Football corruption – not just about gambling, it’s also about influence

71 Replies to “Football corruption – not just about gambling, it’s also about influence”

1. There is an error in your data for the 2006-09 period. You list a defeat at the hands of Bolton but in the final table and chart you mention zero defeats.

2. Too much manual transport Kentetsu, will update this.

3. Ok just updated the correct data

4. Fascinating reading Walter. It would certainly appear that Riley has had a negative influence on Dean’s performances when refereeing our matches. My question is why would Riley have it in for Arsenal, or is it Arsene Wenger he dislikes. Apart from Riley’s scandalous performance in the match which ended the Invincibles run what was his record like in our matches generally. It would be interesting to see a similar analysis of Riley’s Arsenal matches.

5. Walter can you also have a look at the roster of PL referees and where they come from, the results will surprise you. Of the 17 only 2 are from the south and two from the midlands, 7 are concentrated in the north-west and there aren’t any from within the M25, when you consider these referees are bound to have friends and families who all have allegiances, you can’t help but feel that there are bound to be even subconscious biases. The FA is indeed a North-west cabal.

6. Interesting article, I also believe that there is a bias against Arsenal not just with refs but also with the media. In slight defence of Dean though, our team prior to 2006 was much better and therefore won more. From 2006 to 2009 the team got worse as is universally agreed by Arsenal fans. Top players have been sold and not adequately replaced. From 2009 to present the quality and depth of our squad has got worse still which again has played a massive part in the statistics

   I’m all up for ref bashing but this is not the sole reason we have been losing more in recent years. We are complaining about one sided refs, well I’m not sinking to their level and being a one sided fan, there is more than one way to view stats

7. What would back this up is a list of all of the dubious decisions given against us in the matches we lost or drew that ultimately cost us points

8. Was Dean the referee at Old Trafford in the game we lost 2-1 when Diaby headed an own-goal?

   I seem to remember that Arshavin, who scored with a powerful shot, was then scythed down in the penalty area with no foul given. Then Rooney chased a ball which was going out for a goal-kick, realised he couldn’t reach it so deliberately tripped over Manuel Almunia and was given the penalty.

9. John

   Yes, Dean was the referee in that match. And not only was Arshavin scythed down, Fletcher (I think it was him) pushed the ball away with his hand after the scythe, still in the penalty area. It was a double foul. Alex Ferguson in his post match interview said it was absolutely the correct decision to not award a penalty, to the silence of the media who go to town on Wenger tactfully saying he didn’t see it, rather than blatantly lying.

10. Statistics are very great for describing what happened, and very poor for explaining how they happened. Personally, I agree with you Walter, but from a logical standing ground I must agree with what El tel says above. If you look at Arsenal pre-2006 and post-2006, you will see their win percentage drops for the entirety of a season. Certain fixtures we can point to Dean (and as I’ve stated, I belive there is something suspicious there), but we must also recognize that a team that loses there best player for years in a row will inevitably win fewer games regardless of who the official is.

11. *believe, *their (not there) – I feel like a boy for making such mistakes.

12. The foul on arshavin from fletcher was about a minute before he scored. IF moments of magic cant be created after the bias then you will get controlled games.

13. @Sam and @El tel,

    Your logic is also flawed, because if it was just because of our team not being as good as The Invincibles, that hasn’t stopped other referees to do our matches in a non-scandalous manner. And not only do we have this incredibly suspicious record under Dean, but the fact remains that no other team has any kind of record with any kind of referee even half as suspicious as this.

    And btw Dean also awarded that “penalty” against Clichy at Birmingham. He has been incredibly biased against us, for almost 7 years now in a row.

    Again- there is nothing even slightly similar to this in the whole Premiership.

    And to me the worst fact is that even though Dean has been very negative for us, they still give him our matches so frequently, whereas Man Utd in particular have had quite the opposite thing going on, which is very evident.

