- Football corruption and scandals. Why is it all so under reported? Part 1
- Football corruption and scandals. A few stories that did get reported. Part 2
- Football corruption and scandals. How we tipped off Fifa and other unlikely tales. Part 3
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By Don McMahon
As we have so often pointed out, Untold Arsenal has no evidence that something is amiss with refereeing in the Premier League. We don’t have the wherewithal to tap phones, intercept emails, check bank accounts and the like, and yet such evidence as we can collect and report is suggestive that all is not well. And there is no doubt that the organisation and reporting of refereeing in and around the Premier League adds to our suspicions that Quid Pro Quo is a phrase at the heart of the game. That proves nothing, but it makes us wonder just why the League’s refereeing is organised as it is, and why the openness of discussions about refereeing in other countries is not replicated in England.
Thus we have Latin phrase “quid pro quo”, which means ¨you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours¨ or ¨tit for tat¨ in common English parlance, refers to a reciprocal reward given for one received, but not necessarily of equivalent value.
Reading many UA followers comments about the PIGMOB, and being a retired professional referee, it occurred to me that a copy of the RILEY PGMOL manual distributed to recently promoted EPL officials could be a revelation and perhaps go someways to explaining the seemingly inconsistent officiating one sees with AFC matches. It might well be a real world application of this expression.
There are currently, and will likely remain 17 relatively simple and straightforward Laws that officials are tasked with enforcing in managing a game of football. However, I suspect that the Riley manual has an 18th Law which states that;
¨It is so deemed and ordained by Riley himself, that officials for games between Arsenal Football Club in any of their EPL/FA Cup and other competitions will be officiated by PGMOL referees and assistants who adhere to and obey the Riley philosophy of punishing and disadvantaging Arsenal, regardless of the actual circumstances or events that transpire in the course of the match. Failure to respect this dictum will result in any transgressors being punished in the most diabolical fashion by the Riley.”
However, returning to reality, I will do a quick rundown on some of the actual Laws and how some or many of them can be interpreted to disadvantage a team like Arsenal:
Law 1 – the field of play: Not much to play with here, as the rules are not interpreted by the officials and few if any disadvantage can be awarded a targeted club….thank God! Goal line technology and VAR are covered in this law but we all know how the PGMOL have twisted VAR.
The Penalty area…..in the Riley bible, this Arsenal area is reserved for awarding penalties to Arsenal’s opponents regardless of whether an actual foul occurs therein and ignoring them in all other circumstances where Arsenal might benefit. Thus the official can cleverly ¨shrink¨ or ¨expand¨ the penalty area so that Arsenal are punished or deprived of a penalty,as the case may be. They can also punish AFC’s keeper for ¨delaying the game/timewasting¨ and they must not punish Arsenal’s opponents for the same misdemeanour.
Law 2 – the ball: Like the first Law, the regulations are not easily manipulated or ignored so nothing to rejoice over here.
Law 3 & 4 – the players and their equipment: Again, there is little that an official can safely or discretely do to influence the game by manipulating these Laws. However, if there is a contested call, Riley authorizes his officials to permit Arsenal’s opponents to surround the on-field official so that they can be harassed into perhaps watching out ¨next time¨….or better still, changing his mind.
Law 5 – the referee: Now here is where Riley’s minions find opportunities galore to influence, pervert and distort the application of the Laws to Arsenal’s opponents advantage.
For example the referee’s timekeeping powers permit them to vary the added time in either half so that it can disadvantage Arsenal and offer their opponents a golden opportunity to score. It is, of course a two-edged sword as Arsenal might also score but if the run of play is in favour of their opponents, then Dean will add a little bit extra to encourage the opponents to ¨try¨a little bit longer or harder.
As well, failing to give a clear advantage to Arsenal or conversely providing an unmerited advantage to Arsenal’s opponents is a favourite gambit of PGMOL.
Another, more subtle way to hurt Arsenal is for the referee to ¨consult¨ his assistant and award a foul, card, penalty or goal against AFC that he wasn’t positioned to ¨see¨ but fortuitously his assistant(s) were. Since nobody can hear what he’s saying to his co-conspirator, then all is evened out in the end!
Another favourite is to deny Arsenal a clear opportunity on goal by stopping play for an ¨injured¨ player, usually an opponent, who after treatment, miraculously recovers and continues playing.
VAR is far too complicated and open to abuse to be adequately examined in this article but rest assured that the PGMOL have the perfect conditions to punish Arsenal using this tainted mechanism. I will review the entirety of the VAR conundrum in a later article.
