The Dim in Beirut

Never Again

So a football manager announced his retirement this week.

Not just any football manager mind. Alex Ferguson, the manager of one of the biggest and most famous football clubs in the world. A man who has ruled English football with an Iron Fist for the past 2 decades or so. A man whose political connections are so far reaching, he was awarded a knighthood after helping out Tony Blair win his first prime ministerial elections.

This knight of the realm will, for the rest of his lifetime, be remembered as the greatest football manager in the history of football. What happens after he passes away though, no-one really knows. In England, your achievements are safe until you die. After that, all gloves are off.

The fact of the matter is that Ferguson has achieved so much during his 27 year tenure at Manchester United, that he deserves all the accolades he gets. What is also an undeniable fact though, is that so much of his success has been accompanied by the ugly stench of what Man United fans call coincidences and the rest of the world calls corruption.

From Ferguson’s first Premier League trophy at United when more than 7 minutes of injury time allowed his team to score 2 goals to set them up for the 1992/93 title.  To his last one, where his team did not concede a penalty ALL SEASON (not a single one in fact since October 2011) and did not have a man sent off until well after they wrapped up the league; United’s success have left a lot of football fans scratching their heads.

Ferguson has won 13 English league titles. And just 2 European Cups. The same as Juventus who are the most storied club in Italy. And much like Juventus, many question why United’s domestic dominance did not translate into a European one.

Maybe the simple explanation is that without English referees, United could not translate their dominance into Europe. After all, ask yourself this: would an English ref have dared send Nani off at Old Trafford against Real Madrid?

It’s no “coincidence” that the term “Fergie Time” has entered the football lexicon, a common an expression as any in English football. It’s no coincidence that gambling websites offered punters the chances to bet on Howard Webb becoming Fergie’s replacement at United (4 people actually put money on this!).

It’s no coincidence that Ferguson exits as he ruled: with the tongues of so many journalists wedged so far up his bottom that a sudden outbreak of Cherry Bosom poisoning on Fleet Street would not come as a surprise.

These journalists have been as complicit as anyone in allowing Ferguson an unhealthy amount of power in the English game .For example, Daniel Taylor of the Guardian wrote an article entitled “The Eulogy, the Apology, the Thank You”.

This is a man, like many others, who Ferguson has banned from Old Trafford for years. It did not stop all of them falling over each other to get down on their knees and bow to the “Great Man”.

The sycophancy of the press corps during this last week has been vomit inducing and completely unsurprising. In many ways, its akin to the North Korean’s media reaction to Kim Jong Il’s death.

Not a single article raised the fact of how powerful Ferguson was, or the unhealthy relationship which exists between his club and the Football Association. Not a single article highlighted the abuses of power, the bullying and the double standards that were such a fixture of Ferguson’s reign.

 And as for the issue of the refereeing selection process and the strange “coincidences” involving Manchester United...  forget about it. The media do not want to research, report of highlight this matter.

And not a single one highlighted a key fact: Ferguson has certainly left his club in very good hands. The new FA Chairman, Greg Dyke, is an ex Man United director. The FA Vice chairman is David Gill, current United CEO and future Board member (like a certain Mr. Ferguson). And the new Premier League chairman, Anthony Fry, is a self confessed United fan.

Taken individually, there is nothing wrong with that. The current FA Chairman has links to Man City while other heads of the FA have had links to football clubs.

But at no stage in history (anywhere in the world I imagine), has a club held all 3 powerful positions as strongly inside the country’s football institutions. That this has been allowed, without comment, to happen is the final nail in English football’s media “fair and balanced” reporting.

Ferguson leaving has to teach English football lessons. English football needs to put measures in place to ensure that the years of abuse of power that have formed Ferguson’s reign never happen again:

Never again should a football manager have so much power within the game, to the point where he has his key allies in positions of power inside the country’s football institutions

Never again should a football manager be allowed to abuse the system

Never again should a football manager have his colleagues punish other clubs for firing his son

Never again should a football manager be allowed to bully referees without punishment

Never again should a football manager be allowed to build political connections while working in the game

Never again should a football manager be allowed to ban and bully reporters at a whim

Never again should a football manager be allowed to tamper with the refereeing selection process

Never again should a football manager be allowed to go years without fulfilling his media obligations, with no punishment

Never again should a football manager be allowed to ban referees from taking charge of this team (ask Graham Poll or Jeff Winter)

Never again should a football manager force his players to use his son as an agent, and threaten punishment if they don’t

 

I suggest that the ideal person to take the first step is the new Manchester United manager, David Moyes.