14. walter, when arsenal beat chelsea 2-1 at stamford bridge to me that game was fixed in arsenals favour. Van persie offside goal. At the time Scolari was the target to be run out of town.

15. Excellent work, Walter.

    This is a superb timeline. It’s worth remembering that even a pair of 5 – 2 wins against the totty’s weren’t part of Deano’s plans. In both games, the first of which I attended, Deano done what I first spotted him doing at Birmingham – during the Taylor smash-a-leg/Gallas “sulks” on pitch – match. Blatant incorrect decisions against Arsenal. (That’s the nicest way I can put it). Dean’s reffing of Ttts v Aresnal: Handball goal from Van der Vart, Sagna’s leg broken by A Ekotto assault, unpunished, of course.

    @ El tel: “From 2006 to 2009 the team got worse as is universally agreed by Arsenal fans.”

    Respectfully, I don’t think the team got worse. I believe the results got worse, partly for reasons explained in this pointed article. I personally find no reason for any defence of Deano’s reffing of Arsenal (or Totty) matches. I suspect that by doing ‘the business’, he gets the ‘plum’ matches he chooses, featuring Arsenal, so he can **** them up.

    The change in his reffing The Arsenal from 2006 and beyond may have something to do with this story from 2005:

    Referee Dean suspended for season
    Investigation was launched into racing venture:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2005/apr/08/newsstory.sport9

    Arsenal were overly kicked and cheated even at Highbury, hence the supposed plethora of red cards, with which the meedja loved to bash Mr Wenger’s head with.

    I can’t wait to see what Walter writes about the other refs – Webb, Clattenburg, Probert, Walton (I feel sick, but he’s gone).

    Arsenal supporters – as opposed to ‘fans’, you may wish to check – deeply – why our team have suffered horrible results. For starters, re-read this article. When you have the time and resources, look again at full matches from the last 5 years. I don’t know when I’ll be able to do all of that myself, but in my mind’s eye I can see lots of early decisions going against us – in various matches. These decisions let the opposition know they can do what they like to The Arsenal. And if you don’t want to look back over those years, just look at this season. The ref reviews are there – Chelsea, both matches. Man C. Totty, even Norwich+WBA (who honed their ‘craft’ at Emirates, the former breaking Sagna’s leg for the 2nd time in one season, again, unpunished).

    The reason Arsenal haven’t won anything for a long time is because of Incorrect referee decisions. The trouble with Arsenal is that they are HONEST!

    Some refs have been accused of not being honest:
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1042557/Top-referee-Clattenburg-set-dropped-duty-time-business-failure.html#axzz2K8KD46WB

    Arsenal: Please stay honest. It’s one of many things I love about this club that I support.

16. Ooh. Don’t forget Deano’s LEAP as he ended the cup final match – both hands in the air – the TV camera’s quickly pan away.
    Walter included a .gif file in one of his posts. Also, in the first of the 5-2’s, Deano done a little hop – as though trying to help the deflected ball into the net. Blatant, or what?

17. Since the disgraceful,infamous Mike Riley led victory in 2005 when Reyes was booted from pillar to post before the lanky streak of piss awarded Rooney a penalty for an outrageous dive,I have believed that our game is crooked.The way the media reported was nothing short of a disgrace and I still haven’t forgiven Richard Keys and SKY for failing to report the blatant favouritism handed out to Manure that day.

18. @Heci

    You may need to re-read what I have written. At no point do I state the players are the ONLY reason for the drop. In fact, twice I explicitly state that I agree with Walter on his point about Dean. I don’t want to speak for others, but I am pretty sure all that El tel and I are saying is that if we are looking for reasons for a dip in performance, there are multiple reasons, and it would add some balance to the discussion if we can acknowledge that refs are the not the sole reason for the drop in win percentage.

19. @Shard & Heci:
    Your comments appeared whilst I composed a reply at 4:31. This reply is in moderation, but may appear above my 4:38 post. I appreciate both of your posts.