In section 7, there is a statement of liability regarding officials before, during and after the match. It reads as follows; ¨ the referee is not liable for any kind of injury suffered by a player¨ and others as well. Therefore, ignoring violent conduct or serious foul play or dangerous play, provided it is against AFC, is permitted under the Riley rules of PGMOL Football.
Laws 6-10 – other officials, duration, starting play, the ball out of play etc offer little in the way of creative bias against Arsenal and even Riley cannot change that. However despair not Riley aficionados, as a very fertile field of mischief presents itself in …
Law 11 – offside. What joy and enthusiasm this law was greeted with when Riley prepared his PGMOL manual! Here was an almost foolproof tactic to rob AFC of a legitimate goal-scoring opportunity or better still, a legitimate goal. How many times has the assistant failed to signal a clear offside by Arsenal’s opponents or conversely, flagged an Arsenal player for offside when later review shows he was clearly onside.
A gentle pre-game hint to his assistants and all is set for the opportune moment(s). The officials don’t give a damn about later reviews and club outrage, especially if it is Arsenal-related, but even Mourinho is ignored.
Laws 12 to 17 will be discussed in a later article, but for the moment I am sure our UA faithful will appreciate the ease and subtlety with which a bent official(s) can alter or influence the outcome of a match.
Riley was kind enough to make a training video for his EPL officials known as “Match 50 – Arsenal versus Man U. Any neophyte EPL officials newly selected to the premier division are provided with a DVD copy, which they are required, on penalty of reprimand, to memorize and digest completely before being assigned any EPL games. There is also a verbal and written test they must pass which treats the finer points of screwing Arsenal. Once their ¨fitness¨ is assured, they are confidently assigned to AFC at least 6 times during the season, ensuring that consistency and predictability are ensured.
There has to be a good reason Riley persists with the likes of Dean, Fatty Moss and Atkinson all over the hill.
I guess they will retire once he’s totally confident of the new crew.
Who are the beneficiaries of the quid pro quo arrangement? Who is the deal even between and what do they get out of it? I’m sure you’re not suggesting Riley & his referees, so how does Riley himself benefit? I wouldn’t accept opposition teams as most have their own issues with an incompetent PGMO.
OT: Dangote buying Arsenal
has apparently been set back to 2021 (he has to finish building his oil refinery). He then plans to take Arsenal to the “next level”; that being to be the first team in the EPL to lose every game in a season and get relegated with 0 points.
Oh joy!
This wonderful news from Fo.Lo.
The Jorginho incident is case in point. Add to that the “offside” flagged against Auba during the Palace match was a total shame as he was nowhere near offside and the current rules say they must not raise the flag unless absolutely certain.
OT: Greetings of the day.
Weather.com is reporting that London is a balmy +10C. Here where the Alaska Highway starts, we are 49 degrees colder (-39C). The city is in ice fog. Keep warm Gunners!
Masterstroke, the benefit is for the referee of course if he does it the Riley way. The PGMO has to nominate potential FIFA referees to Uefa who can accept them or turn them down. Believe me that every ref that is being nominated will be accepted by Uefa unless he messes up completely in an UEFA organised match.
So a ref who behaves like Riley wants them to behave will get his FIFA badge. A ref who doesn’t behave like Riley wants will never get a FIFA badge.
A great example was Lee Probert. He managed to miss 4 clear penalties in the FA cup final Arsenal – Hull in favour of Arsenal.
But his anti-Arsenal bias had been known for many years by us and most supporters. Probert was the 4th ref who asked Dean to send off Arsène Wenger at Old Trafford when Wenger gave his Jesus Chris impersonation halfway the stands. The FA later apologised to Wenger for the behaviour of Probert and Dean (I think the hate against Arsenal and Wenger came from that moment)
But never the less this mostly useless referee got a FIFA badge from Riley for a few years.
A FIFA badge brings lots of money (you would be amazed to find out how much a ref gets for a European match) and prestige for a ref. scratch, scratch, scratch…..
I took Probert as an example. There are many more FIFA badged examples….
OT: Miedema is PFA Player of the Month
https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal/monthly-award-for-arsenal-s-miedema-1-6463577
—-
OT: Yokohama FC has player in 35th season
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/japanese-striker-kazuyoshi-miura-52-signs-35th-season-200112061010426.html
His seasons are across multiple teams. Last season, he did not score any goals.