After all, in 2009, Moyes, as Everton manager, demanded the FA investigate Mike Riley. Moyes wanted to ascertain whether Riley was a United fan, such was his bias while refereeing United games.

The investigation never came. Instead, Riley retired and then became the head of the PGMOB; the group responsible for assigning games to referees. He’s the man who decides who referees Man United games.

Over to you Davey.

The Whole World's Watching

Please follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/DimmyBad and read 3 previous posts which will give you background on today's article here: http://diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/corruption-and-influence-peddling-in-english-football/

It’s amazing how us “paranoids” keep managing to predict the future isn’t it?

Today, Manchester United beat Chelsea 3-2 at Stamford Bridge.

Not a single football fan across the world is talking about anything other than Mark Clattenburg’s refereeing performance in that game.

Readers of this blog will not have been surprised by the referee’s performance. They will have known exactly what to expect during that game today and even the most skeptical will surely be scratching their heads.

Clattenburg had gone 38 games without refereeing Manchester United. His previous United game was the 6-1 thrashing by rivals Man City at Old Trafford. He sent Johnny Evans off in a match that Alex Ferguson described as “the most embarrassing defeat of my career”.

For 38 games, Clattenburg was not handed a single United game to referee. Not a single league game, not a single cup game. That stat alone tells us nothing: he’s also gone a while without officiating Arsenal or Liverpool games. His performance today, however, tells us a great deal.

Clattenburg has now become the latest in an ever lengthening line of referees who have officiated a United loss, gone a long time without reffing them, then on their return give game changing decisions to Alex Ferguson’s side.

Like Chris Foy, who took charge of a United defeat and went a year without reffing United in the league. During that time, Foy reffed 2 United cup games, giving them penalties in both and sending off Vincent Kompany in one.

Like Phil Dowd, who reffed a United loss, then gave them a penalty in the next game he took charge of which earned United a draw and their 19th league title.

Like Mike Jones, who after falsely awarding Demba Ba a penalty at Old Trafford, gave United 2 penalties in 2-0 home win against Stoke during his subsequent visit to Old Trafford. The list is neverending.

I’m not going to keep repeating myself, all that info is in my 3 previous articles. Halsey, Atkinson, Wiley, Oliver, Webb… There’s enough there to at least make you think Man United are the world champions of coincidences.

The point is this:

Clattenburg sends a United player off in an embarrassing loss at home, and gets a 38 game absence from United games. Is there anyone out there who believes that after his performance at Stanford Bridge, he’ll go 38 games without taking charge of United again?

Anyone?

United fans keep commenting on these articles, telling people that all of this is just a coincidence.

They cite examples at other clubs, in other eras. I ask United fans the following:

Was today yet another coincidence? And if so, aren’t you just a tiny bit suspicious about the fact that these coincidences keep piling up?

Some people have asked why, when the facts are so blatant and suspicions so widely held by the entire global premier league fanbase, is nothing ever done?

England is a country where the powerful protect the powerful.

It’s a country where innocent people (the Guilford 4 and Birmingham 6) were put in jail for decades by authorities who knew they were innocent of the crimes they were convicted of.

England is a country where the truth is withheld from the general population, until the people implicated either die or retire.

The truth about Hillsborough was known 1 year after the event. It’s only 23 years later that the media has spread the information to the wider population. During that time, some key people that could have been convicted passed away. They were protected by other people in power. Meanwhile, the reputations of the deceased were tarnished, their deaths used as banter at football grounds by people either wholly let down by their country’s media or just spiteful.

For decades, Jimmy Savile was allowed to molest children and was protected by people in power. From the BBC, to the police, to the media and to God knows who else… They all played a role in making sure Savile was able to prey on his victims in peace. They made sure the truth would only come out after his death.

That’s England. It’s extremely similar to every single other country on earth. The politically powerful protect the politically powerful everywhere in the world. The media help facilitate this arrangement. Police forces, politicians,  big business, the press and other powerful people constantly work together in mutually beneficial arrangements.

Unlike other world citizens though, the English are sometimes shocked to discover this fact. All these instances I mentioned above came as a shock to the general population- whose trust in their institutions is unwavering.

The powerful protect the powerful. It’s a fact of life.

It’s how Lance Armstrong managed to cheat for so long without investigations. His acussers were called paranoid too and bullied too. Remind you of anyone?

Power talks.