20. Aw, all right. If you insist. For the umpteenth time – here’s Micky, the guy who ‘makes things happen’:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM747L9Wf8M

21. About Arsenal not being that good after 2006 I completely disagree.
    The season 2007-2008 we were going to win the league. Until Dean stepped in at Birmingham.
    In the games after that there was one after the other decision going against Arsenal in a way that I had no more doubts about the refs doing all they could to take the title away from us.
    Intercepted back pass from which we scored given as an offside was another crazy turn and costing us 2 points.

    Without just those two examples we would have won the league that year. And it maybe would have kept more player on board?

22. QPR Voyeur,
    we have covered that part last season in a few articles. And no sign of improvement to be seen yet.

    Are people from the south of England unable to be a good ref????? According to Mike Riley they are…

23. Meditation,
    I had the impression that last season the same happened to AVB at Chelsea.

    The offside decision from the linesman as you say in that game was wrong as RVP was offside for one of our goals.

24. I think the bias has been against arsenal fora while. Stopping back to back titles. 2003 SOL CAMPBELL getting sent off against man u and the ban being upheld even though videos shown it wasnt an elbow. The defensive rock missing for the run in.

25. EPL is corrupt, we’ve witnessed many games to think otherwise.

26. the 2003 game when campbell was sent off the referee was mark halsey. He sent campbell off with by being told by his assistant referee. I cant find who the assistants were. It might be funny. Maybe you should do linesmen reviews. Some of these refs might be doing work in the shadows as assistants. It makes me laugh when i see that young ref being harassed by arsene. Stuart i think his name is. He is the future fixer. He is not a real referee and he shouldnt be learning his trade at the top of the game. Especially when billions of fans follow the game and billions are at stake.

27. Walter,
    In order to address concerns over the W-D-L ratios from those three periods reflecting underlying trends (rather than The Dean Effect) you should normalise the data with respect to Arsenal’s total performance across those periods.

    That is, express the W-D-L figures for each period as a percentage of the AFC W-D-L figures for all matches.

    I would give it a go, but I cannot find the records and do not know, anyway, if your data relate to EPL + cups or just EPL.

28. Its hard, not to be eternally bitter when thinking of past events (such as the link above to the Old Trafford robbery), so much bias on display within the premiership makes it difficult to continue to want to support football.

29. Bloody good article Walter. You and Tony have been derided in certain quarters as being two nutty cranks who are obsessed with conspiracy theories. I salute you both for not being intimidated by the derision. Because it is so important I will again link your unmasking of Mike Dean to another like minded blog, Positively Arsenal. Hope you don’t mind.

30. The strangest part of this thread is that so many of you think the world and his wife are out to get you.
    The reality is that near enough every one of the decisions you suggest went against you have probably had to be viewed several times to come with an opinion that differs from the one given.
    They say that decisions balance themselves. The reality is that they do.
    Lets look no further back than this season how about the clear offside goal against QPR or how about Walcotts dive against Wigan or how about the offside goal against Stoke.
    No doubt you will say they were all ok but those that dont have Arsenal tinted glasses will argue otherwise

31. Give me a break Mike T. Offside goal against Stoke? Maybe I could’ve believed in your bona fide until you gave this example. Troll somewhere else, dude. Try some Tottenham forum.

32. Sharpshhoter
    The point about the Stoke goal is that Stoke supporters and indeed their players were convinced there was an offside.I guess you sort of confirm my point about decisions going your way.
    No troll just trying to make the point that every team think the ref is against them.

33. Mike T,
    On this site we have examined as many teams as possible in as many games as possible. In not one team we found a number that could indicate that ‘it evens out’.
    We are doing the same with also not Arsenal related refs on the website refereedecisions and will see how it went at the end of the season.

    We try to examine it.

    This sentence (it evens out) is one of the most mis-used sentences. Has anybody once proven it does? Not as far as I know.

    You could throw in of course ‘but everybody says so’ that would be the ultimate evidence of course

34. OT: The friendlies are just barely starting, and Arsenal has picked up an injury. Ramsey has a calf strain, and will not play.