Walter
OK, but there has to be mutual benefit. So if we agree that it’s the referees…then who else? Surely It can’t be Riley, because what is in it for him as he’s has nothing to personally achieve has he, and there is nothing other than obedience that his refs are giving back.
According to Yankee Gooner ESPN has estimated that we’ve been cheated out of nine points so far this season which would have put us in 5th place.
One of the dailies did this a few years back & said we’d had won the PL if the correct calls had been made.
Here we go again.
Masterstroke……..I wrote this article as a sarcastic mockery of Riley and the PGMOL but it, of course doesn’t accurately reflect the reality, which is well hidden and completely opaque. Transparency and openness is anathema to the PGMOL so what really goes on behind those closed doors and ¨in camera¨ is purely guesswork. There is no hard proof that anyone is intentionally benefiting from what we see on the field but there are endless suspicions!
@Masterstroke – the profit is in the betting and gaming environment where fouls, cards, throw ins, etc are all gambled on. The PGMOL in their honest depiction of officials allow for any variation of said fouls etc to be assured so that paymaster might cash in on corrupt presentation. It is so easy to fix yet so easy to catch but so easily allowed to flourish in an uncontrolled environment.
If you want it on a plate ask the fraud squad to investigate.
Masterstroke
There were two similar articles done last season by a couple of newspapers plus a few in the couple of years before. Whilst none of them were as in depth as Walters research done over almost two years the conclusions were the same. In every case Arsenal were in either top or second place as the team being punished the most by bad refereeing decisions.
Prior to Walters in depth studies there was a site called Debatable Decisions which did a similar analysis based on dodgy refs calls as highlighted and shown on MOTD, not nearly as thorough as Walters full reviews but again their results showed us as the main team to suffer.
Whilst a sceptic could say that Walters findings could have been biased (even though the refs in Walters team were not all Arsenal supporters) the other similar reviews all of which came to the same conclusion could not be accused likewise of bias.
I think that shows pretty conclusively that yes we are being screwed by the refs and it has been going on for several years now.
Like the article says: we don’t have the means to investigate that. But we do know (that is if you want to open your eyes) what is in it for the refs.
[Walter, I posted a message about 5 hours and still can’t see a “Your comment is awaiting moderation”. Strange, as it never happened to me before. It’s neither Shakespeare nor Victor Hugo, and it’s not Pulitzer-worthy either, 🙂 but the link may interest someone.I’m putting it again below.
Sorry if some can see it as double post]
Masterstroke, I guess you’re talking about this article:
https://www.givemesport.com/1536769-how-the-201920-premier-league-table-would-look-if-every-refereeing-decision-was-correct
In it, you can read, among other things :
“But, if there was no luck involved, it would actually be Arsenal contending for a Champions League spot.
The Gunners have suffered badly with refereeing decisions this season.
According to the study, they should be nine points better off and level on points with Chelsea, making them the unluckiest team in the league.”
It’s a bit of a shame that, probably as a precautionary measure, they’ve chosen to name the problem : “luck”.
[Walter, I posted a message about 5 hours and still can’t see a “Your comment is awaiting moderation”. Strange, as it never happened to me before. It’s neither Shakespeare nor Victor Hugo, and it’s not Pulitzer-worthy either, 🙂 but the link may interest someone.I’m putting it again below.
Sorry if some can see it as double post]
Masterstroke, I guess you’re talking about this article:
https://www.givemesport.com/1536769-how-the-201920-premier-league-table-would-look-if-every-refereeing-decision-was-correct
In it, you can read, among other things :
“But, if there was no luck involved, it would actually be Arsenal contending for a Champions League spot.
The Gunners have suffered badly with refereeing decisions this season.
According to the study, they should be nine points better off and level on points with Chelsea, making them the unluckiest team in the league.”
It’s a bit of a shame that, probably as a precautionary measure, they’ve chosen to name the problem : “luck”.
Well written and well elucidated , Don , thanks . Nothing much more that I can add to your fine article , except that I pray and hope to see the day when justice finally strikes these clowns down !
Am still suprised that some still believe that the EPL playing field in not at all tilted . I should not be really , as world events show us how easy it is for elected governments to pull the wool over their countrymen.
But we will prevail . Up the Gunners !
How many times is that we have had old man dancing Dean this year?
I have lived in a tropical ex-colony for more then a decade. I was involved in sports in particular, and football more actively. Thus I was able to witness how FIFA and Olympic corruption happens, or the mecanisms that these organisations put in place.
