Decisions favour Man Utd - what a shock - 13/05/08
WELL what a shock, the outcome of the Premier League title decided by decisions made in favour of Manchester United.
WELL what a shock, the outcome of the Premier League title decided by decisions made in favour of Manchester United.What a clever man Sir Alex Ferguson must believe he is. He apparently has a dossier detailing all the decisions Steve Bennett has dared to make against United and maybe the ridiculous pressure Ferguson and other bosses put on officials finally made a strong man crack.
It should have been 1-1 on penalties and United down to 10 men before half-time. Bennett's refusal to send off the idiotic Paul Scholes just gave further ammunition to those of us who believe that there is an inherent bias towards the biggest clubs.
The powers that be should use this example of criminal refereeing negligence to ban managers and players from commenting on officials at all.
Sadly that will never happen because the powers that be all work for the big four, or maybe these days that should be the big two, clubs.
I WAS actually quite glad to be able to find something else to do on Sunday afternoon. Anything but watch the over-hyped, over-rated and predictably over-dull finale to the Premier League.
Sky Sports, who specialise in hyperbole over fact, may have been salivating over the chance to crown live one set of prima donna champions at the expense of a different set, but that was far too nauseating a prospect for me.
My interest in the competition waned as soon as Arsene Wenger's recruitment policy and pretty football proved to be more style than substance for the third year in a row.
Sir Alex Ferguson was either going to be crowing or complaining about the officials (he should perhaps strike a championship winners' medal for Bennett), while Avram Grant was going to be dull whatever the outcome.
THERE was much rejoicing at the survival of Fulham at the other end of the table. I have no idea why.
The Londoners have a perfectly respectable old duffer in charge (a man far more likeable than his awful predecessor Lawrie Sanchez) and they also have old Posh stars Jimmy Bullard and Simon Davies.
But the ugly presence of Mohammed Al Fayed in the directors' box at a dilapidated old stadium surely outweighs any good. He's a cringing embarrassment with more lunatic theories than those who believe in the after-life, religious miracles and that there is any point to Sky Television's resident nut job Andy Gray
THE silly season is what newspapers struggling to find hard news stories call the summer. It's started early on the sports pages.
I assume Alexander Hleb was being very silly when trying to engineer a move from Arsenal to Inter Milan. Apparently scoring four goals in two seasons in the most creative team in the country makes you worthy of big money transfers and huge signing on fees.
Team-mate Emmanuel Adebayor has had a great season, but is he really so good that he is worthy of a 100 per cent wage increase as one newspaper suggested he had demanded?
Of course not, especially as he's a serious contender to join the one-season wonder club, but Arsenal may have to consider paying it just to keep on the shirt-tails of the big two in future seasons.
Amazingly the one glimmer of good sense concerning players and the money they earn eminated from Newcastle United.
One report claimed that the Magpies were only willing to offer Michael Owen an extension to his contract on a reduced salary.
Common sense for a player who doesn't worry the best teams any more and who can't guarantee playing more than half the games in a season.
It's the least likely of the above to happen though.ENGLAND will doubtless beat New Zealand 3-0 in the forthcoming Test series, but as a guide to our chances of winning the one series that really matters, Australia at home in 2009, it will be an irrelevance.
England selection chief Geoff Miller went to watch a county match the other day and saw 10 South African players in action.
What a farcical policy from counties that rely on money from Test matches to survive. Too many foreigners are ruining our national summer sport and that applies at local level as well.
It really goes against the grain to say it, but I hope Market Deeping win something this season. They were among the first local clubs to employ overseas players, but at least they've seen the light, or more likely the damage too many outsiders can cause.
Recent Rutland Division One champions Elton Park and Ketton now play in Division Five of the competition because of a short-sighted policy of fielding teams of imports who find it impossible to give anything to the club in return apart from a few points.
Part of me wishes I had my career again as clubs are paying all sorts of average players 'expenses', I know of some in Northants Division Three and Rutland Division Three – a ridiculous state of affairs.
TALKING of farces, what a joke end to the season in the Peterborough Sunday Morning Football League.
Replayed cup matches have become the order of the day as league officials discover all sorts of ineligible players.
Blame of course has been attached to the league officials as well as innocent opponents, but basically teams have been found guilty of at best hopeless administration and at worst cheating.
But then accepting blame is not something footballers do very well.
I refereed a prominent team the other day who contested pretty much every decision I made and yet I know for a fact the entire back four wouldn't get 50 per cent between them if they took the referee's exam.
Players don't know the laws any better than high profile commentators. They also obviously don’t know the rules of competitions which is hardly the fault of league officials.
Email to a friend
Print this page - Popular
- Most comments
- Most shared
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Local pages
Looking for a...
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Peterborough
Friday 19 March 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C - 13 C
Wind Speed: 16 Knots
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C - 13 C
Wind Speed: 18 Knots
Wind direction: South
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.