35. By the way Mike T, could you explain the swing in those results under Dean? It sure doesn’t seem to even out when we have him. And every year we have Dean doing the most of our games. We end up sometimes with some other refs doing not one of our games. And as there are only 16 PL refs this is almost impossible. Unless the PGMOL wants to send him over and over and over and over.

    Hell I could have included the cup games he did and the record in those games is as bad as in the PL. I remember only one win in all those years. And even in that game he tried to harm us.

36. By the way Mike T I see that you already used the sentence ‘they say’.

    ‘They say’ that there is a cow on Mars that gives chocolate milk.

37. Inspirational write up this is Walter, laden with facts, keep up the good work. Its clear to anyone who isn’t even anArsenal supporter how biased some of these refs are against Arsenal.
    El-tel
    Your post is flawed. If you analyse Walter’s figures, you will notice that the frequency with which dean fetaured in Arsenal games increased dramatically from sometimes once a season in the early noughties, to five times a season since 2009. If he screws us 5 times in one season dont you think that will have an overall bearing on where we finish at the end of season, given that those are 15 points down the drain?

    Its clear Riley is/was old red nose’s pal, as can be clearly seen from that robbery at OT in 2005. Dean seems to have been handpicked to carry on where Riley left off. I have also said in my view fungusbum views Wenger as his main rival in the premiership, in terms of being a threat to his record as well as legacy. By going a whole season unbeaten that prompted certain people into taking action, to ensure we never have a repeat of that again. The fact that Wenger is viewed as fungusbum’s main threat explains why the media also dont sem to ever want to cover Arsenal in positive light. The battle is being waged on many fronts, but with the source of the problem being the same.
    As adam said, this bias is way too much it makes one want to quit watching the game. It hurts.

    Walter is correct in concluding that by screwing Arsenal dean is furthering his career. He’s clearly doing someone a favor, and I wouldn’t surprised if his reward is being appointed the next pgmol head after the current one.

38. John: In August 2009, after the game at Old Trafford, which featured the Diaby own-goal header, a bogus penalty on Almunia which led to Rooney celebrating with an Henryesque kneeslide as if he’d just won the FA Cup, and the craziness at the end, I did a post on my page “Uncle Mike’s Musings” in which I called Dean “the worst sports official on the planet.”

    And three and a half years later, having had the chance to calm down and watch Dean a lot more…I stand by that assessment. Say what you want about Howard Webb (United’s Number 12) and Phil Dowd (the only ref ever to steal a 4-goal lead for a club? Of course it was us), but Dean, a dead ringer for Vladimir Putin, remains the worst. If there IS a worse one, I don’t ever want to see him leading the officiating at an Arsenal match.

    Although Massimo Busacca, in that match at the Camp Nou, had the worst one-game performance I’ve ever seen. Three throat-grabs, not so much as one yellow for any of them? The photos prove he was looking right at two of them.

39. Walter
    Why the difference? For me it’s quite simple your comparing apples with pears and
    In the years 2000-2006 look wonderful but the level Arsenal were at during that period & the fact that 6 of the games were at home of course the win ratio was good also of the 4 away games during that period you played 2 were against Leeds and Fulham you were expected to win these games as Leeds were relegated and Fulham finished 40 points behind you.
    Let’s move on to the next period. You didn’t have one home game during that period and with the exception of the Bolton & Birmingham games I can’t see any real poor result and even then looking at the Bolton they only finished 12 points behind you so perhaps not a surprise result. Quite simply Bolton weren’t a bad team that season they also beat Liverpool at home and they, Liverpool, finished above you.
    So to the last period again 8 away games. OK two poor results against QPR and Newcastle and disappointing draws at Burnley and Fulham but looking at when these games were played and the final league positions of the teams you played the reality is that just about all the results were what the bookies would have expected so quite simply during this period you haven’t been the force you were.
    So for me nothing extraordinary and other than the odd bad result nothing really to suggest anything untoward

40. Mike T,
    are you now suggesting that Mike Dean officiated these games to stand in line with the bookies? 😉
    Have you seen one of those games? Analysed them?

