The Truth is Out There

Please follow me on twitter, new handle: www.twitter.com/DimmyBad and check out the follow up post to this article, http://diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/10/corruption-and-influence-peddling-in-the-english-game.html 

Also check out latest follow up, after Clattenburg's return to reffing United: http://diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/10/the-whole-worlds-watching.html

Oliver Stone once said: “Paranoia is having all the facts”. Many of us die hard football fans know exactly what he means.

I've long held the view that something very fishy goes on in English football.

I’m not the most naturally trusting of guys anyways. When it comes to institutions, I'm downright skeptical of them. I have very little respect or trust in governments, police, and media or football institutions. It's not me being paranoid either: week after week, I’m proven correct on my doubts about them (to any Liverpool fan the findings of the Hillsborough report came as absolutely no surprise).

When it comes to football, it's not even lack of trust. It's plain common sense.

In recent years, we've had a huge number of corruption scandals all across Europe. Several of them in Italy, the corrupt referee Hoyser in Germany, Fenerbahce being docked their title in Turkey, Spain's second division scandals, Marseille a while ago in France, Porto in Portugal etc...

Of course, the one league where nothing ever gets proven to be dodgy is in England. The richest and most watched league in the world is, we are told, completely squeaky clean.

Leaving aside the sheer ridiculousness of that statement, ask yourself this: if corruption gets proven all across Europe, how is the most popular league in the world, with the biggest prize monies in football, whose clubs are owned by some of the richest people in the world, run by stakeholders that are the most powerful media moguls in the world, immune from this? With the amounts of money at stake, how has it managed to be so clean for so long?

To dismiss any talks of corruption in the premier league is to fall for 2 of the traits that characterize the English the most: a sheer egocentric belief that they are better than anyone else and their complete faith in the country's institutions. To them, it’s entirely logical that that stuff goes on abroad where institutions are corrupt, but it’s impossible in England. Just like diving is a foreign disease and Uruguay is the epicenter of racism, unlike the multi cultural tolerance of middle England.

I share neither of those traits. By pure logic, when I see corruption in every facet of English life (MP's expenses scandal, banking sector, the war on Iraq, Leveson enquiry, Hillsborough, The Guilford 4, The Birmingham 6 et all...) as well as entire European football, I ask why is it impossible as many deem, for it to be happening in English football too?

I have followed football since 1986. I have seen for years how Manchester United benefits from refereeing decisions. I don’t need an investigation to tell me this: it happens on a near weekly basis to the point where people are so immune to it, they laugh it off.

I have seen the influence Alex Ferguson has on every facet of the English game. When his Darren son got fired as manager of Preston North End, I watched with bemusement as Ferguson immediately recalled his loan players from Deepdale. I then watched in horror as another club in the premier league, managed by Ferguson’s father’s friend Tony Pullis, also recalled their loan players from PNE.

The message was clear: Mess with Mr Ferguson or his children, and you will be punished.

And not just from Mr Ferguson either. By his friends in football.

Recently, ex referee Jeff Winter stated that he once sent Roy Keane off in a match. He was then criticized by Ferguson and not given a Manchester United game to referee for 2 years. He saw that as punishment as he said that “The FA is reticent to give Manchester United games to referees that Ferguson has criticized in the past”.

Read that statement again. Ferguson criticizes referees that give decisions against his club. Most likely, these decisions happen in games Manchester United lose. The FA reacts to the criticism by not assigning said referees in future Manchester United games. Thus, the only referees assigned to United games are ones that Ferguson approves of.

The referees that have given decisions Ferguson deem to be incorrect against United, however, no longer referee their games (usually the most high profile ones). It’s a terrible indictment of sporting impartiality, justice and the way the game is run in England. This form of selective referee assignement led to the Juventus scandal in 2006.

Winter’s comments prompted me to do my own research. I focused on the referees that took charge of United 2 biggest high profile losses in the last decade or so.