Basically, a person being active as a coach, referee or even as an actor in a sports organisation will, depending on qualities or politics, raise from a local level to a national level. And then the level becomes supra-national. Like the boss of the national sports body (like football), or the boss of the technical commission of the national body, etc. At some point they all get asked to participate in some seminar, event, sports event somewhere around the world. And here the gravy train starts. These happy few see their trip richly paid. Sure enough, plain tickets, are being provided. Then, per-diems (lump sum ammount for each day covering food and board and some pocket money) are doled out. So, in these countries, getting into this system becomes a conveyor belt for money as if you want you can save on expenses, you still get the per diem.
So they all vie for seminars, conventions, events. They come back with suitcases full of gifts from sponsors, etc. And then it’s like a snowball. They rise through the ranks, the trips become more frequent, and the bounty larger.
Out of fun, with a friend, we were looking at creating a curling federation… finding a few students in Europe who would want to participate seemed easy, once the federation was created it would get IOC money, and from then on we’d be on the way to an Olympic event, if not as athletes or coaches, but as president and technical president of the federation. We kept it at that, but it would not have been complicated.
FIFA does only football, but the IOC finances dozens of sports, so their gravy train stops at many more stations…
And all these participants drape themselves into the holier-than-thou attitude back home, doing the good for their country, almost sacrifice like and proudly let it be known what they do. I remember a team from Africa coming over for a training camp. They played the national team, discovered how decrepit their equipment was, and so the pros decided to offer the player a full set from their sponsor (I don’t remember if it was Nike or Puma). So they organised a small ceremony at the local 5 star hotel were they were staying and gave the national president the expensive tshirts, track suits, football shoes and balls.
Thing is, in my regional team we had the national goalie…well guess what… a few weeks later, the president made a ceremony of giving the national players this new equipement…it was all chinese cheap stuff… wanna guess what happened to the expensive stuff.. ?
Anyways, so it makes sense the refs all want to get into the higher level – it means they can profit from quite a few opportunities to get around the world, be part of some commission, participate in events, create a network. And who knows, maybe rise up a ladder somewhere to get even more. The national federations are the ones proposing athletes, officials, referees higher up, so they hold the power and have the means to corrupt.
The billions of sport are thus redistributed through the national organisations, creating a society of the happy few who will do all they can to keep the jolly boat floating and make sure they stay on board. You may say that this is not corruption, but basically it is exactly that. All these actors – or most of them – are doing all they need to make sure decisions perpetuate the status quo and keep the money ‘in the family’. Few are really looking into keeping the system clean or helping others. And once you rise through the ranks, tell you what : you don’t do Airbnb and Ryanair… Just look at these guys’ lifestyles. The ex IOC president had a full time suite for decades in Lausanne’s priciest 5+ star hotel, now is this ‘normal’ ?
Considering all that, you can understand why a referee will do PGMOL bidding and not care about the rules of the game as much as he should.
@Markyb
You are correct about Mike Dean and it is going to be his 4th appointment to us as referee with Martin Atkinson as VAR referee. You just cannot make it up as to the extent that Arsenal are being setup to be screwed over when you also consider who refereed our last game away to Sheffield United – “MIKE DEAN”
Matchweek 23 Appointments
Referee: Mike Dean. Assistants: Ian Hussin, Dan Robathan. Fourth official: Lee Mason. VAR: Martin Atkinson. Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis.
The Match official appointments is getting completely unbelievable and a joke that I am of the opinion that the PGMOL are sending a clear message to Arsenal Management or anyone that cares about what happens to Arsenal and possible complaining behind the scenes.
Mike Dean’s appointments to date;
Saturday 17 August 12.30, Arsenal v Burnley (2 – 1) we just managed to win game.
Monday 30 September, Man Utd v Arsenal (1-1 D) was the VAR referee, remember we had decisions go against us with regards to VAR reviews. (Did not get all we should have)
Monday 21 October, Sheffield Utd V Arsenal (1-0) we loss and the VAR referee was Andre Marriner.
Monday 9 December, West Ham V Arsenal (1-3) we won because we scored more than 2 goals and first. Mike Dean did all he could to help West Ham but failed.
Mike Riley/PGMOL are putting their best!!! refereeing teams (lapdogs) together for Arsenal games to make sure we get nothing from VAR implementation.
Mike Dean has again be appointed to referee our game against Sheffield Untied regardless the fact he refereed our away game to them. He is being backup by Martin Atkinson as VAR referee even though he has so far been involved in 5 of our matches already to date (refereed 4 games and 1 as 4th Official).