    Let me start with the Burnley game. Arsenal should have had two penalties. One early in the game when an Arsenal player was on his way to the keeper and when he tried to shoot the defender pushed him in his back with both hands and thus resulting in him missing his shot. Penalty and a red card. A bit later another penalty no given for Arsenal.
    And around the half hour he couldn’t wait to give a penalty against Arsenal. This penalty was correct by the way. But once the difference in treatment of both teams was visible.

    At QPR he allowed them to kick us to pieces from the first minute without even giving fouls.

    Just realized why am I bothering… You stick your head in the sand anyway. So I will not waste any more time on you.

41. Walter
    I am pleased my comment about the bookies didnt go over your head.
    Its not a qusetion of me burying my head in the sand I quite simply dont buy into the thrust of your arguement
    As for looking at games neither you nor I are able , with a totaly un biased view, able to look at decisions made against our own teams without putting our own slant on things.
    Football is all about opinions and thats the way it will always be but just by looking at a set of results and trying to make a convincing arguement about the crediability of the man that had the whistle doesnt work for me.

42. Mike T,
    If it was just the losses, maybe, just maybe, we could reluctantly be persuaded to accept it all as pure coincidence, albeit extremely unlikely. But I dont think you will find a game dean has reffed for us in the last 5 to 6 years that wasn’t controversial. Why?

43. Walter,

    Good research, would love to see the ‘incorrect decisions against Arsenal’ figure from your ref reviews to accompany the scores. Would be very telling I’d guess

44. Al

    In the main I think its because he gets many of the top games where each decision turns out to be so imprtnat but who knows. The ironic thing is I dont think he stands out as bad I really think that all of the current crop leave a lot to be desired.
    Clattenburg is all about him. and Webb had potential but I find he has gone backwards. I was at Newcastle on saturday up in the gods as it were and I could see from goodness knows har far away that Chelsea should have been given a penalty for a very very high boot on Ba but Webb who was feet away missed it.
    The reality is that the game is now so fast and every incident is replayed ten times from differnt angles so quite simply football has to embrace technology to make sure the decisions are right otherwise articles like this will become more widespread as will people questioning if football officals are bent.

45. Very good article Walter.

    Astonishing figures. This is yet another angle indicating that there is something very, very fishy going on in English football.

    I agree with the contributors who say it is very painful to think of that 50th match (after the 49 games unbeaten) and how we were robbed.

    It is an immense credit to Arsene Wenger that despite all these unfair practices, he has continued to stick to his principles of fair and beautiful football. I wouldn’t have it otherwise. It is worth any amount of trophies in my eyes.

    And still we have been in the top four and the Champions League all these years.

    Many thanks to Untold for pursuing their investigations despite all the doubters.

46. Mike T,
    glad we agree that the game needs a change and embrace video assistance.
    I have been calling for this for years.
    And I am not alone. The top refs in Holland want it, some top refs in Belgium want it.

    But the guys on top will not allow it. With my bad character I could think something bad of it 😉

47. A really eye opening analysis Walter. Thank you once again for your efforts. You are an inspiration, I truly mean that. A shame you and Tony have to put up with deluded or deliberately false people like Mike T.

    @Mike T
    Are you Mike Dean???

48. Mike T,
    Just testing how far you push your worship of coincidence.
    1) Was Riley bent at the Nuremburg rally at Old Toilet or not?
    2) Was Busacca bent at the Camp Nous choke-a-thon or not?
    After that litmus test, it’ll be on to The Dean, your pattern-free, accidental coincidence.

    Uncle Mike,
    You say The Dean is a dead ringer for Putin. But to my eyes, he’s much more The Golem (Smeagle) in the Lord of the Rings, and The Precious Ring is his going to the top of the PGMOL after doing yeoman service under Don Fungus’s robes at this year’s Rednose XX, his scheduled anointment as Lord Football.