Alain Wiley refereed United’s 4-1 loss to Liverpool in 2009. In that game, he gave both United and Liverpool penalties and sent off Nemanja Vidic. All 3 decisions were absolutely correct and Wiley was praised by Sky TV co-commentator Andy Gray for his performance. Not even Ferguson complained.

Later that year, Wiley was given another United game to referee and despite sending off Kieran Richardson of Sunderland, Wiley was lambasted by Ferguson for being “fat and unfit”. The game ended 2-2.

That would be the end of Wiley’s refereeing career. Wiley, it says cryptically on his Wikipedia page, “agreed to retire” at the end of that season. Agreed with whom? No one knows.

Last season, Manchester City romped to a 6-1 win at Old Trafford, inflicting on their rivals their biggest embarrassment under Ferguson. The referee on that day was Mark Clattenburg. He sent Johnny Evans off in the second half for a clear professional foul.

There have been 34 Man United league games since that day. The number of times times Clattenburg has refereed them? Zero. Not a single one.

It seems that the FA, for whatever reason, doesn’t want Clattenburg to referee Man United games anymore. Some of us more paranoid folk may just wonder who’s behind that decision.

The FA has no hesitation to hand United games to Howard Webb though: he’s been the most used referee in 34 United games since the 6-1 defeat to City.

Webb’s history in Man United games are well known and documented. All I have to say on the matter is that more than 18% of the penalties he’s awarded in his ENTIRE premier league refereeing career have gone to Manchester United. Over a 9 year period, that’s a huge percentage.

So in closing, let’s resume what we’ve discovered. We have an ex premier league referee who has openly stated he was not handed a Manchester United game for 2 years after sending off one of their players. We have an FA who, in said referee’s words, don’t hand Manchester United games to referees that the United manager has previously criticized.

We have a referee who took charge of a heavy United defeat and “agreed to retire” a year later after being called unfit by Alex Ferguson. We have another referee who hasn’t been handed a United game to officiate since he reffed a heavy United defeat 34 league games ago.

Meanwhile, the most used official in United games in that time is the man who has handed 18% of his entire career penalty awards to Ferguson’s team.

Factor in the fact that Manchester United CEO is ON THE BOARD OF the English FA, Alex Ferguson is a knight of the realm with political connections that go a lot deeper than football (just read Allistair Campbell’s diaries if you don’t believe me), and the evidence in the Darren Ferguson sacking that clubs that cross Ferguson get punished by his friends, and you have all the tools there for someone more investigative than me to really delve into.

But yet, nothing happens. Year on year, I watch as not a single journalist utters a peep on the subject. I watch as decision after decision goes United’s way and people in the UK, so much better than everyone else and trusting of their institutions remember, brush them off with insouciance.

In Italy, there would have been phone tap investigations a long time ago. In "so much cleaner than everywhere else" England, we’re paranoid.

Why is that?

Well, when you look at who runs the sport in the country, you understand a bit more. Rupert Murdoch’s Sky live off the premier league. So do his other publications like the Sun. The English media’s last priority is going to investigate and damage one of their biggest cash cows.

 

Imagine the hit to the revenue streams of the media and clubs if corruption is proved in the premier league? The richest league in the world, so carefully and beautifully marketed across the world, would suffer a huge blow. The effects an investigation would have on Manchester United, the cash cow’s biggest cash cow, would also be devastating.

So it’s all swept under the tabled and every refereeing decision shrugged off. “They even themselves out” we’re told by journalists who get banned from United press conferences for asking a question about team selection.

God knows what would happen to them if they investigate United’s behind the scenes dealings.

Maybe, like Preston, they’ll learn that if you cross Man United, all of football will turn their backs on you too…

Comments

[Jevson]

Brilliant piece. Your pathetic retorts are hilarious Mancs......hahahahaha shame, struck a nerve ey?

