January 3, 2012. What a journey this has been for Arsenal Football Club this season. From being low down in the table at the start, to fighting it out for the 4th place now. One victory yesterday night against Fulham at Craven Cottage would’ve lifted us and may be given us a chance back in the title race just 6 points behind the leaders. That was the stature of the game played last night, and how does all this end after the final whistle.? Dejection, Frustration – every gooner running through different thoughts, trying to give his opinion, and not to forget the blame game.!
Most of you would agree that after the 1-0 defeat against Manchester City, you felt proud of the team, for their performance and spirit. Not the same after this game. But since that game against city I’ve been amazed by the consistency shown by the referees. Its not that it has happened all of a sudden. Witnessing all this for the last 4-5 years, and even before that but yesterday was the day I’ve run out of all my patience and calmness to this issue. Its just unbelievable to see how at the expense of a particular group of men’s decision making the course of history has to be something that is, and what could’ve been.
If at all the refereeing standards were above decent say 75% for all these years I don’t see us facing this long trophy drought, I certainly don’t see Manchester United winning trophies and Barcelona being such dominant force as they are. To err, is to human. I can accept the fact that mistakes do happen. But what boils me up is the impact that it makes. Managers have lost their jobs, Teams have been kicked out of competitions which is worth millions, trophies being won by teams who have unfair treatment given by the man with the whistle, millions and millions of people having mood swings (majority of which is negative) , all this and still no reaction by the concerned authority.!
It is a well known saying that when someone is patient, tolerating all the unfair treatment that is being directed towards him/her , not showing any anger or dissent and just waiting for the right thing to happen naturally – that person is treated more badly. There is a limit for everything. Unless some retaliation is shown, they will be tortured and are mistaken to be powerless.! The time to get some answers has come. I’m not talking about this just as an Arsenal supporter. It’s for the game that we all love so much.
Refereeing Consistency :
I’ll highlight a few incidents that I remember as well as I remember my name.
v 2004 – Manchester United vs Arsenal – award of a penalty to Rooney, who knows how long our unbeaten run would’ve lasted.
v March 2008 – Birmingham vs Arsenal – last minute penalty being awarded, again who knows how our that particular season would’ve ended, also the psychological impact that it left behind.
v April 2008 – Arsenal vs Liverpool in champions league – denial of a blatant penalty for pulling Alex Helb.
v 2009 – Chelsea vs Barcelona – several penalty decisions not given. 1 thing for certain is that Barcelona wouldn’t have won the champions league for sure.
v 2010 - The World Cup- England vs Germany – Lampard scores to equalize but referee missed it. Nobody knows how that game would’ve finished.
v The list seems short but trust me there are a few thousands more, but due to my limited memory power I cant remember them all.
I’ve attached a video about how much refereeing decisions cost Arsenal last year. This doesn’t have the Rooney elbow to a wigan player and a no-show from the FA.
Now to this season. It started with the same consistency levels displayed by the referee’s and the FA in previous years, I’m talking about the Grevinho-Barton incident in the very first game. We have been lucky once. Szczsney not being given red in the 3-5 win against Chelsea. But More recently 4 matches in a row we have been denied clear penalties. If u r an Arsenal supporter u r pretty angry by now that u could’ve got at least 9/12 points , now we r at 4/12 points from these games. What really killed my calmness was the false yellow card being given to Vermaelen in the game against QPR and not a single word spoken about it. It did not affect the game, but that’s the sort of silliness you don’t want to see. Referee’s blunders have just multiplied over the years. I am no expert to give ideas to solve this, but the people who can make a change are still quiet.! Why does a player/team/manager have to suffer for a mistake of the ref.? Why is the referee given so much protection from the media.? Why does the FA hide always? Why cant managers talk about the ref, if the ref is doing everything possible to ruin his team? Why cant a manage let out his anger on the ref’s bad decisions, when his neck is on the line? Why is there no change? Why does a team face so much criticism for something when its all happening because of the ref.?
“Respect the Ref “ campaign was started by the FA.. Well, I cant respect the ref because he is literally killing my faith in the game and in fair play.! The season is just entering into its exciting phase. A single refereeing decision could make or break any team’s season undeservedly. I’ve been hoping for good refereeing all these years, now I’ve lost that faith. I am pretty sure that even this season referees will ruin the season for a team – be it Champions League or Premier League.
I know a few readers will tell I’m blaming the ref for the drought, every defeat. Yes there are days when the team plays so bad that they just don’t deserve to win, but there are majority of days when a deserving team or even a tight game with no clear forerunner is decided by bad refereeing decision. All I want is the game to be decided by the god damn performance of the players on the pitch and not by the highly mistake prone man in black, wandering around the pitch with a whistle in his hand.
I wanted to write this blog just to let out my frustration and hope that somehow it is read by people who can make a real change to the consistent refereeing performance. Here’s someone hoping for a positive change so that my love for the game doesn’t die because of the consistently wonderful performance of the ref.!!
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