49. http://www.7amkickoff.com/2013/fifa-and-uefa-threaten-to-turn-football-into-kayfabe/

    Can I recommend a read of the excellent 7am kick offs blog from yesterday it links well with this article. Some of the replys are worth a read especially Jon’s “any and I mean ANY manager DUMB enough to claim that they don’t understand the off side law should have all their badges revoked immediately and they should be jeered out”

50. Heres what I could find on the EPL referees. Please note that this information has come from the EPL website and Wikipedia

    REFEREE MATCHES YELLOW RED FIRST SEASON
    Martin Atkinson 18 71 1 2004/05
    Mark Clattenburg 14 41 6 2004/05
    Mike Dean 17 62 3 2000/01
    Phil Dowd 16 47 2 2001/02
    Roger East 4 5 3 2012/13
    Chris Foy 17 33 0 2001/02
    Kevin Friend 14 50 1 2009/10
    Mark Halsey 12 28 2 1999/00
    Mike Jones 15 55 2 2010/11
    Andre Marriner 17 55 0 2004/05
    Lee Mason 16 54 0 2005/06
    Jon Moss 13 38 1 2010/11
    Michael Oliver 16 42 1 2010/11
    Lee Probert 16 48 1 2006/07
    Neil Swarbrick 10 34 0 2010/11
    Anthony Taylor 16 36 5 2009/10
    Howard Webb 19 70 2 2003/04

    Martin Atkinson
    – He was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, but is now based in nearby Leeds, and is a member of the West Riding County Football Association.
    – On 15 April 2012, Atkinson awarded a so-called ‘ghost goal’ to Chelsea in the 49th minute of an FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium.

    Mark Clattenburg
    – He was born in Consett, County Durham but is now based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. He is a member of the Durham County Football Association.

    Mike Dean
    – He is based in Heswall, Wirral, and is a member of the Cheshire County Football Association.

    Phil Dowd
    – He is based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and is a member of the Staffordshire Football Association.

    Roger East
    – County FA Wiltshire FA
    – No Wiki page, best I could find was: http://www.football-league.co.uk/interviews/20110915/men-in-black-roger-east_2293411_2452283

    Chris Foy
    – He was in St. Helens, Lancashire.
    – As an Everton fan, Foy does not referee competitive games involving the club although he did referee an Everton away game at Aston Villa in 2002 before he had declared his interest in the team.

    Kevin Friend
    – Based in Leicester. He is a member of the Leicestershire and Rutland County Football Association.

    Mark Halsey
    – Born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, and is currently based in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

    Mike Jones
    – Based in Chester. He is a member of the Cheshire County Football Association.

    Andre Marriner
    – Based in Sheldon, West Midlands. He is a member of the Birmingham County Football
    – In a fixture between Arsenal and Liverpool on 17 April 2011, Marriner notably awarded the latest-ever penalty kick in the history of the Premier League. The match was goalless until Marriner awarded Arsenal a penalty in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time, and four minutes later awarded a second penalty to Liverpool. Both were converted, the latter in the 102nd minute which also became the League’s latest-ever goal.

    Lee Mason
    – From Bolton, Lancashire.

    Jon Moss
    – Moss was born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, but is now based in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

    Michael Oliver
    – He is based in Cramlington, Northumberland, and is a member of the Northumberland Football Association.

    Lee Probert
    – He was born on the South Gloucestershire border with Bristol, Avon, but now lives in Wiltshire and is a member of the Wiltshire Football Association.
    Probert came in for widespread criticism when he was fourth official for a Premier League match on 29 August 2009 between Manchester United and Arsenal at Old Trafford. Probert and the referee, Mike Dean, were censured after Arsène Wenger was sent to the stands for his reaction, including kicking a plastic bottle, to the ruling-out of an Arsenal goal for offside. League Managers Association chief executive Richard Bevan said of the error of judgement: “Lee Probert totally failed to manage the situation and created a needless pressure point taking the focus away from the pitch in a big event with only a minute to go.”

