Sport Football Thread 2011/2012

[Guest]

Of course, that is sorta undermined if refs start saying things like "he's not that kind of player"

The Chelsea match. Lampard's tackle is a horrible leg breaker. Yellow.

Ashley Cole clearly kicks someone (no where near the ball) and manages to not get a yellow - yet Doyle gets booked for reacting to being blatantly kneed/kicked.

Romeau half nudges into someone. Yellow.

We can talk about refs not being robots and infallible and yet the sort of decisions they make seem, at times, to be unbelievable.

If EA/FIFA recreated referees properly people would be up in arms about it.

I'm surprised Lampard has been mouthing off about the boss too. He had been a liability for Chelsea of late. From giving the ball away in the previous match to allow Villa to seal the win, and today he SHOULD have been sent off.

If I was AVB I'd be more likely to drop him from the squad, especially with his bad mouthing. It's clear he wants the manager gone and such public hints at it is entirely unprofessional.

(Maybe he was asked a cunning question by a journalist to get that information out of him...but come on. He's been around long enough to know not to be like that. Piece of work)

[SaintM]

They each put their heads together to square off. So at this stage they're equally guilty of being needlessly aggressive and probably both deserve either a telling off or at most a booking.

But then if you accept that there was no headbutt, and presumably that Johnson recoiled holding his face as if he'd been headbutted... I'm at a loss as to how you can possibly interpret that as anything other than Johnson play acting in an attempt to get Barton sent off?

He walked away rubbing his forehead I thought, but as I say it was only on MotD last night I saw it and I was half asleep so he could have been thrown back like he'd been Zidane'd.

[DC Lemon]

Said this before and I will say it again. If a controversial decision goes against a club like Manchester United then it is shown on Sky Sports News every 15 minutes for three days. If it goes against a club like Wolves it might not be mentioned more than once, immediately after the match. Nobody likes the glare of the media on them, referees included, so consciously or subconsciously the profile of a club and how the media reacts to it has to weigh on their mind.

All I saw was national joy when City were cheated by the final kick of the match against Sunderland. Mancini pretty much shrugged it off as one of those things and concentrated on his team's performance.

[McFly]

Things like this are making me lose interest in football.

add in cuntish idiotic fans who are blinded by their loyalty and cant be remotley objective it makes it utterly horrible, everything is a conspiracy against somebody or someone, its pathetic.

[Guest]

I'm still getting through match of the day.

Did anyone else LOL at Steve Kean getting taken out by Pederson? Mostly because of the audible "Ooh!" as he was taken out? Poor chap

PS Super Crouch!

[dr_manhattan^]

add in cuntish idiotic fans who are blinded by their loyalty and cant be remotley objective it makes it utterly horrible, everything is a conspiracy against somebody or someone, its pathetic.

Yeah I can see how it might look like that. The only defence I can offer is that many neutral observers share my opinions.

I don't care enough to argue about it.

[the_debaser]

It's generally only the fans of big clubs who can't see that the majority of decisions go their way. Smaller clubs continually get robbed. If that had been one of Wolves players yesterday who did what Ashley Cole or Lampard did the red would've come out immediately, no doubt.

[dr_manhattan^]

Well let's hope we're talking about the game and not the ref after Blues v Wolves in the cup

[PaB]

add in cuntish idiotic fans who are blinded by their loyalty and cant be remotley objective it makes it utterly horrible, everything is a conspiracy against somebody or someone, its pathetic.

That's not exactly a new phenomenom is it?

And I don't buy in at all to this inverse snobbery its "only" fans of big clubs that are guilty of it. We are all guilty of it in support of our clubs to varying degrees.

[phresh]

If that had been one of Wolves players yesterday who did what Ashley Cole or Lampard did the red would've come out immediately, no doubt.

Rubbish, players up and down the PL get away with awful tackles all the time.

[dr_manhattan^]

Especially if they're friends with the ref

[phresh]

Don't get me wrong, if the ref actually said that about Lampard he should be dropped as the law should never be enforced based on how they see a certain player. That doesn't change my point to Debaser that un-punished violent challenges are just as common amongst the smaller teams as they are the big teams.

[dr_manhattan^]

You might be right, my team has certainly been very unlucky with bad decisions lately.

I don't think you are however, but I think we've done this to death now, I think we'd all rather be talking about the players than the officials and FA.

[Guest]

Lee Cattermole should have been sent off at least another 29 times in his career, for example.

[Shimmyhill]

Arsenal vs Fulham and another decision referees make that I find hard to understand. Or in this case non-decision. Gervinho turns his man in the box, retains possession of the ball as the defender doesn't touch it and goes down.

It isn't a penalty, so Gervinho has not been fouled according to the officials - so he must have dived. Yet no card whatsoever for his apparent simulation (we know of course he was fouled but the ref didn't).

And in some ways I don't see how that foul on Gervinho was that different to Djorou's second yellow. It looked more blatant than when Zamora clattered easily to the floor. A massive game changer.

(I believe it was a foul for the record yet compared to Gervinho's non penalty it seemed soft)

It's easy to see why there's such frustration there.

