By Tony Attwood
Just imagine for a moment that you were a football journalist and there were several issues in football that it was simply not done to talk about. And by “not done” I don’t mean that you were told not to present articles on these subjects, but rather it was just taken as a given that these were not subjects one wrote about.
Rather like in politics – I am sure there is no diktat at the offices of the Daily Express saying that one doesn’t write articles in favour of the Labour Party, but as a journalist working there you would know there was no point in presenting such a piece.
So back with the football you would know what to lay off. Stories such as the fact that the three clubs who have achieved or are currently achieving the best ever points totals in the Premier League are the three sides that have been found guilty of major misdeeds in recent years: Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool.
And again you wouldn’t bother with stories about the system of refereeing in the Premier League being quite different from that in other Leagues, in terms of the much lower number of referees used than in other top European leagues, the repeated use of the same referee for games involving certain teams, and so on.
You also wouldn’t point out that the outcry against injustice which is sweeping football at the moment is going to have to be set aside when it comes to the world cup in Qatar in 2022, given that the stadia have been and are being built by slave labour. One doesn’t criticise the World Cup.
And indeed one doesn’t criticise Fifa. So best not to submit any stories concerning the investigation into its top man – Infantino – nor mention the gigantic money laundering scheme that went via an Israeli bank that was recently uncovered.
Plus it would be wise not to raise the curious issue of Leicester City’s tackles/yellow cards ratio. We know for example that Burnley, before the break, were getting one yellow card for every 6.65 tackles. With Arsenal it is one yellow for every 7.01 tackles. Most other clubs are around the same numbers. But for Leicester City, it is one yellow for every 19.72 tackles.
Now the failure to report any one of these issues is not proof of anything. Obviously each media outlet decides what to report and what to omit. And in many cases the issues themselves are not proof of anything. Infantino has not been found guilty. Maybe Leicester have evolved a new approach to tackling which no other club is using. Maybe the world cup slavery issue will be left until international football returns. Maybe the feeling is that some of these stories are just too number based, and readers don’t like numbers.
But even so you might expect one or two of them to surface – if nothing else than to be put down again. After all we have just had a pretty long period where there has been no football going on at all, so the need to find new stories has been paramount.
And it is not that there the stories above are mere speculation. The investigation into the head of Fifa colluding with the head of the Swiss justice system is a fact – it is all over the European press. The strange Leicester City card per tackle issue is a fact, and so on.
On the other hand Leno being out of football for the rest of the year following the Brighton match was not a fact, although it was reported that it was. Leno LATEST – ‘out for a YEAR‘ said the Sun. Now we find that wasn’t true.
Or take the issue of Arsenal injuries – for years we were told that Arsenal always got more injuries that other clubs, and it was down to Mr Wenger’s outmoded and downright dangerous approach to training which he was too pig-headed to change.
Time and again we showed that Arsenal did not get more injuries than all the other clubs (although they were often in the upper part of the injury league table) and of course now that Mr Wenger has long gone we can see that the injuries have actually increased in severity and number since he has left. No media outlet has commented upon this.
What we have is a situation in which for journalists and many of those involved in reporting football, the game has become an illusion – although as the saying goes, a rather persistent illusion. A make believe, not primarily because what is reported is made up, but because key issues are not reported and the twist that is given to the facts.
And this is happening on such a large scale that it really does remind us of the novel “1984” by George Orwell. For in fact what is happening here with the ignoring of a vast array of issues, while other made up realities are being put in their place.
No mainstream media outlet is ever going to note that Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City are the three clubs that have been severely punished of late for breaking football’s laws, but are also the three most successful clubs when it comes to points totals in the Premier League of late.
It is not just the tales of the 100+ transfer rumours that are fantasy. The whole of football reporting is a fantasy. Wholesale.
The slavery files
- MP stance on football should fill us all with disgust
- If all lives matter, if slavery is unaccepable, what is the FA doing about Qatar?
- British media universally continues to support modern slavery
The fantasy files
- Now we can see exactly what a club must do to win the Premier League
- Transfer chart reaches 110 played tipped to be coming to Arsenal!
- Why do Liverpool keep getting the same referees?
- Why is the issue of the number of fouls that leads to a card being kept secret?
https://untold-arsenal.com/archives/34605
Remember you have played your part in some of these misinformation, particularly Walters more than 10yrs analysis of injuries series where untold put forward stats collated over 10years to prove conclusively that we have by far the worst injury record in the league and that
1. this was due to refs allowing teams “kick us to pieces”
2. This has been the reason why we haven’t done well enough in competitions over the years
Great article unfortunately our so called fans are not interested in it unless there on here reading it
There just interested in the rubbish that the mainstream media pushes are fact
So please carry on with the good work you guys are doing and you never know it might eventually get pick up by the media and used
Ayeni, I see that your email address incorporates the word “joke” so I suspect you are joking here. Certainly what you have written doesn’t seem to make any sense in relation either to the article on which you have commented nor the earlier article by Walter. Yes we were being fouled constantly in the past, and yes it was due to refereeing, and yes, the media then reinterpreted this as being due to Mr Wenger’s training methods, and yes the fact that we now have the same high level of injuries shows that it wasn’t his training methods… I can’t see your problem.