[David Parry]

From a journalistic point of view this is deeply flawed and smacks of just another fan who has jumped on the bandwagon of the ABU club.Im not a Man Utd fan but there is no balance to the argument.I could easily come up with a 100 other reasons why the main points have happened but of course when I do the comment will not be posted.

[Crack]

Lets hear them david parry?

[Gangraa]

John, Ferguson is banned but still has a good seat and indirectly in full control on his team. Haven't you seen him with a phone line making substitutions??

[Panman]

wow.... we all knew united influenced/cheated anyway. how can any united fan read this article and STILL defend their club? You have a CEO on the board of FA and we
9us non reds) wonder how on earth united get away with it EVERY WEEK and EVER YEAR when whatever Fergie says goes. In a way, you united fans know for a fact all this is true, and its sad coz its makes your famous chant "were Man United, we'll do what we want" so, so ironically more true than you could imagine. its ridiculous how you can see it in front of your faces and still not admit it. All us non reds see it, and like the writer says we laugh/shrug it off coz it happens every week!

[Sarvam]

' Of course, the one league where nothing ever gets proven to be dodgy is in England. The richest and most watched league in the world is, we are told, completely squeaky clean.'

The author seems to forget or is too young to remember Bruce Grobbelar(an ex Liverpool keeper) who was video taped by a journalist exchanging bank notes with somebody in a hotel's room.I also noticed during Mourinho's days in charge of Chelsea the Blue's and the Ref's had the same sponsor's name on their shirts : Emirates, I think.And coincidentally the Blues got the rub of the green on numerous occasions.Chelsea defenders Carvalho and Terry were at times like handballers but the Refs were the only ones on the field who were blind and saw nothing wrong.

[liverpool_8]

This is so true! Hats of to you!

[Alec]

Despite the "bitter" and "deluded" comments posted, you are quite right to voice your concerns. Ferguson and his club want to win at all costs. If that means influencing referees, the media, opponents etc. then so be it. He is not taken to task by the British media about his constant lies and propoganda as if they were to do so they would be banished from the Old Trafford press room and given nothing to feed off forevermore. You are wrong however to suggest that the English public simply dismiss any wrongdoing and that certain clubs and individuals do not have influence within the game. It is the media who brush these things under the carpet and ridicule them to suit their own agendas. The public in general are well aware of such laughable attempts made by Ferguson in his press conferences, for example, to influence the opposition with what the press like to call "his mind games". The reality is that they are pathetic and usually poor efforts to try and gain some sort of mental advantage. However, half witted, lazy journalists and tv pundits call it "genius". I'm not a fan of any Premier League club, so can view the goings on without any bias, but I find Ferguson a loathsome character and the club he manages a classless, arrogant and vulgar institution.

[Almedin]

Well i can also add another fail by the referees. 4-3 win against City before 2-3 seasons.. it was 4 minutes extra added but the referee made it 5 and Owen scored in 95:01 !

[slinky]

Typical Liverpool supporter. This sort of thing happens i most prem games, its just highlighted and publicised when its manchester united as they are the biggest club in prem league history, so get your tissues out and dry your eyes. Utd where denied a stonecold pens at weekend v tottenham, most fans of other clubs are just jealous of utds success and want nothing more than to diss it.

[Lief Kinhelm]

'...2 of the traits that characterize the English the most: a sheer egocentric belief that they are better than anyone else and their complete faith in the country's institutions.'

While I agree on the football side of things, the above line is full-on bollocks.

[Kaiba Ruttun]

Chris Foy demoted to League 2 after refereeing United v Spurs last week...He will be refereeing his first League Two game since 2006...!

He already back to league two as the was the referee yesterday in the Accrington Stanley v Rochdale.

[Kaiba]

@ Tool Plamaker...
You seem to have a prepared excuse or explanation for everything?
We have not seen any concerning what happened to Foy or Howard Webb

[Boomy]

Is it not possible that the reason why United get the most decisions is because they have been the best team and therefore attack a lot more.

