | OTHER | Mikel | Johnson | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | OTHER | Agger | Drogba | C | Pull and trip | 1 | 1 |
| 20 | YELLOW | Agger | NC | Agger has the nerve to go to the ref and protest about his fouls as do two other Liverpool players. Just book them ref | 0 | 0 | |
| 28 | OTHER | Adam | Drogba | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 29 | OTHER | Lucas | Ruiz | C | Came in late on the defender | 1 | 1 |
| 29 | YELLOW | Lucas | C | Correct decision finally a card | 1 | 2 | |
| 31 | OTHER | Mata | Enrique | C | Pull | 1 | 1 |
| 34 | GOAL | Liverpool | C | I have a doubt if Adam didn’t make a foul when he won the ball but no replay could show conclusive evidence so I must give it as a correct goal | 1 | 3 | |
| 35 | OTHER | Bellamy | Cole | C | Push with his arm raised at the face of Cole | 1 | 1 |
| 35 | YELLOW | Bellamy | NC | The Liverpool players again show their displeasure about the decision. The ref calls Bellamy over to give hime…nothing. | 0 | 0 | |
| 38 | OTHER | Bellamy | C | Handball | 1 | 1 | |
| 39 | OTHER | Agger | Drogba | NC | Agger goes through Drogba to try to play the ball. He doesn’t make contact with the ball at all and trips Drogba and nothing given?? | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | OTHER | Ramirez | Lucas | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 40 | YELLOW | Lucas | NC | Lucas shouts at the ref and points at where he got booked. And the ref just let it pass without giving a (second) card | 0 | 0 | |
| 42 | OTHER | Luis | Adam | C | Luis made a few fouls in this scene | 1 | 1 |
| 42 | YELLOW | Luis | C | correct but was in fact his first foul | 1 | 1 | |
| 43 | OTHER | Drogba | Agger | C | Little trip on the defender | 1 | 1 |
| 46 | OTHER | Johnson | Malouda | C | Little trip it seemed | 1 | 1 |
| Half time | 20 | 23 | |||||
| CORRECT | 66,67% | 56,10% | |||||
| YELLOW | 2 | 6 | 33,33 | ||||
| RED | 0 | 2 | 0,00 | ||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | |||||
| GOAL | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | ||||
| OTHER | 4 | 6 | 66,67 | ||||
| 7 | 15 | 46,67 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| Second half | |||||||
| 46 | OTHER | Malouda | Kuyt | C | shove in the back | 1 | 1 |
| 48 | OTHER | Suarez | Ivanovic | C | Little trip | 1 | 1 |
| 54 | OTHER | Adam | Malouda | NC | Little push not given. Sturridge is out of balance and his cross is very much wasted | 0 | 0 |
| 55 | GOAL | Chelsea | C | Correct goal | 1 | 1 | |
| 56 | OTHER | Skrtel | Cole | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 57 | OTHER | Kuyt | Mata | NC | Kuyt touches Mata on his foot so he loses his balance and is not able to control the ball any more | 0 | 0 |
| 59 | OTHER | Lampard | Johnson | C | Trip | 1 | 1 |
| 59 | OTHER | Luiz | Suarez | C | Little push | 1 | 1 |
| 62 | OTHER | Suarez | Ramirez | NC | Push inthe back not given | 0 | 0 |
| 62 | OTHER | Kuyt | Mata | NC | Frontal sliding tackle over the floor always a foul, not given | 0 | 0 |
| 62 | OTHER | Malouda | Adam | NC | Push in the back not given | 0 | 0 |
| 62 | OTHER | Ramirez | Skrtel | C | Clear tackle on the man | 1 | 1 |
| 62 | YELLOW | Ramirez | C | I think the fact that the ref allowed 4 fouls in 10 seconds without doing anything made Ramirez thinking that anything was allowed. A correct card because of a reckless challenge but a result of the ref doing nothing. | 1 | 2 | |
| 64 | OTHER | Kuyt | Malouda | C | Pull from behind | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | YELLOW | Kuyt | C | Cynical foul, not possible to play the ball | 1 | 2 | |
| 73 | OTHER | Suarez | Cole | C | Push | 1 | 1 |
| 73 | OTHER | Drogba | Johnson | C | Push | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | OTHER | Ivanovic | Suarez | C | Frontal tackle | 1 | 1 |
| 78 | YELLOW | Ivanovic | C | Studs showing tackle not over the ball. Yellow is correct | 1 | 2 | |
| 80 | OFFSIDE | Agger | C | 1 | 1 | ||
| 84 | OTHER | Terry | Lucas | NC | Frontal sliding tackle over the floor always a foul, not given | 0 | 0 |
| 84 | YELLOW | Terry | NC | Should have been a yellow card, always dangerous. Lucas jumped up to avoid impact | 0 | 0 | |
| 87 | OTHER | Kuyt | Terry | C | Push advantage given because a break was on | 1 | 1 |
| 87 | GOAL | Liverpool | C | 1 | 3 | ||
| 92 | OTHER | Carroll | Terry | C | Little push | 1 | 1 |
| 92 | OTHER | Terry | Carroll | NC | Clear pull not given | 0 | 0 |
| 2nd half score | |||||||
| TOTAL | 18 | 23 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 69,23% | 71,88% | ||||