    Neil Swarbrick
    – He is based in Preston, Lancashire.

    Anthony Taylor
    – From Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester.

    Howard Webb
    – Born Rotherham, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

    So there are two southern refs [Lee Probert and Mark Halsey] I would argue that given that only one is based in the South West that we should change that to one.

    I would be very interested to find out why exactly we have so many refs based around Manchester.

    Also we only have one ref that has apparently disclosed which team he actually supports which again I find odd.

    Just out of interest here’s the information about the head of the PGMOL from Wikipedia

    Michael Anthony “Mike” Riley (born 17 December 1964) is a former English football referee from Leeds in West Yorkshire

    Criticism
    Riley was accused of major refereeing irregularities in an Arsenal–Manchester United game in 2004, including a controversial penalty when Wayne Rooney dived near Sol Campbell with replays showing that no contact had been made. The match, which ended Arsenal’s long running unbeaten run at the time, led to immense criticism from Arsenal fans, including an article in the Daily Mail paper using the headline “The Life of Riley”. Arsene Wenger said after the match “Riley decided the game, like we know he can do at Old Trafford. There was no contact at all for the penalty, even Rooney said so. It’s very difficult to take to see how lightly the referee gives the penalty. We can only master our own performance, not the referee’s performance. We got the usual penalty awarded against us when we come to Manchester United and they are in difficulty. It happened last season and it’s happened again.” He also said of other incidents, “At some stages there were incidents, especially on [José Antonio] Reyes, where there was some deliberate kicking. The rules are there to be respected and only the referee can make the players respect them.

51. The offside law is in effect open in the majority of cases open to interpretation and this is where there is confusion. I would say that the confusion is brought about by the referees themselves as they are failing to come out and actually explain their decisions and the reasoning behind them.

    Hiding behind the skirts of the FA’s rules that the Referee doesnt have to speak to the press doesnt really help.

52. Steve, Walter,
    Is this further extension (from 7am kickoff) about The Dean’s record also true?: “In the last 20 times Mike Dean has refereed an Arsenal match, the Gunners … have never been awarded a penalty despite many clear-cut fouls in the area.”

53. Mike T,
    Let me add a third litmus test:
    If The Dean (as claimed by 7am kickoff) has not awarded a single penalty to Arsenal in the last 20 games, is that coincidence in your view?

54. There is no doubt, certain refs have had a negative impact on our team. Maybe the increased numbers of home grown players will help combat this? If wilshere becomes what he is showing signs of, would the likes of dean and Atkinson dare do their worst?

55. OT: From the England-Brazil game:

    > “To be frank, if Jack Wilshere keeps up that level of performance he will soon justify all the expectations. He was very, very good as was Theo Walcott, who terrorised the left side of their defence.”

    Sounds like a couple of Arsenal players had a good game.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21357296

    It’s actually amazing McNulty could even report this, as he is usually a stick in the mud about Arsenal. But, I guess there is only so much you can twist Hodgson’s interviews after the game.

56. @Gord I simply think that the nature of both their performances and their visibility gave him no choice; McNulty was merely saying what everyone had seen.

    What struck me was that Theo had a fullback of Adriano’s quality in a position where he just did not know what to do to defend against him.

    Equally it was amusing to see someone on another forum question why Jack got the Man of the Match, pointing out that he gave away the penalty and got no goals or assists. It was nice that they rewarded what we have been seeing all season; that the guy was at the center of all the good stuff that was going on.