Djorou should have gone before that 2nd yellow, the ref just gave a softish yellow having let him off a stone wall 2nd yellow just before - it was a human decision to not send him off, the player forced him to get the second yellow with a stupid foul. Having said that Wenger should have subbed him, he was living on borrowed time and carrying an injury so mental to leave him on given the battering the defence was getting.

Gervinho pen, or non pen as it was, was harder to give as he just looked so clumsy - you can see why the ref thought he may have just lost his footing as he lost the ball with a heavy touch, the ref didn't have all the replays we at home did etc.

I don't fully buy this 'club X always get the rub of the green' either, Spurs v Stoke was a key example of the 'bigger club' not getting anything of the ref and Norwich v QPR last night showing that 'smaller clubs' getting all the decisions and away from home! I am sure every fan can pick decisions that went against them regardless of who they support and with some soul searching could pick out plenty where their club got the rub of the green!!

I do think some players get slack or overly harshly dealt with but thats more on a player basis than the club they play for as it follows them around club to club.

[Rev]

Don't get me wrong, if the ref actually said that about Lampard he should be dropped

Yup. That's as bad as refereeing can get.

(Short of actual corruption, obviously).

[Graham S]

Yup. That's as bad as refereeing can get.

(Short of actual corruption, obviously).

Aside from anything else, my reading of the Suarez report yesterday has told me that the player's intent is irrelevant when it comes to enforcing the rules, so assuming that's correct it really shouldn't matter what kind of player someone is when it comes to penalising foul play.

[governmentyard]

I'm spamming three football threads about my new blog because this is the only one that gets read and the other two are appropriate but neglected. Won't happen again, promise.

http://pissingred.blogspot.com/2012/01/whats-dutch-for-hair-island.html

[Sirloin]

You got last seasons Championship thread.

[governmentyard]

I don't mind... we were much better last season.

[SaintM]

No appeal then. I guess they read the report and realised they'd have no hope.

[SaintM]

I have read it, yes. What else could they say?

I think we all know that if there was a chance of fighting it, they would have.

Indeed, they still seem to be sticking to the 'it's ok in Uruguay' line that does not even begin to cover the repeated comments at the time.

[Shimmyhill]

Rubbish. Have you not read the official statement? Maybe you should read it before, etc.

They've shown immense class by not perusing an investigation which they believe to be clearly biased.

A fantastic sacrifice for the good of the league.

Fuck me thats about the funniest thing I've read this year!

Immense class, jesus

I would counter that with; I think LFC has damaged their reputation for good and will continue to pay for the way they initially dealt with this matter, i would suspect Suarez will be a subdued character and will get battered week in week out until he leaves.

Im also not comfortable that he is still adamant that saying Negro in this country is not wrong, did he not notice when he stepped off the plane he was in a different country and we do not share the same cultural meanings of words, he really needed to be a bit more apologetic about calling someone black in the UK who is not from the same country as him or playing in his home land.

[emjay2kay]

Rubbish. Have you not read the official statement? Maybe you should read it before, etc.

They've shown immense class by not perusing an investigation which they believe to be clearly biased.

A fantastic sacrifice for the good of the league.

[paddyo]

Rubbish. Have you not read the official statement? Maybe you should read it before, etc.

They've shown immense class by not perusing an investigation which they believe to be clearly biased.

A fantastic sacrifice for the good of the league.

THIS IS KLANFIELD

[elmo]

Hey, have you guys ever thought that maybe the Liverpool fans are the normal people and we're all fucking mental?

Possible.

[Charliemouse]

Fuck me thats about the funniest thing I've read this year!

Immense class, jesus

I would counter that with; I think LFC has damaged their reputation for good and will continue to pay for the way they initially dealt with this matter, i would suspect Suarez will be a subdued character and will get battered week in week out until he leaves.

Im also not comfortable that he is still adamant that saying Negro in this country is not wrong, did he not notice when he stepped off the plane he was in a different country and we do not share the same cultural meanings of words, he really needed to be a bit more apologetic about calling someone black in the UK who is not from the same country as him or playing in his home land.

He knew that the word negro was offensive anyway, he has lived in Europe now for what 6 or 7 years and I am sure it is still offensive to say it to a black man in Holland as well as this country.

[SaintM]

If they don't accept it they should fight it. The statement they released gives a joke of a reason why they are not.

I guess the same people who thought the original statement was good and the t shirts were a touch of class will also lap those reasons up. The rest of the world will just chuckle to themselves and see the farce for what it is: A poor attempt to save face.

[Rocafella]

That they accept it fully.

They've made it clear that they do not accept it and yet are going to draw a line under it.

Class again. Respect.

Delusional until the very end.

[Guest]

If they don't accept it they should fight it. The statement they released gives a joke of a reason why they are not.

They know they aren't going to get anywhere with the FA, as they've made up their mind.

They could easily have fought the FA, then taken it to the courts, and on from there what would have happened? On and on and on and it wouldn't have done anyone any good.

Unlike the FA Liverpool will look past their own interests and take the higher ground. If only the FA themselves could take a leaf out of Liverpool's book.