| YELLOW | 3 | 4 | 75,00 | ||||
| RED | 0 | 0 | |||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | |||||
| GOAL | 2 | 2 | 100,00 | ||||
| OTHER | 3 | 7 | 42,86 | ||||
| 8 | 13 | 61,54 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 1 | 1 | 100,00 | ||||
| TOTAL SCORE | |||||||
| TOTAL | 38 | 46 | |||||
| % | CORRECT | 80,85% | 63,01% | ||||
| YELLOW | 5 | 10 | 50,00 | ||||
| RED | 0 | 2 | 0,00 | ||||
| PENALTY | 0 | 0 | |||||
| GOAL | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | ||||
| OTHER | 7 | 13 | 53,85 | ||||
| 15 | 28 | 53,57 | |||||
| OFFSIDE | 3 | 3 | 100,00 | ||||
| Correct calls | For Chelsea | 18 | 48,65% | ||||
| For Liverpool | 19 | 51,35% | |||||
| Total correct calls | 37 | ||||||
| Wrong calls | Against Chelsea | 11 | 61,11% | ||||
| Against Liverpool | 7 | 38,89% | |||||
| Total | 18 | ||||||
| Total fouls made by | Chelsea | 19 | 47,50% | ||||
| Liverpool | 21 | 52,50% | |||||
| Total | 40 | ||||||
| Important wrong calls | Against Chelsea | 4 | 57,14% | ||||
| Against Liverpool | 3 | 42,86% | |||||
| 7 | |||||||
When at the start I said ‘in charge’ this was a bit sarcastic. Because the players ran the game and the ref did all he could to decide nothing.
The ref didn’t take his responsibility in the first minutes and then it was already obvious that he lost the game. Players felt they could do a lot and also they could go to the ref to argue his decisions and show their dissent without the ref doing anything about it.
A poor performance from a ref who backed away from a lot of decisions and this lead to a period in which a lot of fouls happened without the ref calling them and leading to more and more dangerous tackles flying in. And the best example of how poor he was came when he finally made a few calls dished out some yellow cards and then suddenly the players started to play football again. He should have done this from the start.
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Ref Reviewer 04,
In your experience or to your knowledge, at the professional level: Is there an unwritten code (understanding) in any circle of referees whereby not making calls for both sides counts as being “even handed” or “fair” and therefore, so what? Obviously the ref has the power to act this way, as you document. How can PGMOL’s in-house, non-public report countenance the “level” of performance? (rhetorical question) Your report is a great example of how Riley’s standard is literally anything goes: a well-called game, a non-called game, a pre-called (ahem) game. There is no uniform oversight, no public accountability, and no public outcry. Would you agree to this description of the current state of the art(ifice)?
If I may answer that question or try at least.
In a way you could say that it would be “fair” to both teams if you just miss the calls you have to make. If you let us say decide to not give any offside calls (a bit of a stupid example maybe but nevertheless) you could say you are fair to both sides. It is up to them to make use of this.
But are you a good ref? Hell no, you should be kicked out immediately.
Part of being a ref is to make sure the rules are followed and if not you blow and you stop the game and give a free kick. And you don’t do this you are a bad ref. You maybe are unbiased but you just are a bad referee.
I have also seen this game and I can say that on a numerous occasions I had my eyebrows lifting up and down and again because of a lot of things that went unpunished. Sliding tackles from behind having both ball and player are still a foul but not for this ref in this game. After the game I shook my head and thought: this should result in a bad report. The numbers showed that my initial thought was correct.
I had the impression at times that the ref thought: as long as the ball is somewhat near to the players I just let it go.
Again a good review and I agree with your comments, I managed to see most of the match. But what a ghastly performance by Probert.
Terry still seems to be getting away with dangerous challenges – it is time that behaviour was curtailed.
djtgooner, all,
Terry is English and charmed, as most know. Nothing but a public petition from the fans league-wide that demands fair play and is specific with documented examples of dangerous and game-changing non-calls will begin (repeat, begin) to turn the tide. Even broken legs, as we know, amount to nothing in the hives of Riley. Only a fans petition will become the “time that behaviour was curtailed.” Otherwise we’ll get nothing except the momentary satisfaction of complaining about it, yet again.