Auba being suspended for the game is not enough for Mike Riley/PGMOL, hence Mike Dean and Martin Atkinson (A Team) have been sent to make sure to get the job done which Paul Tierney and Craig Pawson failed in last game to get Crystal Palace & Roy Hodgson a.k.a British Manager all 3 points.
@Em,
where do you get this information from please ?
The U18 salvaged a draw against Everton. The women are SOLD OUT at Meadow Park against Chle$ea.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/arsenal-women-v-chelsea-sold-out
Information and changes this brings are included in the Arsenal notice on this.
Nitram
I suggested that to Tony last week I think. This (if it’s true) is organised crime.
Don
Actually the Quid pro Quo does make sense. Riley to the referees: I’ll give you international creditation etc (quid) but you’ll be subservant to me (Quo)
Good article bye the way.
Sorry Nitram, that should have been Menace
OT: Corruption
New data on match fixing suspicions.
http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2020/01/14/football-dominates-match-fixing-numbers-europe-topping-count/
@ Chris,
I get the match officials appointments from the Premier League own website. https://www.premierleague.com/news/1570803
On the same website if you filter by results, clubs = Arsenal and from the result select match played i.e. Crystal Palace v Arsenal 1 – 1, and you get Match Summary, scroll down to Next Fixtures and below that is the full match official appointments for the game.
Referee: Paul Tierney. Assistants: Ian Hussin, Marc Perry. Fourth official: Keith Stroud. VAR: Craig Pawson. Assistant VAR: Andy Halliday.
I think Match Officials information has been removed from the match summary for previous seasons to maybe hide what is going on with referee appointments to games. One of the reason why I also think this is, there used to be the option to be able to see a view of all the referee appointments for a team in a season at once in one single view. That has gone. (Referee selection option found on Premier league tab or the more tab – does not allow filters anymore for i.e. teams or seasons, and also just only shows appointments for Matchweek 21 which is not up to date as now on Matchweek 23, previous appointments from Matchweek 1 -20 is missing as with details of VAR appointments for any week.
The only way to know who the Referee was for a match in the season gone 2018/2019 for example Burnley V Arsenal (1-3 W) is by looking at the top of the match summary page which has details right at the top in small print of the following; (Sun 12 May 2019 Ref: Mike Dean, Stadium: Turf Moor -Burnley, Att: 21,461). Interesting however, in the Match Summary Report, it has NO information as to who the Match Officials for the game was.
Must say a lot as to what PGMOL think of its officials if there are not being mentioned in previous season match reports. How can a match summary report be complete without any mention of the match officials?
A good way for Tony to know if anyone from the PGMOL is following his blog is keeping an eye on the changes being made to the PremierLeague.com website. I think the last time I was able to get the full refereeing appointments was when I posted Spurs Match official appointments for the season 2016 – 2017. It makes very shocking reading and as far as I am concerned, the real proof to the power of the PGMOL influence with match results, how many points a team gets and where they finish.
Spurs Matches refs 2016/2017 season
Michael Oliver = 7
Anthony Taylor = 5
Jonathan Moss = 5
Andre Marriner = 5
Mike Dean = 3
Robert Madley = 3
Mark Clattenburg = 2
Martin Atkinson = 2
Kevin Friend = 2
Stuart Attwell = 1
Lee Mason = 1
Craig Pawson = 1
Graham Scott = 1
PGMOL used 13 of 20 referees available to it, 28 games was refereed by only 6 refs. Spurs finished 2nd with 86 points, 7 points behind winners Chelsea (93 points). Their failure to win the league title could be said was due to away losses to Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United and surprise loss to Westham. Also the fact Chelsea were too good even with the assistant Spurs where getting.
Arsenal and Arsene Wenger finished 5th with 75 points, behind Liverpool with 76 points in 4th and Guardiola’s Man City with 78 points in 3rd.
The rest is history with the narrative that followed with Arsene Wenger’s failure to make top 4.
@Chris
If you go to the premier league website and check Spurs ref appointments for the 2016 – 2017 season, what is even more shocking than the fact the PGMOL only used 6 referees for 28 matches is that;
Michael Oliver’s 5 matches,
Anthony Taylor’s 4 matches,
Jonathan Moss’s 4 matches and
Andre Marriner’s 3 matches
were all refereed (done) in the 2nd half of the season (BUSINESS END between 1 Jan 2017 to 21 May 2017 last game of season).