57. In order to sharpen thought on this well-written article, Walter’s conculsion that the deviant behaviour is a sign that ‘it helps his (Dean’s) career’ and ‘Dean will follow who ever calls the shots in the PGMOL and the FA’ can be examined in the light of Diane Vaughan’s theory of normalization of deviance. It seems that the PGMOL and the FA have ‘become so much accustomed to a deviant behavior that they don’t consider it as deviant’. As such, when Dean takes suspicious decisions for Arsenal (Dien’s era), or against Arsenal (post-Dien era), the tendecy to ‘ignore’ such deviant behaviour may be a deliberate attempt make people to get more accustomed to the deviant behavior ‘the more it occurs’. To people outside of the organization (Walter and Co), the activities seem deviant; however, people within the organization (Dean, Riley and Co) do not recognize the deviance because it is seem as a normal occurrence

58. I even made follow up article about this subject.

    Extra extra read all about it.

    On Untold of course. Later today or tomorrow. There is always a reason to come back to Untold. 😉

59. Not sure if you would have heard the news from Australia, but The crime commission has annouced it has found widespread doping and links to organized crime in our professional sports and evidence of at least one example of match fixing.

    If this can happen in Australia with only a tiny proportion of the money involved of the BPL, it seems incrediable naive to think that it isn’t happening in England.

    Do you happen to have an equivalent of the Crime Commission?

60. By the way, just out curiosity, does anyone have any stats on the number of penalties arsenal have conceded at OT? It seems almost all the matches I can remember us playing there they were awared at least a penalty, with some a penalty and a red card.

61. Waater, AL,
    Both penalties award and conceded under The Dean in his last 20 matches say, would no doubt make eye-popping reading (in your next article)?

62. Sorry, Walter (not Waater). I must be having trouble spelling your name right since you (mis)identified me as capital B-Bob.

63. 😉 can happen to the best bob

    I will try if I can make a list of the penalties given by Dean or at OT against Arsenal

64. @AL@Walter, Arsene have a say the usual penalty we get against Manure at oldtoilet don’t you think he knows something but he does not want to talk about it!

65. Walter,
    And please also include or assess the ABSENCE of penalties awarded to us by the Golem.

66. Shard,
    Before it gets lost in the mix, I finally could get to a reply/rant of sorts to your posting on 2/5, so for what it’s worth:
    http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/27042/comment-page-2#comment-528664
    If you feel like replying, I’ll look back there later on. Cheers 🙂

67. @Mike T Could you be so kind and not use the expression “Stoke fans” when posting on Untold? Those monekys belong to some 3rd country zoo, not to a Premiership stadium and it makes me sick just seeing somebody calls them “fans”. You can’t call youself a fan when you’re booing a guy who had his leg broken by some idiot player who happens to play for your team. Only Birmingham monkeys were close to emulating Stoke apes with “There’s one Martin Taylor”.

68. @John February 6, 2013 at 3:27 pm

    You know that Rooney dive you refer to in your post?, I remember it well and was outraged.
    It was pretty much a carbon copy of what Eduardo did against Celtic 1 week before we played Man Utd. Eduardo got villified, Nothing was ever said about Shrek!

69. Cheers Walter, sure that list or those lists would be fascinating if you manage to put them up.

    @Kampala
    Yeah, I noticed the use of the word ‘usual’ too,and that had me thinking hang on it seems everytime we go there we concede a penalty. Well, at least as far as I can remember, hence I thought I’d ask the question.

    @GoonerPete
    Spot on. I remember screaming ‘dive!!’ when Rooney went down after having kicked the ball into the stands. The incident was very similar to Eduardo’s, which had happened a few days before I think, with the only differences being that i think in Eduardo’s case there was a better case for a penalty as there was still a chance he could’ve have got to the ball and there seemed to be some contact, albeit minimal, which had been initiated by the keeper. But we all know what happened…..

70. Corruption in football is there to stay since Septic Bladder is so indifferent about it. He goes on to say that there will always be cheats. Does he have an iota of leadership to tackle corruption. The disgusting indifference shown by Septic, FIFA and Co. is quite despicable. Unless leadership changes take place in FIFA & UEFA corruption & racism will slowly erode the dignity of football to a real low.

71. Former Blackburn/Man ArabOil bloke in charge of PGMOL?

    We’ll get Dean in our next FA Cup match…. 🙁