There are very few men in the world more powerful than Rupert Murdoch, the man who finances the global juggernaut that is the premier league through Sky Tv. No man stands more to lose from any investigation into corruption in his cash cow. No newspapers in England are as powerful as his disgusting “The Sun”.

No man in football is more politically powerful than Alex Ferguson. This is a man who was awarded a knighthood on the recommendation of Tony Blair- who Ferguson helped during his 1997 campaign for prime minister. Read Allaistar Campbell’s diaries. It’s all there. Ferguson was constantly on the phone to Campbell asking what he could do to help.

As a reward, Ferguson got knighted. By the Queen of England. That was 13 years ago. God knows what other contacts he’s made during that time. And he didn't even have someone in the FA then.

No football club CEO in England is more powerful than Manchester United’s David Gill, who has now been promoted to VICE CHAIRMAN of the FA who also wants him as their member on Uefa’s executive committee.

And no man was more power in assigning and demoting referees than Mike Riley, the head of the PGMOB. A man whose allegiances to Man United were so suspect that David Moyes wanted him investigated. A man who was appointed a few months after Ferguson heavily criticized his predecessor.

Power protects power. But nothing will ever be done. This is England.

We all have to wait until Ferguson retires (or passes away) , a seismic change happens in the FA and PGMOB or for, by miracle, certain journalists grow some balls and actually delve right into this.

Until then expect many more Mark Clattenburgs. Expect the game you love, the club you adore and the league you follow to forever be at the mercy of backroom deals, strange referee selections and decisions. Expect many more weekends spent scratching your head, wondering just how more coincidences it will take for people to wake up.

The whole world’s watching…

 

Power and Glory

Please follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/DimmyBad

(Please read the first 2 posts in this series which will give you some background on what we will be discussing: Part 1 http://diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/09/the-truth-is-out-there.html and Part 2 http://diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/10/corruption-and-influence-peddling-in-the-english-game.html). Also check out the follow up, after Clattenburg's return to reffing United: http://diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/10/the-whole-worlds-watching.html

First off, let me offer my congratulations to David Gill.

For those who missed it, it was announced this week that Gill is to replace Sir Dave Richards as the FA’s vice chairman. The confirmation of his promotion from board member to vice chairman will come at the next FA Council meeting. According to reports, this promotion is due to the FA’s desire to get Gill, Manchester United CEO, a place on Uefa’s executive committee, representing the English FA’s interests.

Well done Mr. Gill.

This rounds off another strange week in the wacky world of the FA. A week which saw them give their written reasons for banning John Terry for 4 games (half the punishment given to Luis Suarez), get called “a bunch of twats” by Ashley Cole, launch the modern Saint George Park which they hope will take England coaching into the next century (this is the organization that hired Roy Hodgson and Stuart Pearce as managers of the senior side and under 21 team) and refuse to give bans to Cheik Tiote, Robert Huth and Robin Van Persie for violent incidents.

The last one is particularly strange. The FA has shown in the past they will not hesitate to charge a player for off the ball violent conduct. They proved that last year when they banned the Italian Mario Baloteli for a stamp on England’s Scott Parker (the same game where the Englishman Jolean Lescott got no retrospective punishment for forearm smashing France’s Younes Kaboul…).

But enough about the FA for now, though we’ll come back to them later on.

After my last 2 posts got some amazing coverage (75,000 hits in a few days) and Chris Foy’s demotion to League 2 sent Twitter inTO a frenzy, the chief football correspondent of the Rupert Murdoch owned TheTimes, Tony Evans, wrote a piece rejecting the possibility of any pro Manchester United conspiracy. Evans stressed that referee selections were made 6 weeks in advance and thus Foy’s League 2 assignment had nothing to do with his United performance.

I found this strange: if this is true, why are assignments only announced the Monday before games? And, more to the point, how does the PGMOB actually demote referees? Doesn’t a single demotion affect the careful 6 weeks planning done?

Check this link http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/fans/faqs/when-are-referees-selected.html. The PGMOB themselves say that referees are selected for games based on several factors including their current form and how many times they reffed a club before.

How is possible then that these selections are made 6 weeks early? It just doesn’t make any sense at all. How does someone’s form leading up to mid-January earn him a big match in March? And if they take in consideration how many times a ref has taken charge of a team, why was Howard Webb (a referee who's given United 9 penalties in 32 games but only 10 to Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in 100 matches)  given the last United game of the season at Sunderland last term, when he’d already refereed them more than anyone else previously?

Something is not right.