@Em,
thanks for the information, I had gotten this far, I was wondering if there was a source that had it all…
As for games per ref, just for your information, as for half season, in the Bundesliga for example, the ref with most games had 9 (N-I-N-E) that is being called to referee 1 game un 2 !! Same picture in Spain, Italy, France, gor god’s sake, I think I checked Russia the other day with same result… Holland and Belgium have some refs with a larger number of games.
So PGMOL is definitely an outlier there.
Instead of focusing their ire on the Arsenal owner/board/management, the Support association or whatever it is called ought to crowdsource an attack against PGMOL or the referees themselves in front of the courts, because for the life of me I cannot imagine their ‘services’ contract with the PL includes such blatant potentially (there is no proof yet) manipulative planning, and if it does not exist, PGMOL must fall foul of some part of the contract that must say that the games are to be refereed in a ‘neutral’ fashion or however you say that.
I’d love to hear a referee having denied a blatant fact as seen though replays etc say he did not do it on purpose and that he was at the moment incompetent…
If this is not the case, then I guess the whole world betting on PL games would start to go ater them for mismanagement or whatever. One way or another, if it is planned it is definitely illegal, if it is not planned and authorised, then there are serious grounds to change the contract and go after the guys who drafted it for gross incompetence, and if it is not authorised, then they are not abiding by the terms of the contract and action has to be taken.
Just standard logical thinking makes any defence ‘all is right and we are being totally neutral and legal’ totally impossible and whichever justification is chosen falls foul of legal/professional/neutral ways of operating refereeing.
Whichever way, it beats me why this has not yet gone to the courts. There must be a party that is being ‘victim’ of these manipulations and ought to have standing bringing it up in front of the courts.
Speaking of that, as the press is not reporting and creating it’s own scenarios, people who do not reflect on facts like we do are not aware of it. They buy the ‘all evens out at the end’. So the subject is swept under the rug by the press and that’s it.
Red card bans.
Spuds had Son’s red card ban reduced. Any bet that we don’t get Aubameyang’s red card reduced?
To do so, plays into The (sweet) FA disciplinary committee playing together with PGMO.
There have been imaginations about where Nketiah could go on loan. I noted a few days ago, that the medja “outlet” (sort of like a sewar) in Bristol had already started sharpening their knives in attacking a new “home player”. My preference at that point, was not even consider loaning him to such a place. But, some site concerned with Arsenal seen a hint of a twit; which they think Nketiah is bound for Bristol.
Eddie, if true, I hope you take your firebreak underwear with you; because the local medja there would love nothing better than to blame you for everything between now and the end of season.
—
Another Arsenal website, talked about this ding-dong from Nigeria who wants to buy Arsenal. This was all news to him/her. I first read about this “pursuit” a bit more than a year ago. I suppose there are people who know about this long before that.
He thinks that 1-nil to the Arsenal and George Graham is the ultimate goal for Arsenal.
I’ve followed Arsenal for some years, but not as many as others. There was talk about hiring Moaninho; sorry I will walk away from Arsenal if they hire that turd. If this twit from Nigeria buys Arsenal, I will also walk away.
There is no reason to support a team which plays boring football. And that is all that Moaninho or this twit from Nigeria will bring.
We could have the most expensive, BORING football team in the entire world. This twit from Nigeria could spend billions; bringing in the best BORING players in the world. So, how many of you would rush out to renew your season tickets to watch never-ending BORING football?
It would be like supporting Stoke. Apparently lots of people do. No goals, no good football. But if you like to see a good elbow in the face, a kick in the head or a broken leg; Stoke is a wonderful team to follow.
OT: Referee abuse
in Malta, second division player assaults assistant referee (18 years old). Nominally banned form football for a long time.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12300654
I’m just waiting for the day when the PIGMOB minions go overboard in their frantic efforts to impress their boss , and scratch each others’ backs till they are all bloody !
I will of course , like most doctors , offer to help treat them . Only I’ll be using pure and unadultrated spirit .
Medicine after all is the best laughter !
I was watching the Manure/Wolves FA Cup game tonight, but not with any real enthusiasm. McMananman stated that “Kevin Friend is a great referee”. Fantastic stuff. Friend used to be a good referee 7-10 years ago, but something changed along the way. I think Mr. Oliver’s story is similar. Pundits. You’re ‘avin a laugh.
@Gord,
I think the Dangote stories have been around since 2010, when Lady Nina was looking for a buyer for her shares.