So it comes to the last game of the reason. A rare occurance to say the least. Still its Man U’s to loose and if Ronaldo doesn’t score at least once against Wigan then he should be stripped of his title of “best player of the year” and re-named “big time bottler”and made to wear that on his shirt instead of his name.
So Hleb managed to get away with a girly slap on Saturday, apparently, since not being at the game it got no coverage that I saw. Poxy MOTD didn’t show it and I don’t think Sky covered it in the final word. So along with Rooney and Gerrard being accused of diving and providing no analysisled what they are, certain teams players can give it the ladies kung-fu as well and not get hauled up for it.
[UPDATE] While the FA have charged Hleb with violent conduct they do need to iron out the inconsistencies of the policy about reviewing game footage, especially being able to increase a penalty even if a yellow card was given.[/UPDATE]
The TV coverage has an important duty here, to show what happens, especially if the ref misses it. Particularly the BBC who are probably never going to get live Premiere League football again anyhow, so why not show this and report these incidents? Ferguson doesn’t talk to MOTD anyhow, so why not point out when Rooney dives or goes off on one at the ref and say that its wrong? Shearer was a bit fond of mouthing off in his day so I suspect he won’t say anything, but no one else? I don’t care who dives, slaps, kicks or punches, they should be held up to account for this. The quality of the punditry is appalling on the program anyhow but to ignore or tacitly condone these events is just wrong.
The FA also has a duty to change the rules to enable retroactive punishments for this sort of thing. I don’t particularly want TV replays to get in the way of the game, but the fourth official, or maybe a fifth one, should be reviewing the game footage and reporting on that. They are supposed to be there backing the ref up. All the fourth official seems to do now is mince around with the extra time board and occasionally tell a manger to get back into the technical area.
Well I have just seen a rather exceptional incident involving a referee, and in this case its all good for the ref. Villa 5 – 1 Birmingham. Mark Clattenburg is more often in the press being criticised rather than praised, more often than not rightly so unfortunately, when hes in charge of a game the anticipation is train wreck. But in this case he did something really rather good, as well as ref the game as a whole well. There was an incident when two opposing players were giving it some of that forehead rubbing stupidity. Now normally I would expect the ref to come in, step between the players and move them apart gently, then have a little talk and maybe brandish a card, at worst he just not see the incident and it diffuses quickly. But that didn’t happen. What happened was quite extraordinary and funny too. Mark Clattenburg ran up to the two players (no I don’t remember who they were, I was too surprised by what he did) and pushed, and I mean really, properly, pushed the Birmingham player away and then ran on as he hadn’t stopped the game. The two players, and both teams somewhat surprisingly, also just carried on. Now this was exceptional for a couple of reasons, the first being the ref taking physical action (go ref) to separate players in such a manner and second the players just getting on with it. I have to applaud Clattenburg for this as he did what I have certainly felt about such pathetic posturing by players – do fuck off and get on with it. A card would have served no purpose as it was two players acting the arse rather than what a yellow card should be for.
Its a pity refs don’t deal with these situations in this way more often, but I guess this is difficult when harassed by the players for every decision. While I don’t think the refs are always right, or even up to the standard required every game, left alone and given the chance to do their job they can. Big kudos for Clattenburg for just pushing two petulant over paid tossers apart and getting on with it when he could have ruined the game by doing the yellow card toaster impression.
I don’t believe that Clattenburg has the universal respect of the players and managers in all teams, but in this game he seemed to. Whatever the reasons, it should and needs to happen more. The FA need to censure clubs, particularly managers but also players, for abusing and questioning the referee more as well. For their part the refs need to emphatically deal with incidents firmly as Clattenburg in this game.
Watching a Championship game is like going back in time, some 15 or so years, and seeing the Premier League as it was then, sort of. The quality of the pitches is mostly as bad as it was back then and the level of fitness looks comparable. I guess that a lot of fans say they prefer the lower leagues is because they can see that an ordinary, reasonably fit, bloke could probably play to that standard without too much trouble, or they at least believe its possible. Anyone who watches the Premiere League knows that’s not the case there. Your not going to get a situation where a Sunday League player could be found and whisked off to the Premier League to make an immediate impact now. It takes years of dedication and consistent fitness training to even be able to get on the pitch. I struggle to think how many new, upcoming players, are actually signed from the Championship. It seems that unless your in a Premier League youth team your unlikely to get signed by a top team once your over 20.
Talk of the disparity between the leagues has led to the promotion payment and parachute payoffs, the effect seems to have been somewhat positive at least, but hasn’t really made the two leagues more equal. For promoted teams to compete they undoubtedly need more cash but how can you entice better players to play in a lower league once demoted? Its difficult to say the least, but the Championship should at least be a proving ground for younger players rather than just where older players who can’t hack it go. There is also a fairly substantial disparity between the top and bottom of the League. Wishful thinking and banging on about the good old days doesn’t change the fact that to have a chance of being more competitive the top divisions need to spread the resources less thinly and the only way of doing that is to cut some teams. Yes, yes I know we have a great heritage and tradition which maintains four whole divisions, but please shut up now. No amount of polishing or history can change the fact that Leagues one and two are turds not diamonds. The fact is that Leagues one and two are a separate entity to all intents and purposes and certainly do not play to a standard that matches with the Championship, let alone the Premiere League. If you want to maintain the tradition then the lower divisions need to be amateur and forget the pretence of professional football down there.
The Championship needs to cut down to 20 teams and the Premiere League needs to pass more cash downwards or be restricted on what they have to spend. The only way to change the balance is to insist that clubs only work with the money they earn and pass more to the Championship. A central fund for pitch maintenace would be a good place to start, its not 1980 any more people, the muddy sand tracks that are passed off as pitches are a joke today, even some Premiere League teams struggle. Keeping the teams to only being able to spend what they earn would certainly put an end to the billionaire plaything, but would cause some serious upheavals. If reports are half accurate Chelsea were right on the brink of bankruptcy before Abramovhich turned up, West Ham would not be in the top flight now thats for sure. You could of course allow an initial cash injection by a new owner to help teams along. Man City have effectivly been operating under those terms this season, without unbalencing the league either.
Nothing which is effective is going to be universally popular, either with clubs or fans. Maybe the current status quo is ok, but I dont think so.