In my last post, we focused on current PGMOB head Mike Riley’s record refereeing Manchester United games. Riley became head of the PGMOB in 2009. The man he replaced was Keith Hackett.

Here is a quote about Hackett from the Manchester United manager after their Cup loss to Portsmouth in 2008. ‘I don’t think he’s doing his job properly and he needs to be assessed. He’s got his favourites, as everyone knows. You look at the refs we get away from home – Steve Bennett, Mark Clattenburg, Phil Dowd, all these people – we never get them at home, always away, and I think that tells you everything about him (Hackett). Clattenburg – oh, Jesus, God.”

(Poor Mark Clattenburg, remember, is the man who took charge of City’s 6-1 win at Old Trafford and hasn’t been assigned a United game for 36 premier league matches since)

A year later, Hackett was gone. Replaced with a man whose allegiance to Man United the Everton manager (and close friend of Ferguson) David Moyes wanted investigated. Like Alain Wiley (the ref in charge of the 4-1 Liverpool win at United), Hackett retired just months after heavy criticism from Ferguson.

“Coincidence”. Again.

Let’s now look at some stats. We saw in the 2 previous posts how long referees who took charge of Ferguson’s team went before being assigned them again. We saw how certain referees got demoted after making mistakes in United games (Atkinson,Jones) or simply officiating their defeats (Foy).

More to the point, we saw how referees Ferguson criticized were subsequently treated. We looked at United’s title winning 10/11 season, where they only lost 4 games and how 2 of those refs went a year without taking charge of them again (with 2 being demoted) while another went 9 months.

United’s title rivals that season were Arsenal and Chelsea. They lost 17 league games combined that season, under 10 different referees. Only 1 referee went a year without getting assigned one of their games (Mike Jones who took charge of Stoke’s victory against Arsenal late in the season and wouldn’t ref them again in the league till late last in the next term).

A huge majority of the refs would get another Blues or Gunners game just a few weeks after reffing a defeat. Certain refs would ref 2 defeats in a row and still get assigned to them a few weeks later.

What’s more striking, in comparison to United, is when referees made heavy blunders in a Chelsea or Arsenal game, there was no punishment.

For example, Phil Dowd took charge of the 4-4 Newcastle Arsenal game where he gave 2 ridiculous penalties to the Toon and sent off Abou Diaby. His next Arsenal game came just 6 weeks later. Would such controversial decisions against United game get him assigned a match at Old Trafford so soon after? It’s highly unlikely, just ask Martin Atkinson.

Liverpool lost 14 league games that season under the guise of 10 referees. Only one referee went a considerable amount of time without being assigned to them again: Michael Oliver who took charge of Kenny Dalglish’s first premier league game after his return at Blackpool, and would go 11 months without another LFC premier league game.

But, again, a big number of refs who took charge of LFC defeats would get another game assigned to them shortly. Howard Webb, Liverpool’s number 1 refereeing nemesis, took charge of the win against Chelsea just a few weeks after officiating the Goodison Derby loss.

The season before that, Rafa Benitez had criticized 2 referees for their performances in Liverpool games: Phil Dowd who took charge of the opening league defeat at Spurs and Lee Mason who sent 2 reds players off in a 3-1 loss to Fulham. Both reffed LFC games a couple of months after. Mason sent Javier Mascherano off in his next Liverpool game (also a defeat) and still got handed another Reds game to officiate a few weeks later.

Of course, this is all one season. And United only lost 4 games so the sample is small. But we saw in the last post what happened the next season: the demotion Mike Jones suffered after giving Demba Ba an imaginary penalty at Old Trafford as well as how long Clattenburg has gone without reffing United after the 6-1 loss to City. And of course, the brilliant “coincidence” of Chris Foy reffing a League 2 game for the first time in 5 years after taking charge of Spurs 3-2 win at Old Trafford.

And for people who still think the refereeing selection process is on the straight and narrow, please explain to me why poor old Mark Clattenburg was not given an Everton game to referee for an insanely long FIVE years after he took charge of the stormy Merseyside derby in 2007. Even considering Clattenburg’s year long absence from the game, surely under the PGMOB publically released criteria, he should have gotten an Everton game before 2012.

The selection process is flawed, full of contradictions and needs to be a lot more transparent. Other clubs may also have cases of referees going a long time without games: but as we saw in 2010/11, they’re very rare cases and are nowhere near as common as with United.

And more to the point, while it sometimes happens, a few things are unique to United.