My only question to those who think that all is well in the EPL , is..
Name the best referee in England.
@Tony, I don’t know what my email has to do with it. I reference an article that is just one in a series of at least 6articles where Walter makes an analysis of 10years of injuries, and makes statements like “As you can see if you look at the numbers we see that since 2002 Arsenal has suffered most injuries. In fact we have suffered 100 more injuries than the team that suffered the second most injuries and that is Tottenham”. There are many other statements that can be quoted from the series showing that the conclusion that we are certainly the most injured team in the league can be made. In fact I remember some years ago a poster challenged you on this and your reply was that Walter wrote those articles based on the promise of a source to provide the backing stats, a promise which the source never kept. It is not a crime to change your position on an issue, but it is responsible behaviour to accept if you in ignorance, had in the past being complicit in spreading a wrong notion. My point is that on the “arsenal having more injury story”, you should also acknowledge that you also put out that opinion in the past.
Ah well, it must be me. I still don’t get the point.
Tony
“When it comes to Arsenal we are being totally misled”
Unfortunately Tony I don’t think this is unique to us.
PUBLIC TRUST IN MEDIA PLUMMETS IN UK WITH JUST 28% TRUSTING MOST NEWS..
read://https_www.expressandstar.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressandstar.com%2Fnews%2Fuk-news%
Honestly Tony the state of our media, football, politics, everything, is a disgrace.
Let me give you an example of the level of believability we have in our media.
My very own brother, a nicer guy you couldn’t meet, but a fully fledged member of the AAA, following the Brighton match text me to proudly proclaim how he’d had his text read out on Talkshite. I asked him what he’d said. (Knowing full well it wouldn’t be pretty). He sent me a copy of his text which basically called out the boys for their disgraceful, gutless performance.
But here’s the thing.
He didn’t even watch the match. He didn’t watch the Man City match. He doesn’t watch us any more.
But Talkshite being Talkshite don’t give a toss. It was a negative Arsenal text it gets read out. Do they ever check the credibility of these texts. Whether they watched or are even Arsenal supporters?
I said to my brother, you do know having a negative Arsenal post read out on Talkshite is hardly anything to boast about.
To which he said: “Well we’re shit”.
Says it all about the AAA.
Says it all about the media.
Sorry, don’t think the link works but it’s easy to find.
I am an Arsenal fan out of South Africa for the past 4 years.Would you people please help me with this. From where and why does this deep seated anti-Arsenal (hate?) attitude originate. Its absolutely mind boggeling. Thank you
It is my honest oppinion as i experience it from the outside. It is certainly strong words but as i say please help me then. I will remove the hate in brackets to moderate
K Fourie – it arose in the 1930s. Until then all the champions were from the Midlands and the North of England. London had been late in joining in football, and later still joining in professional football. When the London clubs and those from the south joined in, they were seen as easy to beat… soft southerners. The northern teams came to London, beat Arsenal or Chelsea and later Tottenham, went out on the town, got drunk. Then suddenly in 1930 Arsenal not only won the Cup, they then went on to win the league with a record number of points, and carried on winning: 5 league titles and 2 FA Cups in one decade.
The northern clubs and the journalists couldn’t take it – they had spent decades sneering and now a London team was better than anything they had done. What’s worse they did it under three managers. So the stories started, and then in 1946 Leslie Knighton (Arsenal’s manager from 1919 to 1925, and a northerner) published his autobiography in which he accused Arsenal of fraud, deception and trickery. All the northern people who had built up their anti-Arsenal feeling, said “I told you so”, ignoring the fact that the book was full of lies.
Those lies are still repeated even to this day, as we saw recently in Daily Mirror accusations about Arsenal fixing matches.
You were not held in moderation K Fourie because of anything you said, but rather anyone who posts for the first time is held in moderation so one of the editorial team can check the post. Won’t happen now you have been cleared.
K Fourie
Welcome to Untold Arsenal, a view from the other side of the abyss. I hope you enjoy it.
Yes, it is indeed mind boggling.
Tony
What a great little summery.
@Tony, great, the succinct and quick information served to K. Fourie, and to refresh the memories of many too.
Yet Sir Lesley Knighton was the most influential person in the history of our great club,I would suggest.
He dragged us up from near extinction and set us on the road to a recognised football club the world over.
One wonders what he meant to achieve in doing this and the fact that he died with all his links to footballing matters being severed by the law of the land is such a sad ending to a “marmite” and “teflon” type of person.
Talk about holding a grudge, those northern nasties sure do take the biscuit!!!