My mate sent this to Sky Sports

[manilaseagull]

Right or wrong?

youreon@skysports.com

I dont suppose for one moment you will feature this e mail but

Has it ever occurred to your commentators, pundits and editors that you are a major problem in the poor standards of referees. Your pundits and co commentators, most of which are ex pros and generally not the sharpest tools in the box, have spent their playing days whining at referees and now find that they can do it with the aid of slow motion and multi angle cameras and close up lenses. They will not say a word against the foul mouthed, spitting players who continually dive, feign injury and cheat at every opportunity but will spend the entire game criticising the referee for making a genuine mistake.... not trying to cheat... but a genuine mistake.

Tonight both yourselves and Chelsea hit new depths and drove more people away from football than ever, How you can ever say that the Chelsea players were justified in a display of bad sportmanship and total disrespect for the officials, beggars belief. They were a disgrace to English football and English society. Spoilt little brats that you continue to indulge.

What kind of person is going to persevere to be a top class official when he is yelled at by multi millionaires for 90 mins, screamed at by several thousand biased supporters whilst the whole time having every move analysed by modern day camera techniques and picked apart by ex players in a studio? Answer is......not a smart person

 

[Austrian Gull]

Totally right!

 

[Gwylan]

Great mail - spot on.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Thats why I hate the Prem League and Chumps league. Load of shit.

 

[NF9]

I Agree with some points but in the heat of the moment I dont believe anyone on here wouldnt of been frustrated and taken it out on the ref that said they should respect the referee and this sort of behaviour is not needed in football.

 

[Rich Suvner]

get off the high horse

if those decisions had been made against the albion in our biggest game of the season i'd be spitting nails and frankly i'd expect some of the players would too... and probably the author of this post

i've got no problem with addressing the general issue of disrespect in football (which i don't understand is so difficult - if i swear on a sunday league pitch i get sent off, the rules already exist) but on this occassion the ref actually deserved a mouthfull, he was poor on ALL the big decisions of the day.

 

[Albalbion]

i agree with most of the points raised on the email, however.... that ref was a total disgrace and as said above imagine it was Brighton.
Anyone remember the referee at Chesterfield in our division 3 Championship season, totally biased, Oatway had to be restrained from getting at him and the ref had to be escorted from the pitch for his own safety as a barage of empty plastic bottles and coins rained down on him as he headed for the tunnel below the Brighton fans.

 

[drew]

I agree with the sentiments of the email and also, more importantly, with Rich Suvner. Refs make mistakes, as do players, but the respect issue is purely down to the ref. There should be more bookings for the way players speak to refs and if there were, then the respect would develop. I don't mean respect of the ref as an individual but as the official. The trouble is the refs don't, and haven't for a long time, applied existing rules.

Yes, there would be a lot of sending offs initially as players would get needless yellow cards but they would soon learn when they start missing important games or when their clubs get pissed off with paying their wages for them to be sitting in the stands every four or five games.

Football refs are often compared to Rugby Union officials and the almost total respect they have however, they have the advantage in that any dissent is penalised immediately. I thought the rule to move the ball forward 10 metres was a good one but Fifa withdrew it. I would like to see that brought back and also the advantage rule applied properly in that you allow play to proceed to see if there is an advantage but pull play back to the original offence if one doesn't develop within 5/10 seconds.

But whatever rules they do bring in, refs must, without fail, apply them at all times. At present, they don't.

 

[trueblue]

Original post is spot on. The cycle of abusing refs has to be broken somehow. Some massive decisions go against people in other sports, but the participants accept them and get on with it.

It would take some crazy games at first, with lots of bookings and red cards, but the officials should stick by their guns and receive the full backing of the authorities. Once players know that they will be punished for dissent, they'll soon get the message.

How Ballack didn't get a red card for his pursuit of the ref last night is astonishing. And the same with Drogba... booked for his initial verbal assault post-match, but where was the second yellow when he refused to go away.

A couple of weeks ago a player - can't remember who - actually pushed the ref in a Premier League game. For me, that is a straight red. Where will the game be when youngsters and players in the amateur game decide it's ok to start knocking refs about?

It's true the ref last night was poor, but everyone can see that. It doesn't need Chelsea players dragging football's reputation through the mud. There would have been plenty of opportunity afterwards to make their point and ensure UEFA think more about who they choose for the biggest games in future.