Not a single referee has claimed that the FA is reticent to assign refs to matches where the club’s manager has criticized them (as Jeff Winter did about United). No ref has claimed he was banned from another club’s games for 2 years, like Jeff Winter did about United. No premier league club has its CEO promoted to Vice chairman of the FA and pushed for a leading role in UEFA. No club has had its ties with the head of the PGMOB put under question by the Everton manager. And no other club’s manager’s criticism of an official’s fitness (Alain Wiley) and PGMOB head performance (Keith Hackett) lead to the retirement of both individuals soon after.

The details that have come out in the case of Lance Armstrong have surely taught us one major lesson: It is extremely unhealthy to have a single individual hold so much power inside a sport.

This could lead to abuses of power, bullying, a culture of fear, influence peddling and pure corruption. After all the numerous “coincidences” we’ve seen in these 3 posts, the fact that Alex Ferguson’s political connections after decades in charge of England biggest team are far reaching, the constant bullying of journalists who dare ask a semi hard question as well as the comments from ex referee Jeff Winter then surely one has to wonder whether the squeaky clean English Premier League is anything but.

And thus, crucially, whether the FA’s desire to give David Gill even MORE power within the domestic and European game is a smart thing to do.

 

Thanks to Samer Faroukh, @SamerF89 for stats analysis, www.soccerbase.com for referee stats and Daniel Rhodes for his wonderful article on Alex Ferguson at www.tomkinstimes.com which alerted me to the Keith Hackett story.

Corruption and Influence Peddling in the English Game

Please follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/DimmyBad

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

After I wrote my last piece, http://diminbeirut.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/09/the-truth-is-out-there.html, on Manchester United’s relationship with the FA, I was taken aback by the response I had.The post has gotten around 30,000 hits in the last 48 hours alone. I suggest to people who haven’t read it to jump to that post now as it gives a lot of background on what we will look at in this article.

As stated in my previous post, the fortunes of the  institutions surrounding football in the UK will be negatively hit should any proof of corruption come out. It is naturally in their interest not to investigate the matter. In fact, the managers that have come out and questioned the refereeing
selection process (Rafa Benitez, Andre Villas Boas) have been turned into laughing stocks by the English press corps.

So, investigate some more I did. And some of the stuff I found out surprised even me.

During United’s title winning 2010/11 season, they only lost 4 league games. I looked at who refereed those games and how long they then spent without being assigned Manchester United games as well their subsequent trend of behavior towards United.

Michael Oliver took charge of their first defeat, the February 2011 2-1 loss at Wolves. He was not given another Manchester United game to referee until December 2011. Since then, Oliver has had 2 United games.

United have won both, with Oliver refusing to give a clear Fulham penalty in the 1-0 United win late last season at Old Trafford; a game came right at the end of the title race. A few weeks ago, Oliver gave United a penalty for a shocking dive by Danny Welbeck in the home win against Wigan.

The second game United lost was away to Chelsea. Martin Atkinson was the referee then and some of his decisions incurred the wrath of Alex Ferguson. Atkinson was not given another United game to referee for an ENTIRE YEAR.

Atkinson was further punished with his decisions that went against United that day. He was not given a single premier league game to referee for a full month. Even worse, he was subsequently given 3 lower league games to referee that season- when he’d previously not officiated a single one
that campaign.

It seems that Atkinson was given a clear message that day.

The 3^rd United loss came at Anfield, where a Dirk Kuyt hat trick secured a 3-1 home win. The referee that day was Phil Dowd. He was criticized by Ferguson for not sending Jamie Carragher off. In the very next United game Dowd refereed, he gave them a penalty which secured a 1-1 draw
at Blackburn and their 19^th league title.

Giving United penalties in the very next game you referee them after having been criticized is a trend we’ll soon notice.

The final United loss of the 2010/11 season came at the Emirates, where Chris Foy refereed a 1-0 Arsenal win. It will come to no surprise to people to know that Foy was subsequently not assigned a United league game for, again, AN ENTIRE YEAR.

He did however referee 2 United games in the cups during that time. The first was in the Carling Cup against Crystal Palace. He awarded United a penalty. The second was at City in the FA Cup. United got a penalty and Vincent Kompany was sent off early in the game.

To resume, we’ve just analyzed what happened to the 4 referees that officiated United’s 4 league losses in the 2010/11 season. 2 of them were not given any more United league games for a full year (Atkinson and Foy), a third for 9 months (Oliver). 2 of those referees gave United penalties in the very next game (Foy and Dowd) they took charge of and one refused to give a blatant one to the opponents (Oliver). Martin Atkinson, was not given premier league games to officiate for an entire month and assigned to 3 lower league games.