Instead of moaning about conspiracys, sendings off and penalties given have you bothered to see if these decisions were correct or not.

Just another whinging scouser, its never your fault is it?

[DE]

Can one single person answer why, if United get favourable calls, did they get so few last season?

Debatable Decisions calculates incorrect refereeing calls over a season. If the calls had gone correctly in United's games, they would've won the league last year.

http://www.debatabledecisions.com/previous-seasons

How does this fit in with the conspiracy agenda?

[mike in atlanta]

there will always be some readers who still believe the sun revolves around the earth. nothing you can do to help them. perhaps you could send them here: http://www.refereedecisions.co.uk/

[Drakerichards]

Yes I well remember the withdrawal of players by Ferguson and his pet poodle Pullis ...Pathetic mean spirited tosser

[Dimmy B]

Thanks to everyone who read it, shared it and commented on it.
In all honesty, I never expected these posts to get so many hits.
It's, I think, a sign of how much alot of the things I wrote have been festering in people's minds for so long. The exposure my posts have gotten and the excellent points made by some of the people who commented have made me want to research more.
This is too big of a subject to just be abandonned and God knows the media are not going to do it.
I will look at other clubs now, see if there are trends there like United. I hope to get a new post out for you soon. Thank you for your comments and you help.
Dim in Beirut

[Dimmy B]

I'd like to add something to Man United supporters:

Im a die hard Liverpool fan but I respect your club a great deal.

I think you're a fantastic football club and a great majority of your fans are, like LFC fans, very knowledgeable abt the game.

Some of my very good friends support you lot and it's always very rewarding talking to them about football.

However, I also have alot of respect for Marseille, Juventus and Porto too. I strongly believe influence peddling and corruption happens in English football, like everywhere else and the feedback Im getting from thousands of people from a host of different clubs is that they do to.

I understand why Im getting abuse from some of you. Concurently, thanks to many United fans who have also provided stats on other clubs. I hope to have a new post for you soon.

Dim in Beirut

[TS]

Ever thought that the reason Webb gets Utd is because he is generally accepted as the best referee in British Football (World Cup 2010 illustrates this). Thus the best teams get the best refs. I don't think this is a crime. Also if he referees more United games he is more likely to give more Utd penalties. Utd also are generally the better side and have more attacks and thus are more likely to have more penalty appeals.

I'm not even a Utd fan (a humble championship supporter) but even I think this is a case of Scouse sour grapes...

[Big bad Bob]

As a football fan and a statistician I have a few criticisms which I mean to point out not as an attack but as friendly advice because there may be something in this.

Firstly, you state that Howard Webb has awarded 18% of penalties to Manchester United can you please provide context to this stat (what percentage of Manchester United matches he has refereed, average territory in each match, etc)

Secondly, can you provide the data on referees who have given Manchester United decisions how quickly it has taken them to referee matches again?

Thirdly you present your conclusions before the evidence there are 13 paragraphs of examples of corruption in the UK, in different leagues and an example of why Ferguson is bad man before you even present your minimal evidence lacking in context. This means that the article looks prejudiced and if you want journalists to take these accusations of corruption seriously you will have to address .

[Yuta_dkv]

Look at Mark Halsey just a week ago... after he "won" man utd at anfield, he was on a mission to bring down man city right after that by giving fulham a penalty for a dive.. like Valencia did.. Luckily Dzeko managed to come in and won the game... guess he(halsey) didn't get a "bonus" from fergs...

[Shubhankar]

Maybe after Fergie retires..this might stop..or reduce atleast :/

[Vis Naicker]

More history to add ... Chelsea vs Man United 28/10/2012 Mark Clattenburg gets his first United game in a year, with gifts ... but we knew that already before the game.

[KEN]

before this season-when was the last time that a
1 L'pool player was sent off at Anfield against United?
2 United were given a penalty at Anfield?
At Old Trafford-Liverpool often get penalties & United have players sent off-
something does not seem right.