 

[Acker79]

I think there's a problem with society in general, no one wants to accept rules and the responsibility of breaking them. We don't criticise drivers for speeding, we criticise speed cameras for catching them. We don't criticise people for parking illegally, we criticise the traffic wardens and so on.

It moves in to football, we don't criticise the players for fouling, or cheating etc. we blame the referees.

I think this social attitude, one that football pundits indulge, is to blame.

At least a couple of those decisions not to give penalties looked right to me, based on the way drogba threw himself to the ground. Replays showed maybe there was a claim, but when you throw yourself down like that, you're putting doubt in the ref's mind, and we always say you have to be 100% sure before giving a penalty.



But along with that, I also think pundits tend to move the posts. Obviously there is the calls for consistency and common sense (the two cannot co-exist, common sense dictates letting peopple off of a booking because of the special nature of the match e.g. derby, cup final, etc., so people won't always get booked fo rsomething, ergo, no consistency). But there are also others, for example:

Offsides
When I started watching the rule was simply if there are fewer than 2 defending players between an attacking player and the goal when the ball is played forward it's offside. But that led to goals being disallowed because someone on the wing, not interfering with play was offside, 'experts' complained, it was changed to within 20 yards of where the ball is, still didn't eliminate the situation, so it was changed to interfering with play, the so called experts took every opportunity to question what was interfering with play, so it was made if you touch it, that was changed again because that wasn't good enough because players could initerfere with the play without touching the ball. And now we have it as it is. Many pundits say there was nothing wrong with the rule in the first place, but that wasn't what they were saying then.


Handballs
As far as I can remember the rule has always been there has to be intent. However, the application has always revolved around the mantra "if you raise your arm you risk conceding a penalty". Suddenly this year, sky sports have discovered the intent law, and now spout that whenever a penalty is given because arms are up.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Last night was one of the best examples I've ever seen of why football needs to go down the rugby road of officials CONSULTING and WORKING TOGETHER to get the decisions RIGHT.

The ref at no point consulted his assistants about any of his decisions, even though in two or threee cases they had the best view. And this guy was supposed to be one of UEFA's top referees!

FIFA, UEFA and the national leagues as a matter of top priority have to sit down and work out a strategy as to how match officials can together produce a higher proportion of correct decisions and exactly how and when technology will be used to assist them.

I hate Chelsea but they were undoubtably hard done by last night. However, because the "best" team went through and an all-English final was avoided the end result will be celebrated in UEFA HQ while the manner of that victory will be quickly glossed over.

 

[Collar Feeler]

I think there's a problem with society in general, no one wants to accept rules and the responsibility of breaking them. We don't criticise drivers for speeding, we criticise speed cameras for catching them. We don't criticise people for parking illegally, we criticise the traffic wardens and so on.

It moves in to football, we don't criticise the players for fouling, or cheating etc. we blame the referees.

I think this social attitude, one that football pundits indulge, is to blame.

I think you are spot on there mate. The list is endless; We don't criticise anarchist thugs smashing up Brighton under the laughable guise of Anti-War protests, we criticise the old bill for trying to stop them. Etc etc.

At the time I felt Chelsea were robbed and would be understandably upset but there are still boundaries of acceptable behaviour and reaction and many of them went too far. Likewise the commentators on Sky.

The referee and equally inept linesmen clearly had shockers and i doubt they will ever be involved in a major game of that magntitude ever again as a result

Its all about self control. Some Chelsea players had it but Drogba the worst visible culprit yet again reinforced his own petulant childish reputation.

 

[Gritt23]

Right or wrong?

youreon@skysports.com

I dont suppose for one moment you will feature this e mail but

Has it ever occurred to your commentators, pundits and editors that you are a major problem in the poor standards of referees. Your pundits and co commentators, most of which are ex pros and generally not the sharpest tools in the box, have spent their playing days whining at referees and now find that they can do it with the aid of slow motion and multi angle cameras and close up lenses. They will not say a word against the foul mouthed, spitting players who continually dive, feign injury and cheat at every opportunity but will spend the entire game criticising the referee for making a genuine mistake.... not trying to cheat... but a genuine mistake.

Tonight both yourselves and Chelsea hit new depths and drove more people away from football than ever, How you can ever say that the Chelsea players were justified in a display of bad sportmanship and total disrespect for the officials, beggars belief. They were a disgrace to English football and English society. Spoilt little brats that you continue to indulge.