I also looked at Mike Jones after prompting from the comments board. Jones refereed the 1-1 home draw with Newcastle last season and falsely awarded Demba Ba a penalty.

Subsequently, Jones was not given a single football game, at ANY level, to referee for an entire month. The next United game he was handed came a few months later, the 2-0 home win against Stoke which saw… You guessed it: 2 penalties awarded to Manchester United which, according to reports, were “very soft”.

How about Mark Halsey? Well, when he gave WBA a debatable penalty in the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in May 2005 it was his 5^th United game that season. He then also went an ENTIRE YEAR without being given any United games to referee. From 5 games in a season to none for a year. His
record since then? He’s refereed 11 Man Utd games which have seen 11 United wins: the latest coming at Anfield, where 3 controversial decisions went the away team’s way.

In terms of trends, considering what we discovered about Alan Wiley and Mark Clattenburg (whose record with no United games to referee now stands at 36 league games since he took charge of the 6-1 home loss to City), there’s enough to make you wonder what exactly is going on in the
referee selection process. It also ties in perfectly with ex referee Jeff Winter's comments about The FA being reticent to assign United games to referees Ferguson has criticized in the past.

The whole world revolves around incentives and punishment. From a young age, kids are brought up that way. Positive and negative reinforcement are at the very core of child psychology. You can’t blame people who are well aware of the punishment awaiting them (through the form of demotions
and suspension from future United games) if they’d rather go for the safe option of keeping Ferguson happy.

I don’t blame the referees.

The people I blame are the ones that are letting this happen. The media who have not uttered a peep or written a single article about this for 2 decades. The FA who run the game in this country and have allowed this situation to fester. The clubs who see no issue with having David Gill, United's CEO, on the board of the FA. And of course, the PGMOB:  the people who regulate officiating in England 

The person at the head of the PGMOB and who is in charge of selecting which referee gets handed which game is Mike Riley, an ex professional referee who is most famous for giving a penalty for a clear dive by Wayne Rooney in the 2004 Man United 2-0 win against Arsenal which ended the
Gunners 49 game unbeaten streak.

Riley was accused of pro United favoritism throughout his career. For younger readers, he’s my generation’s Howard Webb.

According to the Guardian’s research, which goes to back to the beginning of the 1997-98 season until 2004, “Riley refereed 23 United games in all competitions and gave 12 penalties for United in that time, but only three against them. And he has sent off five of United's opponents.

At Old Trafford, Riley's record is weighted even more heavily in favor of United: He gave 10 penalties in the 14 games he officiated to the home side, Manchester United.”

Riley’s bias was so suspected than when was awarded the Everton vs Man Utd FA Cup semi final to officiate in 2009, David Moyes actually called for an investigation on whether Riley was a United supporter.

This is the man who now decides which premier league games to assign to referees.

Add that to everything we’ve found out: the year long waits for referees who take charge of United losses to be given another United game to officiate, the penalties that are given to United in said
referees next United games, the punishment for making mistakes that cost United points (Atkinson’s month long suspension from premier league games, Jones’ 1 month suspension from ALL PROFESSIONAL games), the comments from ex referee Jeff Winter (see my previous post), the fact that 18% of Howard Webb’s career penalties have gone to Manchester United,the retirement of Alain Wiley after being called unfit by Alex Ferguson and, of course, the presence of David Gill inside the FA and surely there’s enough there for some investigative journalist in the UK to actually look more into this.

If only to put the millions of football fans’ across the world’s minds at ease.

Because we could all be wrong and all of this may just be a set of freakish coincidences. Maybe English football is squeaky clean like they make us believe and the referee selection process is completely unbiased.

Maybe we’re just paranoid…

Or maybe not… Chris Foy failed to give Manchester United a penalty in their 3-2 loss to Spurs last Saturday. The PGMOB have not handed Foy a Premier League game to referee next weekend: instead, he will referee in League 2 for the first time in more than 4 years.

Mike Jones meanwhile, who missed a blatant penalty on Luis Suarez at Norwich, will take charge of West Brom vs QPR in the Premier League. Finally, Howard Webb (who sent off Jordi Gomez on Saturday; a red card today rescinded by the FA) will take charge of Newcastle’s home game against…Manchester United.

Why did Foy’s errors on Saturday lead to his demotion to the lowest professional league in England while Webb’s and Jones’ mistakes didn’t cost them?

I guess we all know the answer to that question…

 

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…