What kind of person is going to persevere to be a top class official when he is yelled at by multi millionaires for 90 mins, screamed at by several thousand biased supporters whilst the whole time having every move analysed by modern day camera techniques and picked apart by ex players in a studio? Answer is......not a smart person

Spot on.

The "Respect" campaign needed to start with Sky Sports, because they indulge the players and tear the officials apart. Disgraceful.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

It's typical that the one piece of rulemaking that actually helped crack down on players' attitudes- the one of moving a free kick forward whenever a player showed dissent towards the referee- was dropped after only one season. Why?

It frustrates me when ex-players on TV seek to justify the attitude and abuse shown by their erstwhile colleagues on the pitch by claiming that it's not the players' fault because the referee got a decision wrong. As if that somehow entitles them to eff and blind towards the beleaguered official. When anybody suggests showing a yellow card for the slightest hint of dissent, the pundits are up in arms, claiming we'd finish every game with six a side.

Which is a ridiculous claim- I accept that footballers as a breed aren't generally the sharpest tools in the box, but they'd soon learn to shut their mouths if the officials actually dealt with their offending as opposed to backing off and doing that arm-waving "go away" thing. If you can train a cat to crap in your neighbour's garden rather than your own, if you can toilet train a two year old child, then surely a grown up man wearing a Chelsea or Arsenal shirt can learn the concept of accepting a decision without directing a mouthful of abuse towards the man in black.

 

[questier]

Completely agree, there needs to be a mix of ex pro's and say high quality sports journalists (Henry Winter, Martin Samuel, James Lawton) as pundits

 

[Lady Whistledown]

The TV channels are blinded by the perceived glamour of getting big name pundits in, because they can use their name to sell subscriptions.

But many of the better pundits/analysts currently broadcasting are the ones who were fairly average players. Gavin Peacock for example.

Andy Townsend, by the way, is the exception to the rule: proving every single week that you can be both a mediocre player and an appalling screen presence.

 

[sten_super]

The TV channels are blinded by the perceived glamour of getting big name pundits in, because they can use their name to sell subscriptions.

But many of the better pundits/analysts currently broadcasting are the ones who were fairly average players. Gavin Peacock for example.

Andy Townsend, by the way, is the exception to the rule: proving every single week that you can be both a mediocre player and an appalling screen presence.

Agreed. It's not just a problem that blights pundits though; John Motson has been living off his reputation for far too long. Similarly, I simply cannot understand why anyone thinks Andy Gray is in any way a good analyst/co-commentator. I remember he used to (maybe he still does, I don't know) write a column for football365, which spouted complete rubbish, and every week it used to receive a host of castigating comments pointing out the blatent holes in his argument and the complete nonsense of what he was saying. The problem was that people had an avenue of response to his gibberish, unlike on TV where no matter how much I shout at the tv 'SHUT UP ANDY GRAY YOU COCK JUGGLING THUNDERC*NT' he can't hear me and won't stop spouting crap.

 

[Austrian Gull]

Agreed. It's not just a problem that blights pundits though; John Motson has been living off his reputation for far too long. Similarly, I simply cannot understand why anyone thinks Andy Gray is in any way a good analyst/co-commentator. I remember he used to (maybe he still does, I don't know) write a column for football365, which spouted complete rubbish, and every week it used to receive a host of castigating comments pointing out the blatent holes in his argument and the complete nonsense of what he was saying. The problem was that people had an avenue of response to his gibberish, unlike on TV where no matter how much I shout at the tv 'SHUT UP ANDY GRAY YOU COCK JUGGLING THUNDERC*NT' he can't hear me and won't stop spouting crap.

A typical example of Gray's ineptitude was last season when he defended Mascherano for verbally abusing the ref in a game against Man Utd. The co-commentator disagreed and Gray just dug his heels in even more. The man spouts crap the majority of the time and has an appalling attitude towards referees.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Very true, Gray is rivalling Alan Green for pomposity these days, while Motty, sadly, is turning into a caricature, a sort of *inane chuckle* Alan Partridge type figure.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

What worries me is that young kids playing park football see this sort of behaviour on TV and think it is perfectly acceptable. Players should be hauled up before a committee and made to explain why they have brought the game into disrepute. Giving the culprits a 5 match ban will make them think again.